우리 함께 나눠요 | 천예준 목자

Genesis 22:1-24, 4/9/26

Summary: God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering to the Lord. Abraham goes through the steps in obedience but God provides a sacrificial ram in Isaac's place. God blesses Abraham with specific promises regarding his descendants which God had already begun preparing through the lineage of his brother Nahor, his son Bethuel, and his daughter Rebekah who would marry Isaac and continue his line.

Meditation: These days when I sit down to seriously read and meditate in the Word, I hardly get past the first verse.

"After these things" - After Ch. 21, Abraham has reached a season of comfort. Isaac is born. Hagar and Ishmael are sent away and God provides for them. Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant agreement and there is peace. But he is in the land of the Philistines. It seems that Abraham is in the place where we all want to reach. He has been given his desired heir. His family affairs are in order. And the external circumstances of his life are peaceful. Yet this when we are most in danger to grow complacent and distant from God. In my ability to quickly adapt to new situations, it is easy to become used to things and to forget God. And it is often difficult to discern whether reduced strain in my life is because I have grown stronger or because of increased complacency and lack of discipline. I am helpless to even recognize what season I am in.

"God tested Abraham" - That is why God's tests are actually gifts of grace. One of my favorite worship songs is "Oh I Want to Know You More" which has the lyric:

"Then in my rest, there comes a test that shakes me until again I know. That what I had was not enough and again, I've got to grow." Since God is omniscient, when He tests, it is not because he does not know the outcome. It is only for my benefit that he allows tests and trials. The only outcomes possible are to strengthen me by helping me recognize that indeed I have grown in faith or to wake me up from spiritual slumber and bring me to repentance. Both draw me nearer to God and I can worship Him anew so that God receives the glory. He did not need to do this for me but he does for the jealousy of his own name and the promise of his own character of love.

"and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said,

'Here I am'" - As I read and meditated on

this verse, I wondered if this was not the first test or at least the first part of the test.

When God called, Abraham presented himself before God. How do I respond when God calls me? We read Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and think that big and dramatic circumstances are the only times that we are tested. But to reach this point, there are many more seemingly smaller yet just as crucial trials along the way. The daily trial is to present myself before God and listen to his voice. I too often feel the conviction to read the Bible in my conscience. Yet I ignore it for some other thing. God's voice is more often a quiet whisper than a booming shout from the clouds. I want to grow more attuned and sensitive to the voice of God. So I repent of the ways I so often push God to the side and I pray that I have not seared my conscience. How does one become a man of such great faith as Abraham? It is the daily relational walking with God to be able to recognize his voice and to obey him with the small things first.

The truth that Abraham exhibits is explained by Paul in Romans 12:1 - "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Before the test of sacrificing Isaac, Abraham must present himself. In the same way, when God calls, my only response to the grace of God is to make myself available. I pray that I become like Abraham to walk daily in this way and live by faith.