Some context from earlier in Genesis:

• God promised Abram numerous decedents & ownership of the land of Canaan which God had lead him to.
• In chapter 17 of Genesis, God's promises to Abram are solidified with a command for him to change his name to Abraham, meaning "Father of multitudes or nations".
• In chapter 21, we are told that the Lord kept his word - Even though she was old, Abraham's wife Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son called Isaac. He was the promised child, a daily reminder that nothing is impossible to God and that God is faithful.

Things seem to be going rather well at this stage but it's not very long before the story takes a dramatic turn and becomes very awkward.
Let’s pick up the story in chapter 22 of the book of Genesis which can be found right at the beginning of the Bible.

● God speaks to Abraham, presumably in the same way he had spoken to him before so that Abraham recognised his voice but saying something that seems completely at odds with what he had said to him before. God had made promises to Abraham which this new command now seemed to call into question.
● We're told right away by the author of Genesis that this is a test but remember that Abraham wasn't told that. He had to choose how to respond to God's latest command without any clear indication that this was a test. All he had to go on when making his decision was the fact that God had always kept his promises and been faithful to him in the past.
● God had made a covenant with Abraham and had sealed that covenant by walking through the blood of animals that Abraham had sacrificed. God had sworn an oath to pay the full price in his own blood if either of them broke the terms of this covenant. God had let Abraham off the hook, promised him never ending faithfulness and a long string of descendants through the son he had miraculously given him.
● So somehow, when God asked Abraham to do something that seemed to make no sense, that seemed to go against everything God had said beforehand, Abraham still trusted him enough to obey. Somehow Abraham still believed that Isaac was the promised child, that nothing was impossible to God and that God was still going to be faithful to his word.
● Remember, as we saw last week, faith doesn’t mean you never have questions or even some doubt. Abraham clearly believed in the goodness of God but must have struggled to see how his present course of action was a part of God's plan. This is an awkward moment where everything seems to suggest that God no longer wants to show him favour. Nevertheless, he figured that God was God, the just judge of all the earth, the same God we read about just a few chapters before who, whilst judging the cities of Sodom and Gamorah, showed mercy to Abraham's relatives and spared their lives. Even in the midst of some of the most terrible stories in the Bible we find the Crimson Thread of God's mercy running through them all. Abraham had seen firsthand how the Lord's anger was not to be trifled with as he watched from a distance as smoke rose from the ashes of cities filled with all kinds of evil. Yet, time and time again, God had shown him favour and had extended mercy. So, despite not being able to see any signs of God's present favour, Abraham trusted God enough to do what seemed completely insane.
● We need to remember that this story was written thousands of years ago in the Ancient Near East where violence, child sacrifice and unpredictable and chaotic events were what many people accepted as a normal part of worshipping the gods in the region. This story would have ended differently if it was a story about Abraham worshipping many of the other gods the people of the time believed in. False god’s like Molech were worshipped in fear by those who believed they demanded the sacrifice of babies by fire.
● This story is different though. It’s meant to provoke a response from the reader and get them to ask, “Is the God of Abraham and Isaac really just like all the other gods that were worshipped in the region at the time? Does he suddenly change his mind? Is he just as evil as he is good? Can he really be trusted or is he simply to be feared?”
● It’s also meant to challenge us by the incredible example of faith in action displayed by Abraham who still believed that God was different to the false gods people lived in fear of. This test revealed the true measure of his faith. Abraham still believed that, through Isaac, he would have a whole host of descendants because that was the promise that God had made him. Time and time again, we see evidence to suggest this in the story.

EVIDENCE OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH
● Firstly, he obeys. He takes his son, his only son, the son he loves dearly, the miracle child that should never have been born to them in their old age, the child God had promised to give him numerous decendants through, the son on whom all of God’s promised depended, and he goes where God told him to go to do what God told him to do. How many parents do you know that would sacrifice a child they adore in order to save their own skin? What parent in their right mind would obey such a command without a rock-solid faith that God could be trusted, that God kept his promises and that God had a greater plan that he knew about right now, a plan to prosper Isaac and not to harm him?
● Secondly, having travelled for three days, Abraham tells his servants to wait for with the donkey until he and Isaac return from worshipping God. He says, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
● Thirdly, when Isaac questions him, asking, “‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’, Abraham’s response was simply, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering”. Abraham believed that God, who had given Isaac to him once, could easily make provision for Isaac to be given back to him again now. God could and would provide a way for his promise through Isaac to still come to pass. God would provide the sacrifice, just as he had promised in the story we examined last week where he made his covenant with Abraham by walking through the animal pieces alone. Abraham didn’t have to pay in blood then and he believed that somehow, he would not have to pay in blood now.

● This faith strengthens Abraham right to the end of the story when God dramatically intervenes and provides a substitutionary sacrifice, fulfilling his covenant with Abraham and setting himself apart from all of the false gods worshipped in the region.
● In literary terms, this scene is known as a dramatic ironic reversal because the people who read it at the time would not have expected this ending. What would have shocked them about this story was not God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice his son. That shocks us, but they lived in a culture where child sacrifice was a regular occurrence, considered a normal part of appeasing the gods around them who they lived in fear of. What would have shocked them is a God who did not require child sacrifice to atone for sin but instead would provide a sacrifice himself in order to continually show mercy to those who had faith in his promises.
● This is a story that’s meant to show a stark distinction between the faithful and merciful God Abraham encountered and all the other gods people feared in the region. It reveals how the God of Abraham and Isaac is very different from all the other gods that were being worshipped. It shows that he is unexpectedly merciful, that in all the awkwardness of life in an evil world, God is not to be mistaken for some demanding, fear-inducing, evil overlord who has to be appeased in order to avoid his sudden and unpredictable wrath.

APPLY IT TO YOUR LIFE & TAKE A NEXT STEP

● If you struggle reading stories like these in the Bible you are not alone. This is an awkward story, mostly because we forget that if we read it through modern western eyes rather than through Ancient Near Eastern eyes, we can easily misunderstand what it was originally meant to communicate about God.
● We need to learn how to interpret the Bible in it’s context in order to avoid misunderstanding God. He is not like any other and so it is vital that we pay close attention when reading awkward stories like this in case we miss the point they’re trying to make about who he really is.
● This story is intended to provoke questions within us, some of which are answered dramatically though the course of events it outlines and some of which it leaves hanging, possibly in order to urge us to trust God even when we don’t understand his purposes or his ways.
● After all, the same God who made the covenant with Abraham and substituted his own sacrifice for that of Isaac, ultimately fulfilled his self-sacrificial promises towards us in Jesus. He has proved to us that he is merciful, willing to pay the full price for our sins and to redeem us from death and give us life again. If that’s who he is, what can’t you trust him with? What problem are you facing that makes you doubt his goodness or faithfulness? What unspeakable challenge lies ahead of you that seems to make it impossible for God to be faithful and good? What dramatic ironic reversal might lie ahead for you in the future if you are willing to trust God at his word and believe he still good when things look so bad?

● Looking to Explore? If you've got questions about life, faith and meaning, try Alpha. Find out more and sign up at the HUB & NextSteps area today to avoid disappointment!
● Looking to Connect? Read Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and learn how to hear God’s guidance and test what you hear to make sure it’s from God.
● Looking to Partner? Invite people to church/easter/alpha and tell them that it’s okay to have doubts/questions/concerns and still explore faith as part of this community. Don’t let awkward questions make people feel awkward about coming to church.
● Looking to Lead? Read A.W. Tozer's "The Crucified Life" as you consider God’s call to follow him to a life of self-sacrifice for the sake of others.