Genesis 22:13
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One of the common expressions that I had to learn after coming here to the U.S. was I am at my wits and I came to the U.S. in 2001. I came for my sophomore year of college, and I flew through the many layovers and flights. Probably after 24 hours, I arrived here.
My friend picked me up at the airport, took me to the campus. I went to my soccer coach's office, and we talked for a little bit. And then he said, Allison, I forgot to tell you one thing. you have to take the ACT test today. And if you don't do it, you're not going to be able to register for your classes. I was at my wits' end.
Our text tonight describes a situation where God tested Abraham and he faced his wits' end. So open your Bibles to Genesis 22 and the verse tonight for our devotional is verse 13. Genesis 22, verse 13, you can find in front of your bulletin or on page 16. As you find your way there, let me catch you up on this story briefly.
The previous verses in chapter 22 of Genesis tell us that God tested Abraham and asked him to offer his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved. By this time, Ishmael had already departed from the household of Abraham. So God tested Abraham and asked him to kill Isaac as a birth offering. Now keep in mind here again that this is the son that God had promised.
To Abraham, he waited several years. In fact, when Isaac was born, Abraham was about 100 years old. God directed them to Mount Moriah. And as they went forward to the place of the burnt offering, Isaac carried the wood. Abraham had the fire and the knife. And as he prepared for the burnt offering and tied up Isaac, he picked up his knife and was about to kill his son.
And then the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham, and this is our verse, and Abraham lift up his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. I believe the main idea of this text and the main idea for our devotions tonight is this. God's provision displays his goodness and our dependence on him.
God's provision display his goodness and our dependence on him. I want to meditate with you on this text and break out this main idea in a few points. Point number one, God's goodness in provision is ultimately independent from us. God's goodness in provision is ultimately independent from us. We see in the text clearly that the provision of the ram in this story showing up out of nowhere, that shows God's goodness in provision completely independent from Abraham and Isaac.
Now, if we zoom out and we think about Abraham's life as a whole, we see again and again God taking the initiative to display his glory, his goodness in Abraham's life. First, he created Abraham in the line of Shem. Just like we do not choose our parents and our lineage, Abraham did not either. And yet God placed him in the line of Shem.
He took him out of the land of the Chaldeans in Babylon and chose him and promised him that all peoples of the earth would be blessed through him. All those truths again and again show that God took the initiative to display his goodness and his glory apart and independently from Abraham. Abraham did not have any saying and he did not devise either this test in chapter 22.
We see in verse 1 of chapter 22 that God was the one who called and summoned Abraham and said, I have a test for you. God was the designer and the author of this extremely difficult task in Abraham's life. Therefore, we see God displaying his goodness and glory even through this task by blessing Abraham independently from him. Now, brothers and sisters, our text puts the spotlight again on God's goodness, on God's provision.
Now, goodness is not one part or one portion of God, as if we could slice God's attributes in his goodness, his holiness, his love, his justice, and so on. No, God is not made out of parts, and his goodness is his essence. He's infinitely good, and his goodness does not diminish or increase based on who we are, what we do, or what we don't do.
He is good independent from us. That's why we see Jesus affirming in the New Testament that no one is good except God alone. because the good that we see in God is the standard of goodness. When I got engaged with Christina, we had about six weeks to prepare our wedding. We had graduated from college in May and I proposed, I asked her to marry me.
She said yes. And we had that short amount of time because I had accepted a position to be a youth pastor in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now, with that small time of preparation, and in those six weeks, we saw God showing up in our lives and displaying his goodness to us, apart from us, over and over again. One day, one of our friends, a Mexican friend, he owned a small Mexican restaurant.
He came to me and said, Alison, is anyone taking care of your rehearsal dinner? And at that point, I talked with Cristina. He said, no. He said, I'll take care of that for you guys. We were like, sure. Authentic Mexican food for free. We signed up for that. But then a few days later, this same Mexican friend, he said, Allison, that's not my gift for you. Have you taken care of your honeymoon yet?
And I was like, nope. He said, I'll take care of that for you as well. Again, here was a friend who at that time, and to this day, I don't know truly if he's a believer or not, Showing up and God using him to display his goodness and glory apart and independent from us. As you think about your life, in what ways have you seen God's goodness showing up in your life and displaying his glory and goodness?
Take inventory of that in your life, of his blessings in your life, and bring those things to mind when you're tempted to doubt God's goodness. This takes us to point number two, God's goodness in provision in our weakness and suffering. God's goodness in provision in our weakness and suffering. There is no doubt that our story shows that Abraham and Isaac, they faced distress and agony.
The text tells us again that this was the son that Abraham loved over and over again. This was the son of God's promise, and God asked Abraham to kill him. Now, I think if we're honest with ourselves, we probably would have said, God, why? Don't do this to me, please. I can't do this. And yet, what we see in the text is that both Abraham and Isaac, since Isaac was able to carry the wood up to the mountain, probably he was a teenager here.
We don't know for sure. But, you know, a young boy would struggle with that. So Isaac could have said, Dad, no way that you're going to kill me. And yet we don't see that in the text. We see them depending on God and waiting on God. And we see also their weakness shown in this story. They needed God to help them in their time of need.
We see another example in the scriptures of another person also facing a test from God. And that's the life of Job. We see that God allowed Satan to test Job. Job lost his belongings, his children, and his health. His wife came to him and said, hey, why don't you just curse God and die? And yet, in both of those tests of Abraham and Job, we see scriptures actually telling us that God was teaching them and using those tests to grow their faith and their delight in God.
Listen to what Hebrews 11 says about Abraham and about our story and our text. He said, the author of Hebrews says this, Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. And listen to what Job said after passing through his test and trial.
He said this, I know that you, God, can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be worth it. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. I had heard of you by the hearing of the year, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.
So God tested them to display his glory, his goodness, and for them to taste and see that the Lord is good. As we heard this morning, I believe we could say about Abraham and Job what we heard from Paul. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Both of them live their lives and their callings in a way that would glorify God, worthy of the gospel.
Brothers and sisters, embrace the words from James when he says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. We have seen God's goodness is ultimately independent from us. God's goodness in our weakness and suffering. And finally, God's goodness in provision in our salvation.
Our story, our text points forward. It points forward to the ultimate display of God's goodness and our complete dependence on Him. Abraham, Isaac, Allison, and you, we have rebelled against God. And we deserve His judgment. We cannot save ourselves from this judgment because we are guilty. We need someone else to take our place. We need a substitute. We need somebody else to be offered on the altar in our place.
But here's the good news. Listen very carefully. John, when he saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus became man and was obedient to the point of death and death on the cross. And he rose again, conquering sin, death, and the devil, so that everyone, everyone who would believe in him and turn away from his sins would have eternal life.
Friend, what are you waiting for? Trust in Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Let's pray. Father, we praise you, Because you are good. There is none like you. You chose to display your glory, your goodness, by creating us and by saving a people for yourself. Father, we confess that many times we live our lives putting ourselves on the spotlight.
And we live our lives many times not depending on you. Forgive us for our sins and help us to glorify you by communion with you and desiring to glorify you with our lives and everything that we do. We pray those things in Christ's name. Amen.