Abraham’s Greatest Test

Abraham's Greatest Test

>>> Read Genesis 22>>>

 

Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being . . .   (Psalm 51:6).

 

We can know 'truth' in an intellectual way and can express it through our lips – but God looks for truth deep in our hearts.  In chapter 22, when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, He was asking some very important questions. Did Abraham love God because he received the promised blessing, or had God truly become the unshakable source of Abraham's life?  Abraham had demonstrated love for God, but did he love Him more than he loved anything else?  These questions are answered when Abraham "rose early in the morning … split wood for the burnt offering … and went to the place of which God had told him."  Abraham was willing to trust God and give Him everything.

 

As you begin to grow in faith and develop intimacy with the Lord, He will lay His hand upon something very dear to your heart. In Abraham's case, it was "your only son, Isaac, whom you love."  Isaac was the object of his parents' love and the one in whom all the promises would be fulfilled. Now he would become the center of God's test for Abraham – a literal trial by fire – which would reveal the depths of Abraham's heart and bring honor to God.

 

Abraham rose early in the morning, took Isaac with him and split wood for the burnt offering. He doesn't stop to think about the results; he doesn't allow flesh and blood to have a part in his decision – instead, he responds in faith to the One who owns his heart. Abraham's faith and devotion are expressed in the words ". . . we will worship and return to you."

 

His eye was on God, not on his service. When your eye is on God and not on what you do, you exert a spirit of worship. When we think only of Him, it will not matter if we are a pastor or a janitor. Whatever my service, the work of my hands is perfumed with the ardent breathing of my spirit. It will not be mechanical service, doing for doing's sake, where I am more occupied with my work than with my Master. Faith causes all my works to begin and end with God. CHM

 

 Abraham's work of faith was not mere lip service – he drew the knife – this was no mere show of outward devotion. Outward devotion is Peter, stating that he would die for the Lord, and then failing the test (Mat. 26:35). Faith does not talk about what it will do, instead it resides deep within until it meets a test. For Abraham, Mt. Moriah was the proof – the testimony – that he had learned the deep lessons of faith. He did not rest in his blessings – he rested in God Himself.

 

Would I still worship God if He took something (or someone) I dearly loved away from me? Would I be more concerned about His glory and praise than I am about my own desires and comfort? This is what James refers to when he says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" It's easy enough to talk about faith in God and to praise Him when things are going our way. However, when God tests us as He tested Abraham, or Job, what will we say? It is at those times that our outward actions reveal the inward, hidden life and whether we are truly given over to God. It is the outward life that James speaks about in his letter – it is the outward life that speaks to the watching world.

 

Do you think Abraham came away from his experience on Mt. Moriah with the same view of God he had when he took his first steps in that direction?  Without trials, we have only theories about faith and presumption about God. Our theories and intellectual knowledge of His Word cause us to give lip service to Him – but when we receive grace to endure a trial we are changed and He is glorified in us. The real-life experience of God's sufficiency on our behalf teaches us the true meaning of 'overcoming the world.'  For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1John 5:4).

 

If we are too busy involving ourselves in the world (even through religious things that we deem spiritual, yet are rooted in our own good works) then we will not be aware that God requires us to overcome the world. We have only to look at Abraham's history to learn the difference between compromising with the world and overcoming it. Abraham provides abundant examples of both.  In Abraham we see the character of human nature; in God's dealing with Abraham we see what He will do to produce  "truth in the innermost being."

 

[This article is heavily referenced from C.H. Mackintosh's commentary Notes on the Pentateuch]                              LJ 1/10