Jehovah chose to test Abraham to see how strong his faith was. This devotional reading looks at what that horrible test was.
Nuggets
- Jehovah came to Abraham just as He usually did.
- When Jehovah said, “Hey, Abraham!”, I bet Abraham was excited to talk to his Friend again.
- Once again, God sent Abraham off without giving him a specific destination.
Abraham had grown in faith because the promised son had arrived. The belief that Jehovah would provide him and Sarah a son through which that great nation and many nations would come had been rewarded.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Abraham knew God would keep their covenant.
In the 25+ years since Jehovah called Abraham, Abraham had learned much — surrender and self-denial.
But just when things were going so well, BAM! God called a – no, not a pop quiz. It was more in line with a pop final exam.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Abraham the Patriarch series
Abraham’s Faith Tested
“Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. ‘Abraham!’ God called. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Here I am’” (Gen. 22: 1 NLT)
Jehovah Tested Abraham
Jehovah came to Abraham just as He usually did.
Jehovah came to Abraham. It wasn’t a personal visit like Genesis 18. It wasn’t a dream, as He came to Abimelech (Gen. 21).
This sounded like it was how Jehovah usually came to Abraham. It was a voice in his spirit.
Abraham was not told that this was a test. He had no clue what was happening.
Most of all, Abraham didn’t know why it was happening.
Make no mistake. Sovereign God does not have to explain Himself to the likes of us.
Get one thing straight. Jehovah tested Abraham. He did not tempt him to sin.
Jehovah does test us to get us to prove our faith.
- “No one undergoing a trial should say, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone” (Jas. 1: 13 CSB).
- “Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the LORD tests the heart” (Prov. 17: 3 NLT).
God was not looking for the evil in Abraham — unless it is to eliminate it from his life. He was looking for the good.
Do we understand the purpose here? Jehovah knew Abraham had faith. He was trying to figure out how strong that faith was.
Those who have the strong faith are willing to obey understands Jehovah’s commands better, according to Emmons.
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Just as an aside, this is the last texting of Abraham that we know of. Sarah died in the next chapter (which while some consider a trial isn’t a testing). Chapter 24 was securing a wife for Isaac. Abraham died in Genesis 25.
We should expect testing — and trials — also. “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold — though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (I Pet. 1: 7 NLT).
When we take/took tests in school, wasn’t it partly so we knew what we didn’t know? Yes, teachers want to know what we know, but the flip side is we find out what we don’t know. That way we can work on filling those holes in our knowledge.
We do wellness checks so we can determine that physically we are well. We are also to do periodic checks on our faith.
“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith” (NLT). We have to judge ourselves by God’s standards.
- Is our faith as deep as it could be?
- If not, in what areas are we lacking?
- What is God calling us to do to address that?
- To where is He calling us?
Here I Am
When Jehovah said, “Hey, Abraham!”, I bet Abraham was excited to talk to his Friend again.
“… ‘Here I am’” (Gen. 22: 1 NLT) implies both obedience on Abraham’s part and provision on Jehovah’s part. Abraham knew He could depend on Jehovah to carry him through whatever of which He was asking him.
Jehovah came with, as Emmons said, the most extraordinary command that we find in God’s Word. But Abraham didn’t know that yet.
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Abraham’s response showed that he was ready to obey Jehovah in whatever was asked of him.
Your Only Son
‘Take your son, your only son — yes, Isaac, whom you love so much — and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you’” (Gen. 22: 2 NLT)
The testing Jehovah gives us usually uses that which we love most and highly value.
Jehovah came with, as Emmons said, the most extraordinary command that we find in God’s Word. Abraham was to take his beloved son Isaac, the covenant child, and sacrifice him on an altar to worship Sovereign God.
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Talk about having the rug pulled out from under his feet. Abraham would not have seen this one coming.
Ooo, baby. Don’t we get all hot and bothered when we believe Jehovah promised something one way; and all the sudden, He does just the exact opposite? Don’t we forget that He knows best?
Abraham would have never thought Jehovah would ask him to sacrifice his son. The whole covenant was contingent on Isaac’s birth and having kids of his own.
Abraham would have been shocked down to the bottom of his sandals.
What Abraham was told was that he was to not only kill Isaac but also burn him on an altar. It wasn’t a stick and done. It was a slay, dismember, and burn process.
This command seems so out of character for Jehovah to ask that. Because child sacrifice was common in many countries at the time – even Abraham’s – He has several times specifically stated that children were not to be sacrificed.
- “Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the Lord” (Lev. 18: 21 NLT).
- “You must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods” )Deut. 12: 31 NLT).
- “They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!” (Jer. 7: 31 NLT).
What happened to “thou shalt not kill” period?
Could a father legally do this? Well, back in Abraham’s day, yes. The father had complete rule over his son.
Rowsell made a good point. Abraham would have seen a lot of child sacrifices back in Ur. I bet it broke his heart every time he saw a parent kill his child when that was what he himself wanted the most.
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Emmons thought Abraham was only asked to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, not kill him. Robertson agreed as, in the end, the sacrifice was not demanded.
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That isn’t what this version says. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you’” (Gen. 22: 2 NLT).
So, let’s go back to the Hebrew. “… offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains …’” (Gen. 22: 2 OJB).
Not sacrifice. Offer.
But if we look at how to perform a burnt offering, we see the sacrifice is killed first.
- “Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and the Lord will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him. Then slaughter the young bull in the Lord’s presence, and Aaron’s sons, the priests, will present the animal’s blood by splattering it against all sides of the altar that stands at the entrance to the Tabernacle” (Lev. 2: 4-5 NLT).
- “The sons of Aaron the priest will build a wood fire on the altar” (Lev. 2: 7 NLT).
- “… Then the priest will burn the entire sacrifice on the altar as a burnt offering. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Gen. 2: 9 NLT).
Before it was offered to God, the sacrifice was killed.
Can we start a sacrifice and pull out before the smoke starts? Is it really a sacrifice then? Is it even an offering? No.
Robertson argued that Jehovah did not and could not command that which was wrong. Therefore, He must have mean offer, not sacrifice.
What I kind of do agree with is what Emmons said. Jehovah can require one time that which He has forbidden another. Otherwise, how can He test us?
What better way of showing us what He doesn’t want by asking for it and stopping it?
Kennedy was right. Jehovah wasn’t asking Abraham to love Isaac any less.
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Abraham didn’t ask Jehovah to repeat the command or clarify it. He didn’t even demand evidence that it was coming from Him. He didn’t rail about not being left with a way to shimmy out of it.
Abraham straight up obeyed. As Ness said, it was a man performing in obedience the command given to him by the Lawgiver.
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Don’t we try to shimmy out of sacrifices? Oh, I don’t sing well, I’ll just leave that to the Praise Team.
Don’t we try to cut corners in worship? I don’t like reading the Bible, and I especially don’t like doing it every day. So, I’ll just worship on Sunday.
Don’t we just plain do it our way instead of His way?
Let’s look at this another way. Jehovah told Abraham to take his son — the one he loved — and sacrifice him. Now, last chapter we were told that Abraham was told by Him to send Ishmael away. Even though Jehovah had made it clear that he wasn’t the covenant son, Abraham might have kept in the back of his mind that Ishmael was a spare in care something happened to Isaac.
Why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice the son that he waited for so long? Just because of that?
Think about it. Abraham didn’t have a bunch of sons. He had two.
I don’t think Jehovah was saying Abraham loved Isaac more than Him. Although, Tipple thought Abraham had done just that.
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If Jehovah was doing this as punishment for the sin of putting something before Him (Ex. 20: 3), it wouldn’t be a testing. If Abraham had put Isaac before Jehovah, I would think that would have created a much bigger response than testing. God may even could have gone through with the sacrifice.
Yes, it is sometimes easy to put something before Jehovah. We can’t put things – even family – above Sovereign God.
Do we put more faith in the blessing than the God Who gave us the blessing? In other words, would Abram make Isaac his idol?
What is our Isaac? What replaces Sovereign God as what/who we worship? What would we do if/when we are asked to lay down our Isaac? Would we still worship and be obedient to God as Abraham was?
But we have to understand Jehovah can ask of us anything He wants. It is not our place to question. It is our place to obey.
Why would Jehovah make Abraham go through all of this? He was giving a representation of Him and Yeshua.
The First Step of Obedience
“The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about” (Gen. 22: 3 NLT)
Once again, God sent Abraham off without giving him a specific destination.
All Jehovah had given Abraham was the area but not the specific mountain. That didn’t slow Abraham down.
Even though Jehovah asked what at first hearing Abraham would have recoiled from, he immediately made plans to fulfill the request.
We aren’t told the time-of-day God gave the order. Abraham left early the next morning. He left at the first possible time.
We aren’t told what he told Sarah — if anything. I don’t see him going to her and saying, “God told me to go make a sacrifice — and that sacrifice is Isaac. See you when I get back.”
Abraham obviously didn’t tell Isaac.
Gray thought Abraham didn’t tell anyone anything except they were going to worship. I go with that.
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Whatever Abraham was feeling, he started the next morning. This is the best indication of his faith.
We’ve talked about Abraham being disinterested before when he and Lot separated. Disinterestedness means a willingness to give up something for a greater good.
This is the type of faith and obedience Abraham showed. He was willing to give up his beloved son’s life for whatever greater good Jehovah was working.
It was smart to take wood with him because wood could be scarce around there.
Tipple thought Abraham took a couple of days to stew about it, but he was wrong. “The next morning Abraham got up early …” (Gen. 22: 3 NLT emphasis added).
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Part of me can see why Tipple thinks that. I’m sure it wasn’t like throwing a couple of clothes in the suitcase and going.
But still with each step he took, Abraham’s mind was probably racing, and his heart was trying to sink.
With all that, it doesn’t sound like Abraham let Isaac see his despair. He let him see his unwavering faith in a Sovereign God. He knew Jehovah would make clear to him exactly what He wanted him to do – without breaking the covenant they had together.
Not once in the journey did he turn around or even get lost on purpose. Think about the self-control that took.
Making the Connections #1
How many times have we said that the bricks in our Sanctification Road are built through testing and trials? The process through which we become like Jehovah is sanctification.
The trials come through pain and cost. Why do we think testing should be much easier?
Jehovah gives these testing and trials to build His character.
Look what Rowsell said. He wrote, “Each part of his character, like every part of his [armor], is put to the proof; and it is the proof that tests, after all, the strength both of resistance and [defense] and attack.”
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It is going to take a long time to make the transformation. It will take the rest of our lives, in fact.
Making the Connections #2
Rowsell made another excellent point. Jehovah did not speak to Abraham in an audible voice. He talked with him in his soul.
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I can see that. But I also know through personal experience that there are times it can seem like it is an audible voice when Jehovah speaks to us.
Making the Connections #3
You know, we think most about Abraham’s relationship with Isaac. Our hearts break for the dilemma in which Abraham found himself.
Hughes discussed the possible effect that it had on Abraham’s relationship with Jehovah. He wrote, “It was a trial that put the severest possible strain upon him in the tenderest relations of his spiritual life.”
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Did Abraham think following Jehovah for 25+ years were all for nothing? Did he think his life meant nothing?
Satan may have stuck the thoughts in Abraham’s mind, but Abraham never once faltered. He set his course for Moriah and trusted His God to work it out.
Abraham had faith in the God of the unseen, the unreasonable, and the unthinkable.
Making the Connections #4
Maclaren had an interesting take on the purpose of the testing. He asked, what if the purpose of the testing was to determine Abraham’s readiness to obey – even to something so huge and so out of left field as sacrificing his son?
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That makes the most sense to me. No, Jehovah wasn’t really asking for Abraham to do it. He was asking if he was ready to do what He asked no matter what.
How Do We Apply This?
- Accept that our faith will be tested.
- Put Jehovah first in all things, even family.
- Understand that faith gives us strength.
- Realize that confirmation of our faith will only be given through testing.
- Discipline our faith to believe Jehovah has control of the unseen.
- Be willing to lose ourselves to find ourselves in God.
- Realize that we will never graduate from testings.
- Sacrifice our will to Jehovah.
- Let Jehovah determine the sacrifice, not us.
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Father God. We know that testing is a part of our walk with You. We know that You will ask hard things of us. Help us to obey as Abraham did, and may our faith grow to the strength he had. Amen.
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