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“God Will Provide”: Tested Faith and Worshipful Obedience (Genesis 22:1–8) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reform thinking. It's good to be here.
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  Today we're, well, we're standing at the foot of what you
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  could call one of the most majestic and frankly, terrifying
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  peaks in all of holy Scripture. We're turning our attention to
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  Genesis chapter 22, specifically verses one through 8.
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  This is a narrative we all know is the Binding of Isaac or the
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  Akita in Hebrew. And it's a text that just looms
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  large over the whole biblical landscape, doesn't it?
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  It's not. You can't just file it away as a
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  story about a father and a son. It is a genuine theological
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  crisis that hits right at the very heart of the Covenant.
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  It really is. It forces you to ask some of the
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  hardest questions about who God is and what He requires from the
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  people He calls His own. You know, I think for a lot of
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  us this story might suffer from a bit of of familiarity.
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  We heard it in Sunday school, maybe with felt bored figures,
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  and we just filed it away. Obey God even when it's hard.
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  Right, the simple moral lesson. When you actually stop and you
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  read the text, when you look at these first 8 verses we're
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  focused on today, it's shocking, it's visceral.
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  It's terrifying. I mean, you have to set the
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  scene to really feel the weight of this.
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  Abraham has been walking with God for decades.
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  He's an old man, well over 100 years old at this point.
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  He has spent years, decades waiting and and agonizing
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  really, for the Son that God promised him.
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  And then finally, the promise shows up.
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  Isaac is born. Right, the son of laughter.
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  He is. Ishmael has been sent away, so
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  there's no confusion about the line of promise.
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  Abraham has just secured a peace treaty at Beersheba, So he's in
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  the season of, you know, peace and stability that he's never
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  really had before in his life. That's the backdrop, isn't it?
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  The quiet, the contentment of Beersheba.
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  And then, just out of nowhere, this divine command arrives.
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  Yeah, and it seems to fly in the face of everything God has ever
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  said to him before. It's a total collision.
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  A collision between what a person can reason through and
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  what God reveals. On one hand, God promised a
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  nation would come through Isaac. The central promise.
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  The whole thing. And on the other hand, God now
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  commands the sacrifice of that very same Isaac.
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  So you have this tension, the central problem that you have to
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  wrestle with. How can the promise possibly
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  survive if the air dies? That's the conflict.
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  It's not just a moral problem, it's from a human point of view,
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  it's a logical impossibility. It is if Isaac dies, the promise
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  dies with him. And if the promise dies, then
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  God's word has failed. So what we want to do in our
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  discussion today is really look at the nature of this test, to
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  see the specifics of what Worshipful obedience looks like
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  and to understand this doctrine of divine provision.
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  Jehovah Jira. Jehovah, Jira.
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  We have to see this whole event through a theological lens.
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  This isn't just a lesson in being good.
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  This points straight to the gospel.
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  It points straight to the substitutionary atonement of
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  Christ. OK, so let's let's unpack this,
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  starting right at verse one. The text opens with a little
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  phrase that does a lot of heavy lifting after these things.
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  That phrase, it anchors us. It tells us this isn't happening
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  in a vacuum. As we just said, Abraham has
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  secured peace. He has land.
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  He has wealth, he has the sun. He's probably thinking, you
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  know, the hardest parts are behind me now.
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  I can finally relax. Yes, and it's right there in
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  that moment of quiet contentment that the test comes and the text
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  tells us straight out God tested Abraham.
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  That word test, it's so critical.
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  The Hebrew is Nisa, I believe, and we have to be so careful
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  here because in English tests can sound a lot like temptation.
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  And there's a huge distinction, a critical 1, The apostle James,
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  he makes this very clear in James chapter 1.
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  He says God doesn't tempt anyone with evil.
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  He doesn't solicit sin. A temptation is designed to make
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  you fall. It's a solicitation to do wrong.
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  But a test, a trial, that's different.
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  It's a completely different category.
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  It's what you might call a forensic proving the best
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  picture is a refiner's fire. The fire isn't there to destroy
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  the gold, is it? It's there to burn away the
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  dross and to reveal the purity of the metal.
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  So God isn't trying to trick Abraham or make him fail.
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  No. And here's where I think a
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  Reformed view is so helpful. God is omniscient.
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  He knows everything. He doesn't need to run an
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  experiment to find out what's in Abraham's heart.
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  He already knows what's there. So the test isn't for God's
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  benefit. It's not for his education, no,
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  it's for Abraham's benefit. It's to manifest Abraham's
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  faith, to bring it out into the open so that Abraham himself,
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  and all of redemptive history after him, can see the supremacy
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  of God's worth in his own heart. And Abraham's response to this
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  call? It's just immediate.
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  God says his name Abraham, and he replies, Here I am.
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  The Hebrew is Hineni, and that's that's so much more than just
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  saying I'm present or yes. It's a posture.
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  It is. It's a posture of total
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  readiness. It's almost military in its
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  tone. It means at your service, ready
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  to execute your will. There's no hiding.
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  It's not a casual reply. Abraham stands at attention
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  before his Lord. And then the command comes,
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  yeah, first two, and it's constructed, you could say like
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  a ladder or maybe like a hammer. Just blow after blow coming down
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  on him. God says take your son.
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  And just that, just that alone. But Abraham could have asked
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  which one? You know, Ishmael is still out
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  there. So God clarifies, and each word
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  gets heavier. Your only son?
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  Yakid in the Hebrew. Right.
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  Yakid means the unique 1, the solitary 1.
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  And we know Ishmael is alive, but he's been sent out.
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  He's not the heir. Isaac is the one, the covenantal
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  heir. He's the monogens, the unique
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  one. And God names him Isaac.
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  Which means laughter. He is the physical embodiment of
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  all their joy, all their answered prayers.
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  And then comes the final blow, The most personal one whom you
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  love. That phrase whom you love.
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  I was reading that this is actually the very first time the
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  word love, the Hebrew word I have, appears anywhere in the
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  Bible. It is, and think about how
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  significant that is. The first mention of love in all
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  of Scripture is used to describe the love of a father for his
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  son. It's not accidental.
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  God is specifically targeting the object of Abraham's deepest,
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  most legitimate affection. He's stripping away every
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  possible layer of detachment. Every single 1.
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  He is forcing Abraham to look squarely at the fact that this
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  gift, this wonderful gift, might have started to eclipse the
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  giver in his heart. And the destination is specific.
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  Yeah, go to the land of Moriah. This isn't just any old hill out
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  in the wilderness. No, not at all.
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  Later in Scripture, in Two Chronicles 3, we're told that
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  Mount Moriah is the very place where Solomon will eventually
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  build the Temple. The place of sacrifice.
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  The place of sacrifice and geographically, it's very likely
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  the same system of ridges as Golgotha where Christ was
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  crucified. So you see God orchestrating
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  this drama that stretches across all of redemptive history.
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  He sends Abraham to the very spot where the costion of
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  atonement will be settled for good.
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  And the demand, it's for a burnt offering and an old, and that's
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  a specific kind of offering, isn't it?
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  There's not like a grain offering or a fellowship
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  offering where you might eat part of it.
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  No. A burnt offering is about total
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  consumption by fire. It all goes up.
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  It all ascends to God. It signifies total consecration.
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  God is asking for the totality of the promise back.
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  He's not asking for a piece of it.
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  He is asking for everything. Which brings us to the next
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  section of the text, the the swiftness and the silence of
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  Abraham's obedience. Verse 3.
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  So Abraham rose early in the morning.
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  And just notice the silence. The text records no dialogue.
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  There is absolutely no bargaining.
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  Which is strange because this is the same Abraham who bartered
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  with God oversaw them back in Genesis 18.
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  He did. He negotiated with God.
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  Then what if there are 50 righteous?
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  What about 45? But here, just deafening
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  silence. What do you make of that
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  silence? I think it signifies A settled
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  resolve. He understood in that moment
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  that when the sovereign Lord gives a direct command, the only
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  fitting response is to immediately carry it out.
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  You see, delayed obedience is actually disobedience.
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  The fact that he rose early shows a certain zeal, A
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  readiness to perform the duty, no matter how agonizing it was.
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  He didn't lie in bed hoping God would change his mind or send
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  another dream. The text then sort of slows down
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  and it gives us these mundane, practical details.
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  He saddled the donkey. He took his two young men with
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  him. He cut the wood.
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  It's like the grammatical pace of the text itself slows down to
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  match the heavy, determined movements of this old man.
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  Just try to visualize it. Here's a man over 100 years old
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  taking up an axe and splitting logs.
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  The very wood that's meant to consume his son.
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  Yes, and the text mentions the wood multiple times.
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  It's driving home the physical, tangible reality of what is
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  about to happen. This isn't just an abstract
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  theological idea. Abraham is holding the
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  instruments of death in his own hands.
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  And then they begin to walk. For three days.
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  The third day motif, which pops up all over Scripture.
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  For three full days they travel. They would have eaten together.
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  They would have slept near each other.
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  But you have to believe that in Abraham's mind, Isaac was
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  already dead. He had resolved to do it.
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  Almost like a funeral procession.
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  It is a three day funeral procession with the victim
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  walking right beside him. But the author of the book of
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  Hebrews gives us this incredible window into what Abraham was
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  actually thinking during those three silent days.
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  Hebrews 11 says that he reasoned God could raise the dead.
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  Yes, exactly. This is so key.
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  It wasn't a blind leap into an abyss of nonsense.
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  It was a calculated trust. He held two things in his mind
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  that seemed to be in complete contradiction.
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  God's promise and God's command. That's it.
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  He knew God promised a nation through Isaac.
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  That's fact 1. He knew God commanded Isaac's
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  death. That's fact 2.
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  So if God is faithful, if God doesn't lie, what's the only
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  logical conclusion? Resurrection.
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  It has to be He believed God would solve the contradiction
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  and the only way to solve it was to bring his Son back from the
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  ashes. Which makes sense of what he
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  says to the servants in verse 5. He tells them to wait and he
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  says I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again
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  to you. We will come again, a plural
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  verb. That is the statement of faith
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  right there. It's staggering.
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  He fully intends to kill Isaac because he is obedient to the
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  command. Yet he fully expects to return
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  with him because he is confident in the promise.
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  You know that that really redefines worship, doesn't it?
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  It absolutely does. Worship isn't just about singing
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  songs in a comfortable room or having a warm feeling inside.
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  Biblical worship as we see it modeled here, is obedience that
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  goes to the point of total loss, and it's fueled by a rock solid
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  confidence in God's character and his ability to restore.
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  It's giving God everything. Everything.
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  Even the things that make no sense to give because you trust
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  him more than you trust your own reason or your own feelings.
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  And then we get this haunting visual in verse 6 as they begin
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  the ascent. Abraham takes the wood and lays
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  it on Isaac, his son. And Abraham himself carries the
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  fire and the knife. Think about the symbolism there.
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  The fire represents God's holiness, His judgement against
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  sin. The knife represents the penalty
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  of death that must be paid. And Isaac, who is the younger
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  and stronger man, is the one carrying the wood on his back up
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  the hill. I mean, it's almost impossible
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  to miss the typology there. The church.
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  I seen it for 2000 years. It is the shadow of a greater
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  father and a greater son walking to a different hill.
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  Jesus, carrying the wood of his own cross, walking toward the
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  place of his execution. And the text gives us this
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  refrain. So they went, both of them
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  together. It repeats that.
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  It highlights this. It is terrible unity.
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  Isaac isn't fighting him. He isn't running away.
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  He is submitting to carrying the burden his heart are placed on
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  him. There's a horrific tension in
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  the air, but there's also a unity of purpose as they walk.
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  And then the silence is finally broken.
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  Verse 7 Isaac speaks up my father and Abraham answers here
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  I am my son. And there's that word again.
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  Hineni. Abraham is the mediator in this
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  drama. He is fully present for God's
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  command, but he is also fully present for his son.
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  His heart is completely neat to this boy.
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  You can feel the pain in his response.
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  You can the weight of being caught between the divine
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  command and the human victim. And Isaac asked the question
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  that must have just been screaming in his mind for three
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  days. Behold the fire in the wood.
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  But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
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  Isaac knows the liturgy. He's not a small child.
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  He understands how worship works.
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  You need the fire for judgement. You need the wood for the pyre.
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  But the most essential element is missing.
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  There is no substitute. And from a human point of view,
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  that's that's an existential crisis.
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  We have all the instruments of judgement, but we have no means
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  of atonement. There's nothing to take our
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  place. It's the impossible situation.
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  It's the human condition in a single question.
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  And Abraham's answer in verse 8, I mean, this is the centerpiece
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  of the whole passage. He says God will provide for
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  himself, the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
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  Jehovah Jira the Lord will provide, but we really need to
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  dig into the Hebrew of that phrase, the verb yuray.
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  It literally means to see. To see, not just to give.
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  Right. It's not just about giving
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  divine provision is a seeing beforehand.
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  It's not that God is scrambling at the last second to come up
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  with a solution to a problem. It's that God visualizes the
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  need from eternity past, and he orchestrates the solution before
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  the crisis even begins. He.
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  Sees the need and meets it. He sees it and has already met
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  it, and notice the syntax to God will see to it for himself.
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  What's the significance of that for himself?
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  It implies that the sacrifice is required by God, God, and so it
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  must be provided by God. God isn't just providing a lamb
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  to save Isaac's life as an act of kindness.
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  He's providing the Lamb to satisfy his own holy requirement
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  for worship, His own justice. It's about God's character.
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  It's all about God's character. And this gets to the very heart
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  of the Reformed doctrine of grace.
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  We cannot provide the atonement that our sin demands.
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  We show up with the wood of our guilt.
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  We stand before the fire of God's judgement, but we have no
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  lamb. We have nothing to offer.
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  If God does not provide the substitute, the Son must die.
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  So Abraham is basically saying I can't fix this.
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  You, Isaac can't fix this. This is something only God can
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  do. Precisely.
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  It is an incredible utterance of faith, but it's also a prophecy.
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  He is asserting that the same God who commands the impossible
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  has already, from before time, visualized and prepared the
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  provision necessary to fulfill his own covenant promises.
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  And that prophetic utterance, just it echoes all the way
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  through the rest of the Bible. When we talk about canonical
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  connections, this is a prime example.
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  Abraham, without even knowing it, is prophesying the whole
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  trajectory of redemptive history.
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  He really is that question. Where is the lamb?
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  It just hangs in the air over the entire Old Testament.
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  You see it in the Passover lamb, whose blood protects from the
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  Angel of death. You see it in the entire
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  Levitical system, with thousands and thousands of animals being
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  sacrificed day after day, year after year.
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  All of it is a placeholder, and all of it is asking the same
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  question. Where is the true lamb?
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  Where is the one that will take away sin for good.
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  And the answer doesn't really arrive until we get to the banks
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  of the Jordan River. That's right, with John the
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  Baptist, he sees Jesus coming toward him, and what does he
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  say? Behold the Lamb of God, who
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  takes away the sin of the world. And that's it.
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  That's the answer. Isaac's question.
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  Jesus is the fulfillment of Abraham's desperate hope.
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  He is the Lamb that God provided for himself.
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  But there is a little twist in the immediate story, isn't
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  there? In verse 13, which is just
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  outside the verses we're focused on.
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  But it's so relevant. God provides a ram, not a lamb.
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  A ram caught by its horns in a thicket.
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  And that's not just a trivial detail.
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  Abraham was looking for a lamb, but God gave a ram.
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  The ram was a shadow. It was a temporary stand in.
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  Christ is the substance. Christ is the substance that Ram
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  allowed Isaac to live that day, but it's blood couldn't take
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  away sin forever. It was a picture of a greater
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  sacrifice to come. And the contrast between what
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  happens there on Mariah and what happens later on Calvary, Yeah,
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  it's just so stark. On Moriah, the last possible
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  second, the Angel of the Lord screams from heaven.
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  Stop. Do not lay a hand on the boy.
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  The son of promise is spared. But on Calvary, on that same
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  mountain range, there was no voice from heaven to halt the
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  judgement. There was no Angel shouting
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  stop. It makes you think of Romans
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  8.32. It's the perfect commentary on
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  it. He who did not spare his own
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  son, but gave him up for us all. That is the great terrifying
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  contrast. God spared Abraham's son.
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  He did not spare his own. The knife that was raised over
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  Isaac fell on Jesus so that it would not have to fall on us.
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  And Jesus himself even referred back to this moment.
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  He told the Pharisees. Your father Abraham rejoiced
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  that he would see my day. John 8.56 It's an amazing
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  statement. Abraham saw it from a great
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  distance. In the provision of that ram.
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  He saw a glimpse of the future Lamb.
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  He understood that God Himself provides the final offering that
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  ends the need for all other offerings.
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  So we've climbed the mountain, we've looked at the theology,
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  now we need to bring this down into the valley of our own
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  lives. What does this mean for us?
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  We could maybe use a framework of head, heart and hands to
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  think about application. That's a good way to structure
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  it. Let's start with the head, our
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  intellect. What do you think?
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  I think the first thing this story does is it completely
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  reorients our view on ownership. The basic error we all make
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  every day is thinking that our Isaacs actually belong to us.
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  And our Isaacs, that could be our children, but also our
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  careers, our ministries, our reputations.
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  Anything we hold dear, anything we think we can't live without,
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  this text forces us to intellectually submit to the
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  sovereignty of God. God has the absolute right to
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  give, and He has the absolute right to take away.
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  Job learned that Abraham is living it.
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  We often live as what you might call functional atheists.
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  We do. We believe God saves us
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  spiritually for eternity, but we act as if we're completely on
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  our own, materially, day-to-day. We worry, we grasp, we try to
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  control everything. We need to believe in our minds
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  that the God who commands the impossible will also provide the
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  resources to obey his command. OK, so that's the head.
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  What about the heart? Our affections This text seems
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  to be a direct confrontation with idolatry.
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  Head on and we have to have a broad definition of idolatry.
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  It's not just bowing down to a golden statue.
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  An idol is anything that absorbs your affection and your trust
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  more than God himself. And the real danger here is that
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  the biggest idols are usually not bad things, they're good
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  things. That's the insidious nature of
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  it. Isaac was a miracle child.
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  He was a covenant blessing from God.
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  But even a blessing can become a curse if it takes God's place in
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  your heart. I'm thinking that famous line
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  from Calvin. The human heart is a perpetual
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  factory of idols. We are constantly churning them
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  out, making good things into ultimate things.
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  So this text calls us to what the old writers called
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  mortification, the putting to death of those inordinate
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  affections. And the test for us today is
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  pretty simple, isn't? It it's terrifyingly simple.
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  What is the one thing in your life that if God asked you for
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  it, you would say no? Anything but that.
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  Whatever that is, that's your Isaac.
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  That's your master. That's a hard question to sit
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  with. Yeah.
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  And finally, the hands are will our actions.
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  This seems to be all about immediate obedience.
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  Abraham rose early. He saddled the donkey.
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  For us. This is a direct call to reject
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  spiritual procrastination. So often we wait.
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  We wait until obedience feels safe.
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  We wait until we can see how it's all going to work out.
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  We wait for our feelings to align with God's command.
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  But faith doesn't work that way. Faith obeys before the outcome
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  is visible. If the Word of God convicts you
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  of a sin you need to forsake, or a person you need to forgive, or
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  a duty you need to perform, you saddle the donkey now.
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  You get up early and you do it. You don't wait for the feelings
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  to catch up to the command. I want to give it for a moment
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  to some, let's say, pastoral appeals because people listening
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  to this are in very different places in life.
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  What would you say to the person who feels like they are on that
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  three day journey right now? Yeah, the weary St. in the
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  middle of a test. If that's you, and the heavens
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  just feel like brass, and God feel silent, remember this.
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  The silence of God does not mean the absence of God.
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  He's not abandoning you. He is refining you, not
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  destroying you. Abraham walked for three days in
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  what must have been an agonizing silence.
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  But God was there, and you have to see that.
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  So often the provision that Jehovah Jira, it doesn't come at
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  the bottom of the mountain when you're just starting out.
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  It comes at the very top at the moment of greatest extremity.
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  So hold on and. What about to parents?
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  This has to be one of the most frightening passages in the
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  Bible for a parent to read. It is because we are so tempted
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  to make our children the center of our universe.
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  They can so easily become our Isaacs.
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  So to offer them to the Lord. It obviously doesn't mean what
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  it meant for Abraham literally, but it does mean we must
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  consciously prioritize their holiness over their happiness.
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  That's hard to do. It's the hardest thing.
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  It means we hold them with an open hand, acknowledging that
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  God loves them more than we ever could.
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  It means releasing that white knuckle grip of control and
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  trusting them to His sovereign care.
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  And lastly, what about the person listening who might not
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  be a believer, who doesn't have this relationship with God that
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  we're talking about? How do they fit into this story?
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  That's a vital question. If you are not a Christian, you
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  need to see where you are in this narrative.
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  You are not Abraham, you are Isaac.
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  Lying on the altar. You are you are bound by the
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  cords of sin. You are lying on the wood of
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  your own guilt. The fire of God's perfect
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  justice is real and it is coming, and you cannot save
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  yourself. Isaac couldn't untie his own
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  ropes. But there is good news in this
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  story. There is the best news in the
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  universe. The knife of judgement that
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  should have fallen on you fell on Christ instead.
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  God provided the Lamb, Your good works, your religious efforts,
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  they are not the Lamb. They can't save you.
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  You must look away from yourself completely and look to the Lamb
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  of God who is slain for you. I'm also thinking about how this
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  connects to our regular worship services, specifically the
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  Lord's Supper. Yes, Communion or the Eucharist.
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  You could say it's the place where the severity of the call
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  meets the certainty of provision.
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  When we come to the table, we are coming to our own Mount
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  Moriah, but the sacrifice has already been made.
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  We don't bring the wood or the fire.
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  We don't. We bring nothing but our need.
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  We receive the feast that God himself has prepared.
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  The bread and the wine are tangible proof of Jehovah Jira
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  God has provided. We have ascended Moriah today.
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  We stared into the fire. And what we've seen, I think, is
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  that saving faith is not a passive thing.
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  It's an active, obedient trust that can survive even the most
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  terrifying silence from God. Because it's not resting on our
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  own strength, it's resting on the character of the God who
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  provides. I want to leave you, the
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  listener, with one final thought to Mull over this week.
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  We talk a lot about Abraham's great faith, and we should.
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  But can you just imagine for a moment the conversation on the
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  way back down the mountain? Or maybe just the silence, now
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  broken up by dread but by relief.
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  Abraham knows something now that he didn't know.
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  Three, as before, he knows in his bones the lengths to which
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  God is worthy of being trusted. And he knows that God will spare
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  nothing, not even the Son of promise, to keep his own
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  promises. So for the believer listening,
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  let that be your confidence. The God who did not spare His
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  own Son for you will surely provide for all your other
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  needs. And for anyone still on the
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  outside looking in, remember that outside of His substitution
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  there is no salvation at all. May you go forth this week with
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  the confidence that on the Mount of the Lord it shall be
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  provided.