The question here is this. All of us want to be calm, don't we? But we all struggle with having the right strategy or even any strategy in dealing with stress, tension, disappointment, illness, all those things. And so the goal of this season is to help us to know that God is the one who ultimately brings calm into our lives. But we've just got to look to him for that.
So if you're ready for this episode, let's get started. All right, so my question again is, how can you experience calm or how can we be calm in such a busy world that we're in? So this is a follow up to our first episode on Abraham. There's so much between God and Abraham that it's really hard to not do two episodes. In fact, I mean, you could do like 100episodes on all of the themes and ideas that come out just with this story between Abraham and God and how there are so many layers of things we can learn.
But I'm focusing in on just two things. So last week, we focused on disappointment and how we aren't calm when we'redisappointed. We're always looking for something to fulfill us. And God, in his mercy, he wants to be that thing, that person who fulfills us ultimately. And then we frame out the rest of our lives by looking through the lens of God. And so that was this disappointment of saying, hey, I don't have a son.
I don't have an heir to my legacy. And now we're going to see that God is going to provide that legacy. The thing that.And the person that not only Abraham but Sarah really wanted, that was this was their greatest need. Most treasureddesire, and they communicated it to God. But now there's going to be a question of, are you willing to sacrifice that one thing so that you can know me better and on a deeper level?
And so we really get a sense of the relational connection that God really desires with us. So that's where we are today.Genesis 21:22. So at the beginning of 21, it says this. Now, the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said. The Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. At the very time God had promised him.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now, the word Isaac in Hebrew means he laughs. And so there's kind of a double meaning there, that there was lack of belief from Sarah,remember, who laughed and said, I mean, we're not going to have a kid, like we're pushing 100 here.
So there was a sense of laughing at God in mockery. And then the second meaning here is that fulfillment happens. And so joy in laughter by having a son. And even more so, if you think about it, the immediate application I see in my Bible studies that I've talked about, the immediate thing there that you see is that disappointment is followed with joy. And so not that that, you know, it doesn't happen in every situation because some situations don't play out like this.
And like we talked about in the first episode is that the calm was not so much that Abraham and Sarah had received thegift or blessing that they really wanted, but there was this faith that God gave to Abraham. And in that moment where it says that Abraham trusted in God and God credited it to him as righteousness, there is this faith now, this faith, deep faith relationship that Abraham had with God.
And so that's where his calm was coming from. And so now he's. It's been almost 25 years because he was 75 then. And now it says that Abraham is 100 years old. And it says, Sarah said, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. And she added, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have borne him a son in his old age.
Now Abraham's faith, we can see in the last part of chapter 21, grows immensely. He has the desire of his heart. This was his most important thing that he really wanted. Was to have a son, to have his own son, and to have an heir that came from him and from Sarah. And so all of a sudden we have this answer to prayer, this blessing, who is Isaac?
And so there's joy and there is satisfaction, and there's great blessing around a mother, a father, and a child. And so it says in chapter 22, sometime later, God tested Abraham. And so there's not a definite time frame that happens here. The bestguess from other researchers and commentators is that Isaac is well above the age of being a child. He is actually probablyaround the age of 25.
And so we have this interesting dynamic between a father who is approaching the age, in this case of 125, and a son who is 25. All right, so there is 20, 25 years of relational connection between Isaac and between Abraham and between God. And so the question to ask that, really, if you think about it, the title that most Bibles give to this section is called Abraham Tested.
So what was being tested here? It was his faith. And so Abraham is living the great life. He's in this place of wealth. He'sgot the answer to his prayers, and now all of a sudden, he's going to find a crisis. And I think we can relate to this very easily because it's interesting, isn't it, that human nature, things are going well. Many of us, whether we're optimistic or pessimistic, we're sort of waiting.
We're saying, is life too good right now? Is something about to happen to challenge me? And I think in this case, we get the sense that God doesn't want us to just depend on ourselves and the physical, natural world that we live in. And so this is going to be a spiritual challenge. And it looks like it's a physical challenge. And it is, because Abraham at this point has really wanted a physical answer.
He's asked for a son, he's been given that son. And so he's living in the promise of that response from God. It's like animmediate response. And most of us say, gosh, if God would just talk to me today and tell me what's going on, then I would know him better. But in this case, we start to see that God was testing Abraham to see what was Abraham's love for God.
We already see what it was for Isaac because he poured out his heart about that way back in Genesis 12. So this is 10 chapters later, and Abraham now has this connection with God. But we are going to see how this connection is going to go to a deeper level because of how God is going to test Abraham's faith. And so it is a spiritual test, but he uses a physical way to test Abraham.
And so that is the question you want to think about, is what was Abraham's love for God? And in an immediateapplication point, you can ask yourself, what is my love for God? What would I do? What would I sacrifice for him? And so Sometime later, verse one, in chapter 22, God tested Abraham. He said to him, abraham, here I am. He replied, and soimmediately, look at that personal, spiritually relational expression.
He doesn't bow down and go prostrate and do a bunch of ceremonial or ritual things. This is a highly relational God that Abraham is talking to. All right, no sacrificial system set up, though Abraham has sacrificed and worshiped God and been thankful to him. It's a conversation. And don't miss that here in the Old Testament, because it is so key to understanding how God relates to us in conversation.
Verse 2. Then God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah, sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains. I will tell you about. What I want to make clear is this, is that this chapter in Genesis does not demand that God is not demanding a literal human sacrifice. We don't find that out yet until the end, but he's not demanding a literal human sacrifice.
It's more of this spiritual sacrifice of a denial of something extremely important to Abraham. All right, so I don't want you to be confused in this sense that all of a sudden, hey, wait a minute. Why is God asking about human sacrifice now? Human sacrifice was happening at that time and also later, and still happens in some religions. God is trying to show that he is not into that.
He's into life because he's the creator of life. And he is the one who wants us to have this connection with him so that we can have spiritual life. He sees that it is not just about physical life and the physical things that we want in life and feel that we need, but that we need this spiritual life that changes us from the inside out. And so he puts this in front of Abraham.
And so there's this first response of Abraham is not to argue. But in verse three, it says, so early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. So he's making provisions to follow through with what God had asked him. Now we have this interesting view into Abraham's decision here to actually go through with taking his son up onto a mountain.Tying him down to an altar and literally going to sacrifice him.
He was that willing to submit to God. Now, if you look over in the New Testament, in Hebrews 11, 17, 19, we have someinsight on that. So in Hebrews 11, 17,19, it says this by faith. Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. And figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. So it'sinteresting to get some insight into this faith that Abraham had. He didn't run away. Like we will see, you know, later in the Old Testament with Jonah, how Jonah was in crisis and said, I don't want anything to do with this. Totally the opposite with Abraham, this expression of faith is second to Jesus alone, I think, in many respects, because not only this wasn't just like some plot of land that he had inherited or he had received from God.
This is his son, this is his child. And any parents that are listening to this can understand the love you have for your child, whether you are close to them or not. You have this physical and really spiritual connection to your child in a way thatyou cannot express or explain in any other relationship. It's very different because that person is someone that God has created through you.
And so Abraham's faith, we have to imagine for a second, Abraham's faith must have grown immeasurably. Ok, so that. Or so much that he believed, even if he had to slay his only son, that God would actually raise him from the dead. Sothere's this faith that goes beyond this life, beyond this physical connection that Abraham had with Isaac. And so in the path that we're looking at, I want you to think about that concept of how are you so tied to this physical world that you and I both are unwilling to sacrifice the things that we love to God so that we might have a closer relationship with him.
That's a tough question. But in this case, we get to see someone who is not super spiritual. He's just a wealthy guy that God has chosen to bless. And now all of a sudden, that spiritual life and the responses that he makes to God are coming out. And so we see early the next morning, he saddles up the donkey and he took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.
So he doesn't leave Isaac behind. He's following through with what God has asked him to do. When he cut enough woodfor the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. So three days passes because we know that in verse four it says on the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Significance there again, the third day Jesus rose from the dead.
Three is a powerful number in that sense for Christians. But there is this interesting notice there. And in another place there's kind of a prophetic connection to the substitutionary atonement is the big word that we talk about, that there will be a substitute sacrifice for our willingness to sacrifice. Jesus is the substitutionary atonement for us and for our salvation. He's the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the world as, as John the Baptist spoke.
And in this case we are going to see how that story connects here with Abraham and Isaac. And so Abraham said to hisservants, verse 5, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there, we will worship and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. And he himself carried the fireand the knife.
And so here you have an old dad, a 20 year old son, who is able to carry things strong enough to resist his father. But what we see here is not only the faith of Abraham listening to God, but now we have the faith of Isaac in cooperating with hisdad, who he knows trusts God. And so we see a threefold relational connection here. God to Abraham, Abraham to Isaac,and Isaac to Abraham, and now Isaac to God.
So he believes and is connected so much and trusts his dad so much that he believes, hey, I can trust my dad because he knows God and we can trust in God. Now that's what I want to put out there too, is that God doesn't just flippantly ask us to trust him. He's going to prove to them that he is worthy of our trust. And even more so we can be calmed by God because he proves to us here, right here, that he can be trusted.
So let's finish the story together back at the end of verse six. So as the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, Father? Yes, my son? Abraham replied, the fire and wood are here. Isaac said, but where is thelamb for the burnt offering? And this is what is Critically important. Verse 8, Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb.
So he wasn't referring to his son. See, Abraham believed God would actually provide a substitute like we've been talking about, not his own Son. And so even in that moment, I think we can conclude that Abraham had already sacrificed hisson. But he carries out what God asked him to do. And so he says, the lamb for the burnt offering, my son God will provide. And the two of them went on together.
And that shows us that both of their faith, both of their willingness to continue. And when they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altaron top of the wood. And with that act, Abraham had really sacrificed his son to God in his heart. And that is what satisfied this requirement that God had asked him to do.
He said, your one and only son, I want you to offer him because I want your heart. And again, this was not God saying, I want human sacrifice. He just wanted to know that Abraham was willing to follow him no matter how difficult it would be. And that's what he wants from us. God wants us to know that we'll follow him because he doesn't know that he has allowed us to make these decisions and to believe in him without being coerced and forced to do it.
He won't do that. He asks for our wholehearted trust. And that's what he had asked Abraham to do. And that's what he's asking you to do today, you and me, to have that kind of trust in him that he will come through, that he will provide, that he will bring us to that place of calm. And then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham. Here I am, he replied. And this is, think about it, this is an extremely relational moment. Again, this whole section, chapter 22, is this super relational moment between Abraham and God. And really also, as I said, between Abraham and Isaac, this trust relationship between parent, child, and it is this trust relationship between Isaac now and God, and it strengthens all of their relationships.
The angel of the Lord says, do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now, I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Now don't skip past that too quick. God says, now I know, because you are willing to do it. You didn't have to do it. You didn't have to actually do the sacrifice.
It's just that you were willing to follow me to that place. And so as we talked about in the first podcast of this season, we talked about this desire, this thing that we want in our lives. And then when God provides that for us, it's then thismoment of crisis where we all may have this point where then he says, yeah, I gave you that, but I want to know thatyou're willing to not hold it so tightly that you become more selfish, more self centered and you crush the thing that I've given you.
I want to know that you will actually treat that person as I would with freedom and with love and with kindness and with gentleness and so that that person can grow and thrive. And so that you can grow and thrive and continue to follow Me and continue to do the work that I want you to do. And it's amazing, in this moment, God brings Abraham back to hisknees.
And I think that that's the position that he wants us to be in when he gives us that sense of calm, when he brings his peace into our lives. And again, I've said this multiple times, this is not a one time thing. It's a daily process. You know, inRomans 12, Paul encourages us to daily offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. And so God knows that he fears God, that he would not withhold his son.
And then in verse 13, we see that God actually does provide. He doesn't just say he's going to, but it says, Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. And that's the place, I want you to stop there for a second because that's the place where Abraham, I think, received this gift of being calm. Because if you can imagine thestress, the anxiety, the buildup to this place that God has asked you to surrender the one thing that you treasure the most in this world, the one relationship that you value the most, that is the most important to you.
And he says, no, I want you to sacrifice it. Because I want your relationships to begin to develop around me and not just you. Because you're not big enough. We're not big enough to hold relationships together, but God is. And when he is in the center of our relationships with everyone we know, with our spouse, with our kids, with our friends, with our coworkers, people that we don't know, when he is actually in us, working in us, and our heart is connected to his heart, then our motivation changes.
It isn't about selfish fulfillment or desires. It's about selflessness. And not so that we gain some kind of award in that moment. Yes, there is reward in heaven, we should celebrate that. But that's not the reason that God blesses us. It's thissense that if our relationship is centered in God and that he is there, then the motivation changes in all of our relationships. And if we are willing to live that way, that's when calmness doesn't just come occasionally, it comes repeatedly.
And it becomes a practice that we can actually thrive in and experience. Even in those relationships where you think it will never work out, because if the power of God is in it, then it can. And that's how you can pray for your enemies, those people who have wronged you, those people who have hurt you, and you can grow even in those things. Because Jesus says nothing is impossible with God.
Nothing is. The angel of the Lord said that to Mary, right? Because nothing is impossible with God. And so Abraham, I believe in verse 13, experiences this calm, and it's this climax moment, and he went over and he took the ram andsacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. And now it's this place of worship. So Abraham called that place. TheLord will provide. And to this day, it is said, on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.
And then there's this reassurance of God's promise that he gives to us because he gave it to Abraham. And it's in verse 15, the angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I swear by myself, God is creating an oath by his own name and is staking his own reputation on fulfilling this. I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.
Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies. And through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have a obeyed me. Then Abraham returned to his servants and they set off together for Beersheba.And Abraham stayed in Beersheba. I want to offer this to you. I want to close this with a couple questions. Number one, this whole chapter in this whole podcast today, I think, answers this question.
What was Abraham's love for God? What was his love for God? And God tested himself so that he could see what his love was. And we have to now turn that back on ourselves and say, okay, that was for Abraham. But when we read these stories, it's really about God asking us that question. What is your love for God? Are you willing to sacrifice anything for him to experience his love, to trust in him and to follow Him?
When we do that, the result is this calm it's this calmness that only God can provide in a relationship when we believe in Him. And so calm is the blessing of a deeper relationship with God. It's a byproduct of that relationship. And yeah, we have to come back to it and remember it and ask him. Let me experience that again and again. But that's where it is possible, because we see that Abraham experienced it.
We know that he trusted. And we know and can see in this, if we look at it close enough, that he experienced the calmingpeace of God because he trusted in him. I hope this has encouraged you to consider that, to think about what is your love for God. Are you just still following along? Have you not believed yet? And maybe you have really good reasons for not.
But let's push back on that for just a second and say, if God brought Abraham to this point and he fulfilled the promise for Abraham through this very dramatic event, couldn't he do the same for you in this moment? And that he didn't even ask Abraham to do this before Abraham trusted in him. Remember, Abraham had already had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness way back in Genesis, chapter 15.
And so at this point, Abraham had been walking with God. And this was just a testimony to this amazing relationship thatAbraham had with God. And he wants that with you, and he wants that with me. But I just want to ask you that today. What is your love for God and your love for God and your connection to God is dependent on how you experience thiscalmness that God wants to provide for you.
He wants to give you this same sense of peace in your life that he gave to Abraham. But are you willing to receive it? Are you willing to sacrifice the things in your life so that God will then be in the center? And not just the things, not even just the most important relationships, but that your one most important relationship would be with your heavenly Father, with Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, that God himself would be that person who then all of your relationships would flow out of and through.
And I just want to tell you that's where the calmness comes from. It's not from me. It's not from anybody else, is from our Lord and our Savior. And he wants you to experience that today. So I just. I hope you're encouraged. I hope you can think about this and trust that the living God loves you and wants this experience for you. All right, thanks so much for listeningtoday, and I'll see you next time.
