Jehovah always rewards faith and obedience. This devotional reading looks at what that meant for Abraham when he passed his test – and what it can mean for us.
Jehovah had given Abrahan a horrendous test to grow his faith. He and Isaac, the beloved son Jehovah had asked him to sacrifice, had returned home together.
Abraham passed the test with flying colors. What can we learn from that?
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Devotions in the Abraham the Patriarch series
Making the Connections #1
So, was Abraham’s aborted sacrifice of Isaac a farce? No!
The purpose of the testing was to test Abraham’s heart. He nailed it.
What lessons did Abraham learn?
- Everyone belongs to Jehovah.
- Regardless of what we are asked to do by Jehovah, we need to obey.
- The only important factor in our obedience should be that He asked it of us.
- The blessings are more abundant when the testing is more painful.
- Jehovah requires us to walk by faith, not sight – even in the difficult.
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Those are important aspects to remember when we start a period of testing. We – whether we are His child or His creation – belong to Him – lock, stock, and barrel. He can do with us as He wishes.
Making the Connections #2
I like Clark’s description of why this story is so important to all of us — especially considering the ewww factor. He wrote,
“All the elements of piety were in this act. The voice of the Lord heard and obeyed is essential to religion. The unshaken conviction that all He requires is best, though one lose thereby all but Himself, is the substance of religion. Abraham heard and did and trusted. Thus he became our worthy example.”
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Our faith is nothing if we do not trust Jehovah — especially if we don’t understand. If we do not obey Him in everything, we don’t have faith and trust.
If we understood everything, we may think we don’t need Him.
We need Jehovah to forgive us for our sins. We all sin, and no one can save themselves.
We’re going to have testings and trials that run up against our traditions and prejudices. We are going to have common ideas about Who Jehovah is and what He really means and wants.
Abraham showed us what it means to truly put Jehovah first.
Making the Connections #3
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Rom. 8: 28 NLT)
We would say this was the most horrible thing Jehovah could have asked of Abraham. We would be wrong.
Everything Jehovah does in our lives is done because it is a learning process for us. We come to know Him better. We grow more dependent on Him. We see His true nature.
The trial is worth that. God is developing our spiritual condition, not just giving us a head full of knowledge.
Are we going to make mistakes? Oh, yeah.
Look what Atwood said about Abraham’s testing. He wrote, “Humanly judging, the command to sacrifice Isaac was the end of Abraham’s hopes; in fact, it was the beginning of his prosperity.”
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If Abraham would have not even considered sacrificing Isaac, I think he would have lost everything associated with his faith. Since he followed His directions, he gained everything.
Not bad for a couple of days’ journey and total obedience.
Making the Connections #4
I absolutely love the way Jarman described the why of testings. He wrote,
“His object is to open out to your own eye the book of your heart, to display before you the letters which He Himself has already seen, and to pour such a light upon them that their true meaning and character may be understood by you.”
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Yeah, it’s a little different than Paul’s opening the eyes of our heart (Eph. 1: 18) – but it isn’t. “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1: 18 ESV).
Opening the eyes of our heart is a metaphorical way of saying we need to open our hearts to God’s power and love. It means we have to look for it. We have t be open to receiving it.
I would say that Jarman meant the book of your heart to be the condition of our heart. It is where we are at on our faith journey – what we believe, what we’ve experienced, and what God has already revealed to us.
We talked about Abbadie believing that we have secrets in our hearts. They are not secret from Jehovah.
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And they won’t stay secret. “But don’t be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when everything that is covered will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!” (Mt. 10: 26-27 NLT).
Opening the eyes of our hearts – understanding or head knowledge – is meaningless if we don’t open the book of our hearts and get that head knowledge down to the heart level.
We don’t want the testing to have been in vain.
Just for giggles, let’s look at Paul’s verse in the Hebrew.
“It is my tefillah [prayer] that the eynayim [eyes meaning perception, insight, or understanding – spiritual awareness] of your levavot [hearts] may be enlightened so that you may have da’as [knowledge, understanding] of what is the tikvah [hope] of His kri’ah [to tear or rend such as your garments] (his summons from Shomayim [heavens]), what is the osher (wealth) of the kavod [honor, respect] of His nachalah (allotted inheritance [portion, heritage]) in the Kadoshim [holy ones, saints]” (Eph. 1: 18 OJB).
That is like it is translated into English except for the rend your garments part.
The most familiar verse about rending something is in Joel. “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2: 13 NIV).
Jews rend their garments as a sign of mourning upon hearing of a loved one’s death or during the funeral. This is a clean tear – on the left side for a parent or on the right side for other family members. It can be worn for the whole time of shiva.
The verse in Joel talks about true sorrow for sin and genuine repentance of the heart. More importantly, it is talking true change.
We won’t change if we don’t see the need for change in our hearts.
Making the Connections #5
Jarman reminded us that testings come to highlight a weakness or an area in us that is not being used (like some talent). He likened testing to a gym.
I can see that. Jehovah wants us used to our fullest potential. The whole purpose is to grow that which is not into something that is.
That is going to take work. It will take dedication and consistency. It may take planning.
Making the Connections #6
Okay. Can you tell I liked Jarman’s sermon?
Jarman added to the discussion of why do we have trials. He wrote, “So long as self-denials and sacrifices are indefinitely shadowed in the dim future, so long as they are problematical, who so ready as these pseudo-Abrahams to meet them!
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We can be procrastinators. If we think something isn’t going to happen for a long time – take retirement, for example – we see no problem in putting off planning and saving until we have more disposable income to earmark for that.
But then it can sneak up on us. We never have that disposable income because we live paycheck to paycheck. Life goes more quickly than we hope. Our job situation changes too many times to allow us to do that.
What do the pseudo-Abrahams do? Well, I think they give lip service. “Oh, I am going to look into starting a 401-K in a couple of months.” But never get around to it.
How do we do that with our faith? “Oh, I want to read the Bible through.” But we never go onto the internet to look up a reading plan. We never do more than say the words.
There are three great elements in that sentence. Warning, this is going to be chasing a rabbit.
- Self-denials. We can convince ourselves something isn’t a sin — and it is. We can convince ourselves we didn’t do something to the extent that would make it a sin — and we did. Rationalizing sin never works. When it comes to a trial, we can deny there is a reason that we need that scrutiny — and we do because we are not following Jehovah in the way and to the extent He desires. This can be our way of putting things off until the future.
- Sacrifices. Jehovah will accept any kind of worship, correct? No. He is very specific as to how to worship Him and what a sacrifice entails. In a way, the Eve Syndrome included a sacrifice. The law said don’t eat. Eve’s sacrifice – at least in her mind – was don’t touch. She upped the restriction to help keep her from eating — and it didn’t work. Falling into the Eve Syndrome where we add restrictions on to Jehovah’s law allows Satan to use that against us.
- Pseudo-Abrahams. We may like to think we have the faith of Abraham; but if we don’t if we don’t take care of our relationship with Jehovah today. We have to grow steadily, not in a cram course right before we think we will need a stronger faith.
Since Jehovah gave Abraham the promise 25 years before He fulfilled it, isn’t it logical that He would put off a trial that long? No. What if we died the next day?
True, I don’t think having unforgiven sin in our lives is going to necessarily keep us out of Heaven, unless that unforgiving sin means we haven’t truly given our lives to Yeshua as our Savior.
One thing Jarman was saying is we can’t give Jehovah lip service as to how we would be obedient in a testing. He puts us through the testing to see what we actually will do.
Making the Connections #7
I still don’t think Jehovah was trying to make sure Abraham loved Him more than Isaac. I think it was about how much was Abraham willing to give up.
We know Abraham sacrificed animals. He loved Jehovah more than his worldly possessions. It wasn’t that he just gave up what he could easily spare.
But then we know — at least from how Moses structured the story — Abraham was willing to give up a close relationship with Lot. Family, but not the covenant son.
Abraham was also willing to give up living with Ishmael. Again, not the covenant son.
It wasn’t necessarily about Isaac. Was Abraham willing to give up the blessings Jehovah promised to show his love for Jehovah for Himself?
It reminds me of Yeshua and all the miracles he did — and His frustration at the people’s focusing on the physical healing rather than the spiritual healing. “Jesus asked, ‘Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?’” (Jn. 4: 48 NLT).
Jehovah expects our faith and obedience in Him, not just our love for what He does for us.
Making the Connections #8
If Jehovah would have made Abraham follow through and sacrifice Isaac, what would have happened to his marriage? Would Sarah have understood the reason for it, or would she have tried to stop the sacrifice if she had known beforehand? Would she have ever forgiven him?
Would Sarah have had Abraham recall Ishmael — after it was her demand to send him and Hagar away?
Thankfully, we’ll never know.
Abraham wouldn’t have had to just worry about Sarah if he returned without Isaac. He would have had to worry about the Canaanites.
How can this man who, to some, would have appeared “better than us” doing exactly what they did? So much for being set apart.
Talk about a witness killer.
Making the Connections #9
We like to think that blessing means joy or rewards. Murphy told us what it really means. He wrote, “Blessing is like mercy in this: that it sums up in one word the whole salvation of which the Bible is the gospel.”
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Blessing is all about salvation. That is why the Beatitudes are all about salvation.
Making the Connections #10
Because of Jehovah asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac has long been compared to Yeshua. There are similarities.
- Both have a miraculous birth, which was foretold prior to their mother becoming pregnant. Isaac was born to a mother past the childbearing age. Yeshua’s mother was betrothed but not married — therefore, a virgin — at the time of His conception.
- This foretelling of their births included the names they were to be given. Isaac means laughter. Yeshua means to deliver, save, or rescue.
- The foretelling also indicated when they would be born. In Genesis 18: 10, Abraham was told that Sarah would give birth the next year. The promises of a Messiah is first given in Genesis 3: 15. An angel brought the news to Mary in Luke 1: 31.
- All the parents viewed the births with great joy. Both could be considered an only child, the covenant child, and well-loved.
- Their fathers — Abraham and Jehovah — were both asked to intentionally sacrifice their sons.
- Both sons agreed to be sacrificed, making them both self-sacrifices. In other words, they put Jehovah’s Will above their desires.
- Isaac was to be the sacrificial lamb. Yeshua was the Pascal Lamb.
- Jehovah provided the sacrifice both times.
- Mount Moriah was the spot of sacrifice for both.
- Both bore the wood on which they were to be sacrificed.
- Through Isaac, Abraham would be the father of many nations. Through Yeshua, Jehovah would be the Father of all believers who have surrendered their life to Yeshua.
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If Isaac would have been sacrificed, Yeshua would not have been born. Only through Yeshua can we gain salvation from our sins.
There were differences
- A substitute was given for Isaac. There was no substitute for Yeshua. The Plan of Salvation rested solely on Him.
- Abraham only needed to offer Isaac as the sacrifice. Jehovah had to watch His Son be killed for our benefit.
Abbadie had an interesting difference. He wrote,
“In the sacrifice of Isaac, the fire, the knife, the sacrificer, are visible, but the victim does not at first appear; in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the victim appears first, but the knife, which is the sword of divine justice, and the fire, which consists in the [ardor] of his wrath and judgments, are invisible, are only seen by the eyes of faith.”
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Remember, Jehovah is the God of the seen and unseen. The physical, outward isn’t as important to Him as the spiritual, inward is.
How Do We Apply This?
- Understand our personal triggers and temptations.
- Establish boundaries to kept us out of sinful situations.
- Keep our minds occupied with spiritual things.
- Watch what we put into our bodies and minds (media, conversations, etc.).
- Hate sin.
- Find a community of like-minded believers to support us.
- Conquer fear by choosing Jehovah’s way.
- Focus on our transformation through kindness, gentleness, and self-sacrifice.
- Devote ourselves to the service of Jehovah.
- Be confident that Jehovah will do what He says.
- Meditate on the fact that Jehovah provided the sacrifice for Himself.
- Don’t just profess faith — be obedient.
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Father God. Thank You that You come to us where we are. Thank You that You don’t leave us there – You grow us to be more like You. Help us navigate through the times of testing. Amen.
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