Book of Genesis - Ch. 22, Vs. 10-24 (10/29/2000)

Genesis 22, verse 10. We had to leave last week in the middle of Abraham offering his son

Isaac, and we left it all in a rather precarious position.

So let's go back again and get our picture in our mind of Abraham and his son

Isaac. Isaac has been bound, and his father has placed him on the wood, on the altar.

And verse 10, and Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

He actually, Russell, took the knife in his hand. And the angel of the

Lord called unto him out of the heaven, let me read it again.

And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said,

Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I. What if Abraham had been hard of hearing?

What if he'd been like Fred and I? What if he had said, what did you say?

Why is it when God speaks, you never need to ask who is speaking? You know who it is.

You just know, don't you? Have any of you ever heard him audibly? Well, if you have, you'll never forget it.

And it'll be audible only to you. But it's for real.

And the reason you do not mistake it, no man ever spoke as this being does.

Now the Lord speaks to Abraham. He said, lay not thine hand upon the lead, neither do thou anything unto him.

For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

Go back to verse two. Bill read verse two.

And he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains.

Now go down and read verse four. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw the place afar off.

Now read verse five. And Abraham said unto his young men, Arise ye here, he asked, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

Now verse six. Was that what you read? That was five. And Abraham took the wood of his burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son, and took the fire in his hands and the knife, and went both of them together.

Now verse seven. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said,

My father, and he said, Here am I, my son, and he said. Now eight.

Go ahead. He said, Behold the fire and the burnt wood, but where is the lamp of the burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, thou wilt provide himself a lamp for the burnt offering.

So they both went to talk. So they both, so both, so went both of them together.

Now the ninth. And they came to the place which God had told them of.

And Abraham took the offering of his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Now, let me ask you. We read these verses individually.

God could have stopped him after any one of those verses, could he not? David, why didn't he?

It seemed like it could have been fulfilled just with any one of them. Well, it was obviously a test of Abraham's faith.

It was tested at Enoch. But it was tested to its ultimate at the exact time when

God stopped him. Yes, I think we've learned that God has a plan.

And he used this as an example of what he wanted himself.

Christ. So it's important to finish the whole process.

God didn't stop him until the final time. Well, that's certainly true. But, let's come back on earth for a moment.

Let's look at it from man's viewpoint. He could have stopped after any one of these verses, and it would have been effective.

But he did not. Does anybody see another lesson in this?

Yes. He was fully committed to both parties. Abraham was fully onward stroked.

In his mind, he was already done. He was fully committed.

He allowed the Father to find him. What do we learn from that?

That we can be holy. All right.

Greg, did it continue this far? Because we have

God's words. Now I know that you fear God. Did it have to continue that far for God to know that Abraham would have done it?

Then of what benefit was it? It was a benefit to Abraham. How could that be?

He's the one doing it. Well, he had to be pushed right to the edge. Why?

Because he hadn't really just started the act of doing it.

Brother Otis? Yes. I'll put it to that. Wait just a minute.

One of my ears quit. Now, start over.

First of all, who's speaking? All right. Sometimes we don't even know what we're capable of.

We're not God. We do not know the future. We enter into a task, or whatever it might be.

We do not know if we're going to be able to finish this. And God is showing

Abraham, See, you can do it. You can completely put your trust in me.

And after this, both Isaac and Abraham, Jude said,

Hey, yeah. What God says is right. I can do this.

All right, that's the point. Do we ever know beforehand if we can finish?

Why? Because we're not finished yet.

He does. So God brings us to the point where there is no other way of escape.

Was Abraham there? The only way he could have escaped was to go ahead and plunge the knife into his son.

Other than just abandoning everything and disobeying

God. And he wasn't about to do that. When he brings us to the point of no return,

Or the point of no escape,

It is only then that we can experience the greatest blessing out of it.

If he had quit after verse 2 or 5 or 6 or 9, There would not have been as much growth for Abraham, Spiritually, as there was carrying it all the way.

David, we're in the same position. We wish things would quit sometimes.

We wish I didn't have to face this. We would just rather not go through this.

In fact, I'd rather not think of it like that. But Greg, not until we go all the way,

Can we ever expect to receive very much spiritual growth.

Now, a person that is in that position, It's rather difficult to explain to them and make them understand,

Unless they're really, really strong in the spirit, That this is good for you.

It's like being run over by that proverbial truck, And jumping up and saying,

Boy, this was really good for me. And that just doesn't happen.

But in reality, it is. It took me years and years to learn that.

And never while I was going through it. And I'm not a whole lot different today.

Isaac willingly gave up his life just as who else? Christ, Jesus.

Well, God did know that there was a train coming.

You want an experience, come listen to that on these earphones. God do, but Abraham did not know, just as Roger was telling us.

So we do not know. Just as we do not until the time of our trial comes.

And not until after it's over can we really say, Yes, I did have the faith to do it.

Faith is not known ahead of time. We think we have faith, But you'll never know until after the experience.

13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, And behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Bill, Isaac's not talking during this. Why? He had,

I guess, agreed to go along with his father, And also had the setting up of the prophecy,

But he wasn't. That's right. That's right.

Isaac could have complained. He could have complained before they ever left home. But you talk about a child being raised in loving obedience.

It must have been Isaac. 33 years old. And, Pat, he could have easily overcome his 133 -year -old father,

I would think. Abraham called the name of that place

Jehovah -Jireh. Or Jehovah -sees. As it is said to this day,

In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, And the angel of the

Lord called unto Abraham out of the heaven a second time. The angel of the

Lord is who? Pre -incarnate.

And he said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, Because thou hast done this thing,

And hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, That in blessing

I will bless thee, And in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven,

And as the sand which is upon the seashore, And the seed shall possess the gate of his enemy.

I thought it was interesting that it is the gate, not the gates. Alright, he said,

By myself I have sworn. David, who else could he have sworn by?

Why? He is the highest. He could swear by no greater than himself.

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,

Because thou hast obeyed my voice. And in thy seed.

Why didn't he say in thy seeds? Debbie? He was referring to Jesus.

That's right. In thy seed, in the man

Jesus the Christ, Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

Now Greg, how can it be all nations when there are seeds of Satan in all nations?

In other words, is the seed of Satan blessed by this?

What? Well, we got a good argument started.

Alright, any other thoughts? But it means that God's elect is scattered, or so I should say, throughout all the nations of the world, not just Israel.

But all of the nations. Alright. And so in that sense, all nations are blessed.

That would be every human being, speaking of all nations. Well, in another sense, your mother is right.

Because they have life, they have opportunity of doing things.

Even though they are ordained to serve Satan, they still are among us.

Maybe a left -handed blessing. At this point,

I was supposed to have a can of sand. Can you visualize just a small cup of sand?

Just pretty old sand. I was going to pour it out here and have

June come up and count the grains of sand. But since I don't have the sand,

June, you don't need to come up. But imagine in your mind of her sitting here for hours and days of counting the little grains of sand in that small cup.

Yet, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have done this.

Other places he is told that his descendants will be like the sand of the seashore, stars of the heaven.

Meaning that you cannot number them. Man is unable to count that far.

Bill, how far can man count? Pretty far. Which man?

Bill. Bill can count probably. What? Are there words to express it?

Well, it also means that you wouldn't live long enough to count them. Brother Buckner.

Yes. It takes about 75 years to count the grains of sand in three minutes, big time.

How many years? 75. I'm 78 now.

You'd had to start pretty young, wouldn't you? Some of the things we discuss.

It came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying,

Behold, Melchizedek, she has also born children unto thy brother

Nahor. Now this is a bit of history that has told us to show that God in his providence is preparing a suitable wife for Isaac.

And in the next, not the next chapter, but the next one, we'll read that story.

The first boy's name was Huzz. She had Huzz and Buzz.

And Camille, the father of Aram.

And Cassid, Hazel, Pildosh, Yadlof, and Bethuel.

And Bethuel begat Rebekah. These eight

Melchizedek did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. So he's going to marry in the family, it looks like.

And his concubine, whose name was Rumah. She also bear

Teboth, Tebok, excuse me. Don't want to get them mixed up.

Gohan, Talish, and Makar. Oh, Mak, Mak, Mak.

We're going to stop with that. Our day has been long.

And we're going to start with chapter 23 next time. And it'll be a short chapter.

So we'll probably get in a little bit into 24. Is there anything from anyone now?

Yes. All right. Say that again.

Oh. And he doesn't have to break arms to do it.

Anything else? Worthwhile. Boy, leave them laughing.

Well, let's stand. Virg, would you dismiss us today? Father, I thank you for this day.

Well, somebody needs to put on this hood.