Transcript: Verse by Verse Study – Genesis Chapter 21:1 to Chapter 22:10 – Zac Poonen

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You see the same principle in what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, that if you seek God’s kingdom first instead of being anxious about your own needs, you’ll find that your own needs get met automatically. That is a principle in the kingdom of God, which is foolishness to the natural man.

But the natural man says, you gotta take care of your own needs if you want them to be met. God says, no. God says, you take care of My kingdom and I’ll take care of your needs. And this is the mark of faith. To live by faith is to say, Lord, I shall not worry about my needs. I shall only be taken up with the affairs of Your kingdom. My needs will just get met automatically. Whereas the man of unbelief doesn’t say that. He says, I have to take care of myself. And that is how most Christians live, even most believers.

And that is why you find some believers even after so many years, they’re spiritually they are still immature. There we learn a lesson from Abraham’s life.

God’s Appointed Time

And we read in verse 2, so Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. There is an appointed time for the fulfillment of God’s will. In doing the will of God, there are two things we need to know. One is, what is God’s will? And second, when does He want to do it? Or when does He want us to do it? It’s as important to know the time as it is to know what God’s will is.

For example, when people see God’s will in marriage, the person is important and the time is important. Or concerning any other event, if we can believe that there is an appointed time for what God has promised. Let me read here, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. And that appointed time was twenty-five years after God first told him that in his seed all the families of the earth will be blessed.

In Hebrews chapter 6, we’re told in a commentary on this event. Hebrews 6 verse 12, it says, don’t be lazy or sluggish. And what is the mark of spiritual laziness? Laziness in the kingdom of God is not the same as laziness in the world. A lot of people who are very active in distributing tracts and visiting houses, they may think they are not lazy, but in God’s eyes, they may still be lazy because spiritual laziness is marked by unbelief and impatience.

And it says here, don’t be lazy, but imitators of those who through faith and patience. This is the mark of a person who is freed from laziness. He’s got faith and patience. In the New Testament, faith and patience are the opposite of laziness, not just a lot of hard work. Because it says here, don’t be lazy, but have faith and patience. In the world, say don’t be lazy, but hard working. In the New Testament, it says don’t be lazy, but have faith and patience to inherit the promises.

Don’t be sluggish. Then it quotes Abraham when God made the promise to Abraham. It says in verse 15, thus having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. And we know that that patient waiting was for twenty-five years. And that word of God says that Abraham patiently waited.

We don’t read that in the Old Testament, but we know from this verse that in all those years, patiently waited. He didn’t keep pestering God. He patiently waited, and he received the promise. And he says, there is an example for us to follow, that when you have laid hold of God for something and you don’t get the answer tomorrow, there’s no need to get discouraged. We’re told to remember Abraham.

When many people seek for victory over sin, they give up because they didn’t get it within one week. Or they ask for something else. They say prayer doesn’t work because they expect everything within two days or three days or maximum a week or a month. Abraham waited for twenty-five years and it says here, if you are not willing to wait to receive what God has promised, you are spiritually sluggish or lazy. Spiritually lazy to lay hold of God and wait until He grants the promise to you.

And so there is a fixed and appointed time for everything that God has promised for His people. I believe there are many people who began to seek for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, then who stopped out for a while because they say, didn’t receive it. Spiritually lazy, sluggish. No. There must be faith and patience to lay hold of the promises.

At the appointed time when God had spoken, He fulfilled that promise. God has a fixed time for everything.

Sarah’s Faith

And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Specified that Sarah bore to him because in Hebrews 11 verse 11, we read about Sarah’s faith. Hebrews 11 verse 11, by faith even Sarah herself received ability or power to conceive, supernatural ability to have a child even beyond the proper time of life since she considered Him faithful who had promised.

Now, this is a faith for God changing a physical function inside the body. Medical people would have written off Sarah and said, No hope. Please discharge her. This is a condition that cannot be cured. That is her condition was she wanted to have a child and the doctor said, please discharge her, hopeless case. Cannot impossible. And then she had faith. And it says, God, in the margin it says, she received power for the laying down of seed in her body. That means she received a supernatural power by faith to change a physical function within the body, which all the doctors said is impossible. That was because it was God’s will.

And she had faith for that. And we know that her faith was not all that perfect that she never doubted. In fact, at one stage, she even laughed and wondered whether it would happen. We needn’t be discouraged if we have a few ups and downs like that provided we lay hold of God. We can also receive power from God in situations where we may where others may think it’s impossible.

So when we think of the faith of Sarah and we read in the Old Testament, we know it was not such a perfect thing. It was coupled with some unbelief, but still she laid hold of God according to her understanding. And so there is an example for us. It was not only Abraham’s faith. It was Sarah’s faith too.

The New Testament tells us that. And that’s a wonderful thing that both Abraham and Sarah had faith. Despite their ups and downs, they laid hold of God. And therefore, the appointed time God could give them what He had promised. An example for husbands and wives today to trust God together to lay hold of what He has promised for them.

Abraham’s Careful Obedience

Then verse 4, notice again, “then,” the word then. Abraham circumcised his son when he was eight days old as God had commanded him. He doesn’t forget that. He doesn’t get so excited over the birth of Isaac, get so excited over something that he’d waited for twenty-five years and he finally got that he forgets to obey God. No.

He’s excited and thankful that God has done some things for him, but he is also very exact to know that his son must be circumcised. He didn’t forget that. He didn’t wake up on the ninth day and say, oh, I forgot. I should have done something yesterday. See, I’ve come to see something about our memory.

We tend to remember those things which we value very much. And we tend to forget those things on which we don’t place much value. It’s not really a problem with our memory. It’s a problem with the fact that we don’t place value on certain things. For example, a man may give a promise to someone. But he may not take this matter of giving promises seriously. And therefore, he may completely forget about it. It’s not his memory. It’s there’s a far more serious problem in his life, but he doesn’t take the giving of a promise seriously. That’s it.

He may blame his memory. Abraham could have blamed his memory. He says, I’m hundred years old. I forgot that the eighth day I should have circumcised him. It’s the ninth or tenth day today. No. He remembered because that reveals to us that he had a certain attitude towards obedience, where he knew this is very important. If God said the eighth day, I can’t do it on the ninth, I can’t wake up on the tenth day, I have to do it on the eighth day. In other words, it is in his mind, in all the excitement of the childbearing, he says the eighth day, I’ve got to watch for that.

There was an attitude towards God’s commandments, which we see there in Abraham’s life, which is an example for us to follow. In all things, to take God’s word very exactly. And many people who say they have a poor memory, I believe their memory can improve tremendously if they only take certain things seriously in life. For example, if the governor of Karnataka or the chief minister were to say to any of us, I want to meet you on the, say, the thirteenth of this month, I don’t think any of us will forget it. It’s almost impossible because that is a very important thing for us, the thirteenth. I’ll be looking forward to the thirteenth.

But when it is some other thing, which I don’t think is so important, I can forget it. And I believe that’s a test of whether we can say we value one another as brothers and sisters, but in these matters we know whether we value one another or not. If I value a brother and I have said something, I would certainly try my best to do what I have said or to tell him that I’m not able to do it. So I don’t want anybody to get under condemnation on this, but it’s a good idea to check up whether the problem is really with our memory or whether that we take so many things in life so lightly, like the promises we give or the commandments of God. Abraham on the eighth day, he circumcised exactly as God had commanded him.

Strangers and Exiles on Earth

And that circumcision was the cutting off of the flesh. I believe it was also a testimony in that sense that Abraham did not belong to this world because at that time circumcision was a covenant, sign of a covenant, which is later on given to Israel that you are My people and not the people of the world like all the others in the world. All the other people in the world were not circumcised, but you are because you’re a special people for Me. And that was the meaning. And that is what we read in Hebrews 11 of the way Abraham lived during his earthly life.

And that really came home to my heart when I read it in Hebrews 11 and verse 13. Speaking about Abraham and Sarah, which says all these died in faith. Hebrews 13, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, that they belong to God, that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things, make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own, and that was not Canaan.

Indeed, if they had been seeking, thinking of that country from which they came out, that is Ur of the Chaldees, they would have had opportunity to return. If Abraham sat there and began to think of his relatives and think of all the other comforts he had given up in Ur of the Chaldees, now he had to live in a tent. In Ur of the Chaldees, he did not live in a tent. He built in he lived in a mud building or a solid permanent building. But he didn’t think of all those comforts. If he had, he would have had opportunity to return, it says.

He’s speaking about Abraham. That if there was some time in his life Abraham had the attitude that Lot’s wife had, he could have packed up his bags and gone back. But he didn’t do that. But as it is, they desire a better country and essentially a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.

Genesis 21:1-22:10 (Continued)

That is why he called himself the God of Abraham because Abraham sought for a country that was above. And that’s why he called himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And He has prepared a city for them and that teaches us how God calls Himself by any believer’s name. When He sees that a certain believer really does not have his interest on anything on this earth, but is really seeking treasure in heaven, God is not ashamed to be called the God of that believer. And circumcision was in one sense, a testimony to that fact that they were an exclusive people separate from the rest of the world.

Isaac’s Birth and Ishmael’s Mockery

Genesis 21:5, Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have born him a son in his old age? And the child grew and was weaned.

And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. And that must have been a few years. And then we read that Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which is Ishmael, whom she had born to Abraham, mocking, laughing at Isaac. Maybe, you know, Isaac may have been just a small boy and Ishmael was at least 13, 14 years older than Isaac. And it’s amazing that a boy of 18 or 19 should be teasing his five year old younger brother.

And yet that’s what he was doing. He should have been ashamed of himself that he’s so old and he’s teasing this little five year old boy. And there is a picture of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Ishmael mocks Isaac. That which is born according to the flesh mocks that which is born according to the spirit.

And that which is born according to the flesh is a young, strong, hefty 19 year old man. And that which is born according to the spirit, according to the eyes of the world is a weak, helpless thing. And yet God is with that little boy and not with this mighty, hefty young man. The conflict between the flesh and the spirit. And therefore, she said to Abraham, drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this woman of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.

See, there was no conflict until Isaac was born. And that is a picture of the fact that there is no conflict in our life till we are born again. It’s only after we are born again and something of God comes into us that this conflict begins between the flesh and the spirit. It is also a picture of the old covenant and the new covenant. Ishmael is a picture of the old covenant which came first, but which was abolished, cast out as Ishmael was cast out.

And Isaac is a picture of the new covenant, which is born not by the strength of man, but by faith in the supernatural working of God. And the matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. But God said to Abraham, do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid. Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. For through Isaac, your descendants will be named and of the son of a maid, I will make a nation also because he is your descendant.

Abraham’s Immediate Obedience

So Abraham rose early in the morning. Notice the immediacy of Abraham’s obedience, the immediate obedience that there was in Abraham’s life. God spoke to him at night, and he got up in the morning and he obeyed. That seems to be a characteristic of Abraham’s life. We said before how when God speaks something, if a person has to think about it for a week before he obeys, usually it never goes well with such a believer.

You find that all through his life that believer will be like that. He’ll take one week or one year to obey God. But you see an attitude in Abraham that when God spoke something at night early in the morning, he was immediate to obey. That’s what made Abraham the man of faith that he became. He rose early in the morning, took bread and the skin of water, and this was painful.

Remember, it’s not easy to send away your firstborn son knowing you’ll never see him again for the rest of your life. Gave them to Hagar, put them on her shoulder and gave her the boy and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. When you turn to Galatians chapter 4 verse 21 to 31, you read there a New Testament commentary on this Old Testament incident. Galatians chapter 4 and verses 21 to 31.

The Old and New Covenant

He’s contrasting the Old Testament with the New Testament. And he’s not writing to Jews, he’s writing to born again believers who have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And he’s telling them something how the letter to Galatians teaches us one thing, that spirit baptized, born again believers can live under the old covenant. In fact, the vast majority of spirit baptized, born again believers today are living under the old covenant. They haven’t understood grace.

They haven’t understood the new covenant. And here, Paul says through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tell me, he says, you who want to be under the old covenant, don’t you listen to what the old covenant says or what is written in the old testament. What is written in the old testament? He says it is written that Abraham had two sons. One by the bondwoman Hagar, and the other by the free woman Sarah.

You know that Hagar was a slave, that’s why she’s called a bondwoman. And so he says the old covenant is like that. It always leads to bondage. When you’re married to the law, it’s like Abraham being married to Hagar. That’s a wrong marriage.

But the son by the bondwoman, verse 23, was born according to the flesh. According to the flesh means with Abraham’s own strength. He accomplished something. He produced an Ishmael. But the son by the free woman was not born through Abraham’s strength because Sarah could not have a child.

It was the supernatural working of God. And if we can understand something here, that the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is this. The old covenant is what we can do naturally. Abraham, without any help from God, could produce a son through Hagar. But the new covenant is what is done supernaturally.

That is what we cannot do in our own strength. God mightily enables us. Sarah had faith to do something in her body when everybody had written her off as a hopeless case. That is the new covenant. And if in our life, we are accomplishing only what can be done naturally, we have to check up whether it is the old covenant.

I’ve heard of Buddha that there was a time when somebody came and irritated him, and he told a man something like this. He said that, you can’t make me angry. If you had come to me ten years ago, you could have made me angry. Today, you can’t make me angry. Think that Buddha you couldn’t make Buddha angry.

You couldn’t irritate him. He didn’t have the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t a believer, but you couldn’t irritate him. The man had practiced self control to such an extent that he managed to overcome anger and irritation, which you and I know is so difficult to overcome. He had no light, but he was wholehearted about overcoming anger.

I’d say he was more wholehearted than 99% of believers. Though he went about it the wrong way. But that was an Ishmael. It looks like the real thing. Hinduism has got that.

Yoga has got that. Counterfeit. That which by my own strength I have accomplished. But what Jesus does in us through the new covenant and the Holy Spirit is far superior, not inferior, superior to what Buddha had. Not only can you not make me offended and angry with you, I won’t even have that attitude inside of me.

It’s a total death. Very few are wholehearted enough to enter the new covenant. We speak about wholehearted believers. And when we think of a whole lot of believers as wholehearted, it usually indicates the low level of our own wholeheartedness that we think of so many believers as wholehearted. I’ve heard people say so and so is a wholehearted person.

Yeah. That’s a pretty good indication of that person’s own level of wholeheartedness that he thinks somebody else has wholehearted. Very few are really wholehearted. A wholehearted person is one who comes to victory over sin, not one who continues to be defeated by it. There’s a lack of wholeheartedness when a person is continually defeated.

It says here, the son by the free woman is through the promise. And that teaches us of the New Testament, the New Covenant that promises us the divine nature, that promises us that sin will not have dominion over us. He says this contains an allegory. In other words, he’s saying that Ishmael and Isaac are a type. Hagar and Sarai are a type.

The Two Covenants

These women, Hagar and Sarai are two covenants. One proceeding from Mount Sinai, the old covenant bearing children like Ishmael, who are to be slaves. This is Hagar. And this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, corresponding to the present earthly Jerusalem, which is venerated by the Jews, and she is in slavery with her children. That means all the Jews and all those who lived under the old covenant are in slavery.

But the Jerusalem which is above, and we know from Revelation 21 that that is the bride of Christ. He says, she is our mother, like Sarah was the mother of Isaac. She is our mother for it is written. This is from Isaiah 54 and verse one. Rejoice barren woman, Sarah, who does not bear.

Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, that is Sarah, for more are the children of the desolate than are the one who has a husband. And you, brethren like Isaac, are children of the promise. Not children of the flesh, but children of the promise. But as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so it is now also. He said the Jews will persecute the Christians, and those who are fleshly minded old covenant Christians will always persecute and call as heretics, those who proclaim the new covenant and who seek to enter into the new covenant.

That’s not surprising That Christians who live according to the flesh will persecute, the Christians who live according to the spirit. And the Christians who live according to the flesh are like mighty 19 year old Ishmael. And the Christians who live according to the spirit are like weak five year old Isaac. It’s always like that. But what does the scripture say?

The scripture says, cast out the bondwoman and her son. God doesn’t accept them. Cast out the people who live according to the old covenant. Do you believe that? Do you believe that it’s not just about living according to the old covenant?

For the son of the bond woman shall not be an heir. A Christian who lives according to the old covenant shall not be an heir with Christ, with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman. It is for freedom, chapter five verse one, that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery, slavery to sin or slavery to some earthly so called Christian tradition or slavery to anything.

Jesus Christ has come to set us free. And yet, multitudes of Christians are enslaved to sin, enslaved to traditions, enslaved to fears, enslaved to superstitions, all types of things. They don’t know what it is to be free. So that’s what we learned from Genesis chapter 21, that God has called us to freedom. And it is not surprising if those who are according to the flesh persecute those who are according to the spirit.

God’s word calls us to cast out that old covenant and to open our hearts to the new covenant, to live according to God’s promise and not according to our own strength after the flesh. Genesis 21. We read here about Hagar and Ishmael, the water in the skin verse 15 was used up and she left the boy under one of the bushes. And she went and sat down opposite saying, don’t let me see the boy die. And she sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept a second time.

God’s Care for Hagar and Ishmael

The first time was earlier in Genesis 16. And again, God heard the lad crying and the angel of God appeared to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what is the matter with you Hagar? Do not fear. For God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. He knows every detail of what is happening to us.

He hears every cry even from someone like Hagar and Ishmael. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him by the hand and see this statement God made to Hagar. I will make a great nation of him. Do you know why the Arabs have so much power and so much oil and so much money? It’s because God said so.

Otherwise, they’d never have it. It was just because Ishmael happened to be a child of Abraham. God said, alright. For Abraham’s sake, I’ll bless him. Not spiritually, materially.

It’s all the only material blessings that God can give to descendants. He can’t spiritual blessing we have to receive individually. But material blessing God may give to a child because the father was God fearing. And so Ishmael, seed has become a great nation just like God said today. Everything is there in God’s word.

Verse 19, then God opened her eyes and she saw well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the land a drink. There’s a lesson there for us from Hagar. When Hagar was discouraged, saying there is no water. God has forsaken me.

God Opens Our Eyes to the Answer

Just nearby was the answer to her prayer. Think of that. Very often, when you’re discouraged, all you need to ask is God to open your eyes, and the answer to your prayer is very near. We need not be like Hagar. We need not give up hope and get discouraged.

Ask God to open your eyes. The answer to your prayer is very near. She didn’t even have to walk. There where she sat opposite the child. Right there, she was discouraged and fed up and all she needed was she didn’t even have to walk.

She had to just open her eyes. She saw a well. God didn’t create that well all of a sudden. No. He doesn’t say, God created a well there in the desert all of a sudden.

The well was already there. God just opened her eyes to say, there’s no need to be discouraged. And keep on asking me, the answer is right here. Why are you getting discouraged? There’s a well of water.

You don’t have to die. What a lesson. How very often when we think God is not with us and He doesn’t care, the answer is so close at hand. Verse 20, and God was with the lad and he grew and he lived in the wilderness, became an archer, and he lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt because she came from Egypt. It came about at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham saying, God is with you in all that you do.

God’s Mercy Toward Ishmael

Before I wanna go on to that, I just wanna mention one thing. You see, I wonder if we were in God’s place whether we would have blessed Ishmael and Hagar. We see something of the tremendous mercy of God there. That even that child that was born out of Abraham’s failure, God blessed. God’s heart is so much bigger than we can imagine.

There’s a largeness in God’s attitude towards people. We are all so narrow minded, so narrow hearted. God’s heart is large. He can bless many people. And He blesses many people today who are not wholehearted.

Of course, He can’t bless them spiritually. He still blesses them materially. They’re foolish if they think that is everything. But God is so kind in these earthly matters towards people whom we wouldn’t think should be shown any kindness. That which came out of Abraham’s failure, God is merciful.

Abraham’s Peaceful Nature

And Abimelech comes to Abraham in verse 22 and says, God is with you in all that you do. How did he know that? It’s a tremendous thing if somebody can come to us and says, brother, God is really with you. They had seen that this man had trusted God and changed his name to a father of a great multitude and they had laughed at him for a long time. And all of a sudden, they found the possibility of a great multitude coming up when they saw a son.

They said, boy, this man, he really has received what he confessed to all this time. And that was a tremendous miracle because it was a well known fact around there that Sarah was barren. And he had heard of the birth of Isaac and recognized that God was with Abraham. He says, now swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity. According to the kindness I’ve shown you, you shall show to me.

And Abraham said, I swear it. But Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water, which the servants of Abimelech had seized. And Abimelech said, I didn’t know about this. Now there’s something about this we notice here. See, Abimelech’s servants had obviously seized that well of water from Abraham’s servants quite some time ago.

They must have come and told Abraham, this Abimelech’s servants have seized that well of water which belongs to us. And think that Abraham didn’t go and kick up a fight with Abimelech. He just left it. He says, okay. If God wants me to have it, maybe one day I’ll meet Abimelech and I’ll be able to talk to him and I’ll get the well of water.

Think of an attitude like that. And one day, sure enough, Abimelech comes along and says, God is with you and Abraham has the opportunity to tell him. Yeah. I just thought I’d tell you about this well of water that some months ago, your servants had taken. He says, I didn’t know about it.

And they made a covenant and Abimelech returned that well of water. There’s a lesson there for us in situations where we have a tendency to go and fight with someone for some right of ours. Like Abraham, we can trust God and say, Lord, I don’t want to go and kick up a fight about that earthly thing. If it’s your will, one day, I’ll get an opportunity and I’ll be able to talk to that person in a peaceful atmosphere.

God’s got control of everything. He can make Abimelech come around to you. That’s easy for God to do that. And you can find applications for that situation in different situations in life. Don’t go to kick up a fight.

That’s the basic principle. And then Abraham made a covenant there and in verse 31, they call that place Beersheba because the two of them took an oath and they made a covenant. And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree verse 33 at Beersheba and sure enough, he wants to thank the Lord. He says, Lord, thank you that you brought that well back for me without my having to make a fight there. He called on the name of the Lord.

We see from all this that Abraham was basically a peace loving man. He would not fight with people even if somebody grabbed his well. And you know, a well was a very important thing in those days. It was a source of supply of water, which meant so much for families, for hundreds of servants that he had, for so much cattle. A well was a very important thing.

It was not just a luxury. He could say it was a necessity, but he would not fight over it. He just moved away peacefully. And you read later on that Abraham had a son called Isaac. In Genesis 26, you see that Isaac behaves in exactly the same way.

Where did he learn to behave like that? From his father. He saw that his father never fought for wells. Isaac grows up and he doesn’t fight for wells. What an inheritance Abraham gave Isaac.

God Tests Abraham

Chapter 22, another phrase, it came about after these things. And when you see a statement like then or after these things, we must ask ourselves after which thing? After Abimelech came to Abraham and said, brother, God is with you. And Abraham was just about ready to turn up his collar and to think, yeah, I’m really the man of God in these parts. The prophet, even the king recognized that.

God said, okay, we got to give you a little test now, so that you don’t get high thoughts about yourself after these things. God is so faithful. Have you had that experience? If God loves you, I’m sure you have had it. That you’ve gone through some situation which is tended to puff you up.

And sure enough, God lined up something for you soon after that to deflate you so that so that you don’t lose your salvation. I found that many times. I said, thank you, Lord. You are so good. So good.

After these things, God tested Abraham. He says, well, I’m not particularly bothered about Abimelech’s testimony. I’d like to find out what you’re really like. And it’s interesting that that test comes after Abimelech’s statement rather, that God does not care about Abimelech’s testimony. Do we know that?

That any man say some older brother has come to you and says, brother, God’s really with you. And like a fool, took that so much to heart that you thought about it for years after that. You need to read this verse. After these things, God tested him. See, I’d like to find out what you’re really like.

What that brother Abimelech doesn’t know head or tail about you. He said, I’d like to know. And he may have a different opinion. But we read here that God Abraham passed that test too. And that’s the wonderful thing.

Not Abimelech’s testimony that counts as God’s testimony. And you find in chapter 22, God gave a testimony about Abraham, and that is the only thing that matters. And the contrast you see there between Abimelech’s testimony and God’s testimony, one is worth nothing. You can throw it in the garbage bin. God tested him and Abraham passed the test.

Abraham, he said, here I am. And He said, now take your son, your only son, because you’ve already obeyed me and sent away your other one. You’ve got only one son now whom you love. Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as the burnt offering in one of the mountains of which I’ll tell you. This is more difficult than sending him away.

Sending away Ishmael is one thing, but to kill your own son with your own hand is quite another thing. God leads us on to greater tests than we have passed in the past. And in chapter 11, God had to separate Abraham from his father. You know, father died and then Abraham moved on. In chapter 22, God has to separate Abraham from this inordinate attachment to his son.

Testing Our Attachments

And there is a lesson there for us. We know that God was testing a number of things here. He was testing Abraham’s faith, his obedience, his fear of God, his whole hearted love for God, everything was tested in this one act as we can see. Think of one thing and that is that he was testing whether God was first in Abraham’s life. Is there something other than God that you value?

Maybe your son is? Do you value him more than me so that when I tell you to do something, you love your son so much that you can’t do it? That can happen. God says something and a person loves his father and mother so much that he can’t obey God. Or he loves his brother and sister so much that he can’t obey God.

Or he loves his wife so much that he can’t obey God. Or she loves her husband so much that she can’t obey God. Or they love their children so much that they can’t obey God. We can say that Isaac was Abraham’s favorite son. He had only one son and that was a darling of his heart.

And we are tested concerning the darlings of our heart. If you have children and one of them is the darling of your heart, be honest. Many parents are foolish in this area. One of their children is the darling of their heart. And because of that one, the parents cannot be disciples of Jesus Christ.

I have seen that so many times. And I’ve also seen that people have heard these exhortations and they still are not able to cleanse themselves from this inordinate attachment to one of their children more than to the others. So they get stuck in Genesis 22 verse one. Never go beyond that. They’re stuck there.

We are to be free, brothers and sisters, from inordinate attachment to anything or anyone. And that which we value the most is the one we are attached to, which we need to cut. God didn’t ask Abraham to kill Ishmael, but he asked him to kill Isaac. Think of that. Yeah, there is a lesson there for us.

Abraham’s Immediate Obedience

What does Abraham do? Great man that he was, without any exhortation, without any challenge. Verse three, he rose early in the morning. The same old habit. It is a habit.

This fellow who took six months to obey God twenty years ago, even today he’ll take six months to obey God in something. This fellow rose up immediately and obeyed God twenty years ago. Today also he rises up immediately and obeyed God. It’s a very dangerous thing when new converts are slow in obeying God. When you hear the truth and you’re slow to respond, the chances are all your life you’ll be like that.

Be quick. Don’t discuss. He didn’t even discuss it with Sarah. Sarah may have given another opinion. He just rose up in the morning and went on.

He said, I’ve got to do what God says. There’s no need to discuss with my wife whether it’s a reasonable thing or not. It sounds so unreasonable. It was 100% against reason to kill your own son. Isn’t that against reason?

If there’s anything which is 100% against reason, is this, to kill your own son. No. He lived by faith, not by reason. And he saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, and he split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place which God had told him. God had told him to go to the land of Moriah.

And it says on the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from distance. Have you ever wondered why God didn’t tell Abraham just to sacrifice him around the corner? Or in some place one mile away? Three days, he had to walk. Three days for many reasons.

And I believe one reason is God wanted Abraham to think about it. Sit down and count the cost. Or while you’re walking, count the cost. For three days, you can think about it, and you can turn back. See, God doesn’t want this.

He wants obedience instantaneously, but He doesn’t want us to act without thinking. He says, think about it. Think about what you’re gonna lose if you follow me. There are many things in life that you cannot do, many comforts that you cannot have, many pleasures that you cannot have, many people including your own relatives whom you will have to offend and hurt. Think about it, don’t rush. The people who rush without thinking are the people who rush back also in some time of difficulty or testing or persecution.

But the people who are who count the cost and say, Lord, it’s worth it. They are the ones who stick it out till the very end. So God gave Abraham three days to think about it. And every time I can imagine Abraham must have said, it’s worth it. I can’t understand it, but it’s worth it to obey God.

It sure is. And it says here, on the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the lad will go up to this mountain and we, we means I and the lad will come back. We’re just going to worship and we’ll come back.

The First Mention of Worship in the Bible

This is the first place in the Bible where the word worship comes. People talk about worship meeting. Abraham had a worship meeting, but it wasn’t the cheap frothy thing that is conducted in charismatic circles. Abraham didn’t go there just to clap and dance on the mountain top. That would have been easy.

He says, we are going to worship. What was worship first time in the Bible? Giving up that which was most dear to him, saying, Lord, I love you more than even that. That is worship. And there are very few people who live in that spirit of worship.

It is a fantastic counterfeit that the devil has called worship today, just make people clap their hands and jump around a bit and sing a few jumpy choruses and say, had a worship meeting this morning. Garbage. They may have thanked the Lord, but that was no worship meeting. Compare that with Abraham with a pain in his heart, loving his child, going up and saying, I’m gonna kill him to prove that I love God more than my son. That is worship.

When you’ve gone through experiences like that, whether given up to God that which is most precious to us. We’ve been willing to hurt a father and mother who has loved us so much because we want to obey God. That’s worship. When everybody else is going around pleasing them. When we stand up for the truth, when it hurts, people whom we love so dearly, that’s worship.

How many people worship like that? How many people are willing to give up something which is so precious to them? That is worship. When nothing on earth has any value for me, when your job doesn’t have any value for you, when your profession, your education doesn’t have any value for you, but God is everything, then you are a worshiper. And Abraham’s faith, he says, I and the lad will go yonder, and we will both worship, and we will both return.

Abraham’s Faith in Resurrection

How did he say that? How did he say that we will both return when he knew that he’s going to sacrifice him on top of the mountain? It’s a very interesting question. We’d say, well, he must have been just bluffing. He wasn’t bluffing.

Hebrews 11 says, he was speaking in faith. Turn to Hebrews 11 verse 17 to 19. It says, Abraham, when he was tested by faith Abraham, when he was tested, Hebrews 11:17, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. It was he to whom it was said in Isaac, your seed shall be called. How can my seed be called in Isaac if he’s gonna die?

He considered. Here is where his faith comes, that God is able to raise men even from the dead. Do you know the first person who had faith in the resurrection? Abraham. He had faith that God can raise somebody from the dead.

Has God raised anybody from the dead up till now, Abraham? No. He hasn’t done that yet. I haven’t heard of anybody being raised from the dead yet. Abraham says, but I believe God can raise people even from the dead.

From which also he received him back as a type. Other words, he virtually Isaac was dead when he laid him on the altar. And in a sense, he got him back from the dead. That’s why he told the servants, we’ll come back. I’m gonna kill Isaac up there, but God has to raise him from the dead because God has said that in Isaac my seed will be called.

So maybe I’ll kill him and God will raise him up. Because Isaac my seed has to be called in Isaac. God has said that. He was so sure that what God has said He has to do. Fine.

Abraham’s Obedience and Isaac’s Submission

We’ll go along and we’ll come back. Genesis 22 verse 6, and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. The two of them walked on together. And you can imagine all that was going on in Abraham’s heart at this time, the pain, the struggle. And he’s saying, Lord, it’s worth it.

It’s worth it. I’ll obey you. If we have been through that, we can know. Lord, I’ll obey you. I’ll put you first.

And Abraham took the wood and they walked together and Isaac spoke to Abraham. This must have so painful when he asked Abraham this question. My father, here I am, my son, he said. Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham must have joked back the tears when he replied, God will provide Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Isaac was a grown man. He wasn’t a young boy because it says here in verse 6 that Abraham laid the wood, all that wood on Isaac’s shoulder.

He couldn’t have been a little boy that Abraham put all that wood on his shoulder. If Isaac was gonna carry all this wood up the mountain, he must have been a in his twenties, perhaps 25 year old strong, hefty young man. And when Abraham ties him on the altar, verse nine, he binds Isaac on the altar. Isaac could have resisted, but he doesn’t. There we see a picture of a submissive son, of the way Abraham had brought up his son, that when he puts him on the altar at the age of 25 and says, I’m gonna—Isaac understands now that there’s no lamb, I’m gonna be killed.

He submits. It’s fantastic. Just like if God said, I know Abraham will command his household after him. It’s tremendous brothers and sisters that we fathers can produce children like this, that at the age of 25, we tie them down to an altar to kill them and they just say, that’s fine dad, I trust you. Tremendous.

Tremendous if we can be fathers like that. And Abraham stretched out his hand to kill him. And immediately the angel stops him and says, Abraham, Abraham. We can stop there. We know that God saved Isaac from that death.

But we can learn something about Abraham’s attitude. He raised his hand. There was the knife coming down to kill him, and God stops him. This was no play acting. He wasn’t pretending, hoping that at the last minute God will say no.

No, Lord, I love you and I prove it. I believe there are many, many things in this chapter that we could learn from Abraham. His instantaneous obedience, his faith that God has to keep His word, His fear of God is not consulting his reason or anybody else. Exactness in his obedience, going where God told him to go, counting the cost, putting God above his own son, giving up that which is dearest, a son brought up to learn obedience. Let’s pray that God will give us grace to follow in his footsteps.

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