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The Tests of Life

Sermon by Rev. Doug Pratt — May 25, 2008
 

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Introduction
This is the final message in a brief series on the life of the great father of our faith, Abraham, and our text is one of the best-known and most dramatic stories in the Old Testament. Abe is now an old man, and a proud father of a young miracle-son, Isaac—his heir—who will carry on his name and legacy and will be the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring a blessing to the world. It looks like everything in Abe’s life is finally coming to a happy conclusion, after years of a very twisted course, filled with lots of mistakes, detours, delays and wrong turns. But just when the final course to the finish line looks smooth and obstacle-free, something incredible happens—and it proves to be the greatest, toughest, most challenging test of his entire challenging life. We read about it in Genesis 22.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
     “Here I am,” he replied.
     ²Then 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.”
     ³Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵He said to his servant, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
     ⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷Isaac 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 the lamb for the burnt offering?”
     ⁸Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
     ⁹When 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 altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
     “Here I am,” he replied.
     ¹²”Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “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.”
     ¹³Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
     ¹⁵The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I 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, ¹⁸and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Missing the Target
It was a few weeks ago, and I was watching one of the television news shows. A prominent politician was being interviewed by the anchorwoman about a hot current topic. Three times she asked the guest a direct and clear question: “What is your position on this?” And three times he answered with convoluted, twisted, and distracting dissertations that were tangential to the main point—without ever actually answering the question.

Of course, this is typical of the level of modern political debate: politicians don’t really dialogue or answer, they just make their “talking points.” Imagine it this way: the anchorwoman was pointing to a bull’s-eye on a fence and asking him to hit it by answering the question. And each time he closed his eyes, fired his arrow in a different direction, and then tried to paint a target around wherever the arrow landed. How common it is for politicians to miss the target in that way. It happens often in those staged candidate debates—which we will undoubtedly see again this fall between the presidential candidates.

And it’s also pretty typical in my profession. Lots of preachers and scholars and academics and historians, in attempting to explain the Bible, are guilty of missing the target. That has certainly been true of our story in Genesis 22, Abraham’s “almost-sacrifice” of Isaac. In my recent survey of the books and articles and website commentaries on Genesis, I’ve seen stray arrows flying everywhere.

• Some writers, anthropologists and sociologists by background have misinterpreted this story as being primarily about the development of Jewish theology and its emergence from the pagan cultural and religious practices of the Middle East. Here in Genesis, we are told, the myth of Abraham and Isaac is written to explain the Jewish nation’s conscious decision to turn from the human sacrifices practiced by their neighbors, rejecting their rituals and replacing it with animal sacrifices. But that answer is off-target. This story is not primarily about the development of religious tradition.
• Some writers, those of a more “progressive” or liberal bent to their theology, have argued that Genesis 22 shows us how God is going through a process of learning and growing and maturing. At the beginning of the story, they allege, He is the cruel and sadistic God of the Old Testament, who changes His mind in the knick of time and backs away from bloodshed. It is only in the New Testament, we are told, that God has completely changed and gotten over His previous character flaws and become a loving Deity. But this answer is way off-target. The story of Abraham and Isaac is not about God changing His mind or maturing or “turning over a new leaf.”
• And then some writers of a more conservative or orthodox viewpoint have said that the real point of Genesis 22 is to give us a preview of the Cross. They point out that Mount Moriah, to which Abraham and Isaac journeyed, was very close to modern-day Jerusalem. They insist that the ram provided by God as the substitute for Isaac was an intentional “sneak preview” of Christ’s death 2000 years later on a nearby hill as the “Lamb of God.” While this arrow gets us a bit closer to the original bull’s-eye, it still doesn’t hit the center of the target.

Abraham’s Greatest Test
At its core, the tale of Abraham and Isaac is not really about Jewish theology, and it’s not really about God’s character development, and it’s not really about Christ’s death. It’s about Abraham. It is his greatest test of life and faith. It is his “final exam,” the moment when he reveals whether or not he has learned the lessons God has been teaching him about trust and obedience. That’s it. That’s what we need to focus upon. We can see in retrospect that Isaac’s life wasn’t really in danger, and that God knew all along His plan. So we don’t need to waste time trying to explain or justify why God would take an innocent life, because He didn’t. What we need to do in order to see God’s truth for us is to put ourselves in Abraham’s sandals.

Life is really all about tests. We all face them. Rick Warren, in chapter 5 of his bestseller The Purpose Driven Life (a chapter entitled “Seeing Life from God’s View”), hits the bull’s-eye directly with this comment: “All of life is a test. You are always being tested.” We are tested, he reminds us, by major changes, delayed promises, seemingly-impossible problems, seemingly-unanswered prayers, and even seemingly-senseless tragedies. “All tests have eternal implications,” Warren continues. “The good news is that God wants you to pass the tests of life, so He never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace He gives you to handle them.”

Let’s think about the tests that inevitably come to us in life—the tests that both reveal who we really are and determine the course for what comes later in our lives. There are a few truths I want us to grasp.

Truth #1
God’s tests can come at any point in our lives. We might be tempted to think that it wasn’t fair of God to put such a great test of faith upon Abraham when he was at such an advanced age, so far along in life and so near to its end. But actually, when we follow all of Abraham’s story, this was the right time for such a test. If it had come to him earlier, he would have almost surely failed it—as he did in several much less challenging situations. Having seen the limits of his own strength and wisdom, and having experienced God’s unexpected grace and forgiveness and the reliability of His promises, Abe has learned, at last, that he can truly trust the Lord without reservation.

There are many tests that come to people today as they are nearer the end than the beginning of their lives; and it is the wisdom and strength gained through the years that allow them to pass those tests. A current publishing sensation is the new book The Last Lecture, by Dr. Randy Pausch—a university professor dealing with a terminal illness at the age of 47. His final lecture, given to a packed audience last September at Carnegie-Mellon University, is filled with all the wisdom and experience he has gained in his lifetime—and he could not have spoken with such power and eloquence until this time, when the reality of his death and mortality has brought into clear perspective what life is all about.

I have had the privilege of coming alongside people as their pastor who have done some amazing things in their later years. I’ve been blessed to see examples of selfless philanthropy, as couples construct a powerful legacy for future generations through wise estate planning of their gifts and bequests. I’ve witnessed amazing and sacrificial caring for an ill or aging spouse, as the final and greatest act of their married love. I’ve prayed with people who are facing their own critical illness with courage and complete surrender to the Lord—believing with the same confidence that Abraham showed in climbing Mount Moriah that God would find a way (either through a miracle of healing or through providing them with the strength to endure). I’ve wept with parents who have buried their son or daughter, not knowing why the end had to come so quickly, but still believing that God has a gracious purpose and plan (although they couldn’t see it yet through their grief).

And the tests of life can come not just at the end but the beginning. You’re never too young — or too old — to do something for the Lord. In Scripture, for every centenarian like Abraham who is given a test like in Genesis 22, we find a young David who, as a teenager, has to stand toe-to-toe with the giant Goliath and knock him down. We never know when our next test will come to us.

Truth #2
Each person’s trials will be unique. God does not treat us like identical widgets on an assembly line. His blessings and gifts, and His tests and challenges, all come in a very personal and individual package. There are things I’ve had to go through in my life that many of you haven’t experienced and can’t relate to. There are things you’re going through now, or have somehow come through in the past, that are beyond my ability to imagine.

Look at the vast variety of the tests God presents to men and women in the pages of the Bible. No one else in Scripture is asked to do what Abraham was—to be willing to give up his son. In the New Testament, only one person (a wealthy young man who had become cripplingly caught up in his money and success) was asked by Jesus to divest himself by giving away all his worldly goods to charity. Each test was individual and unique. Moses was asked by God to go back to Egypt and confront his past. Joshua was asked to march up to the mighty walls of an unconquerable enemy (the fortress of Jericho) armed with nothing but a bugle. Mary was asked to risk the shame of being an unwed mother in order to bring the Savior into the world. Matthew was called to make a dramatic career change, leaving a lucrative job as tax collector to enter full-time ministry. Each test was very personal. And so are yours and mine.

Truth #3
The tests of God are meant to lead us to trust and surrender. The more we choose our own way, the further we go from Him. This is why the tests that come from God are different than the temptations and enticements that come to us from the secular world and our own inner desires and wants. When we yield to temptation, it takes us away from the Lord. But when we pass God’s tests in the correct way, we become stronger in our faith.

People who get caught up in the “why” questions when a test confronts them have a hard time trusting and surrendering. I read a couple years ago a book, written by a captain in the First Marine Division, about his experiences in the successful overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Whatever your views are about the Iraq war, the point I want to make is a spiritual one, not a political one. The Captain tells about one point in the battle when he received an order from his commander to change directions and take a detour. He didn’t understand why, nor did any of the men in his unit. The temptation was, as is typical of our human nature, to question—to doubt, to want more explanations. But he and his troops had complete confidence in their superiors, because they knew that the Generals at HQ had access to satellite reconnaissance and intelligence reports that those who were in the midst of the battle simply did not have. And, therefore, from their greatest perspective and with their greater knowledge, the decision of the commanders was better than their own could be.

We are not able to see everything in life from God’s perspective. We don’t have His intelligence. We don’t know the future. We can’t even confidently predict tomorrow’s headlines, let alone the long-term future. That’s why the wisest people throughout history have found that trusting God and following His leading is always better than second-guessing, arguing with the Lord, or trying to chart our own course.

Truth #4
The tests of life add a purpose to all we do. It is because our earthly lives are in preparation for eternity that what we do now counts forever. The ultimate point of classes in school, of course, is to prepare students for the final exams—and for their lives and careers that lie beyond. The ultimate point of the practice sessions that football and basketball coaches put their teams through day after day is to prepare them for the games. The point of life is ultimately to be judged by God at its end according to what we have done with the gifts, the opportunities and the challenges that were presented to us.

Conclusion
Going through the tests of life is never fun. And sometimes it’s even harder to see someone we love face their own tests. As I’ve been working on this message, I’ve been personally agonizing over just such an ordeal. My only nephew is a great young Christian man whom I love like a son (he even lived with us for awhile during his college years). He’s now facing the toughest challenge of his 26 years, in a most unusual and difficult situation. The details aren’t important to you, but I trust that many of you can understand how hard it is for me to see him struggle like this. I’d do anything to be able to take his place, but, of course, I can’t. Only he can face and pass this particular test. When someone we care very much about is given their test, we can love unconditionally, pray for them constantly, offer support and help. But we can’t take their place.

Parents are often tempted to want to help their children with school work. But we know that if a parent writes a term paper or performs a science project for their child, that student may get an “A” but they won’t learn what they need to in the process. There can be no proxies or substitutes for the tests of life. We each have to face our own.

The wonderful and triumphant conclusion to our story of Abraham’s great test is that he passed with honors. His confidence in God’s sufficiency was multiplied. And in his joy he named that mountain with the Hebrew words “Jehovah Jireh”—meaning “the Lord will provide.”

How those words have become the lifeline for believers for thousands of years since that lonely morning on Mt. Moriah when Abraham and Isaac were delivered by God’s gracious provision. In every circumstance we can claim that promise, “God will provide.” The Apostle Paul repeated that promise in the New Testament, in I Corinthians chapter 10: “God is faithful; He will not let you be tested beyond what you can bear. But when you are tested, He will also provide the way out so that you can stand up under it.”

I don’t know what test you are undergoing today, or will face tomorrow. When the tests come, don’t panic. Don’t think God is punishing you or has deserted you. Don’t compare your test to someone else’s, or complain to him that the test isn’t fair. Just trust Him, as Abraham did, and confidently go forward to your Mt. Moriah.