Abraham and Isaac

"For Love of God"

June 30, 1996

Genesis 22:1-14

LOVE is what makes life worth living. We love and we are loved. We say to our babies "I love you SO much!" BUT DO WE LOVE GOD? (Satan's question in Job 1 "Does Job serve (love) God for nothing?")

Father Edward Collins Vacek, S.J. (America 3/9 courtesy of Martin Marty's "Context" for June 1, 1996): "In my own conversations with Christians, I find that almost all of them talk approvingly about love for others, some talk confidently about God's love for us, but few are willing to talk about their love for God. When I press them to say what it means to love God, some of them in fact deny that we can love God directly, many admit that they don't give much thought to love for God, and most deny there is any ethical obligation to do so. They judge that it is wrong not to love people, but they have no such thoughts about neglecting God. In short, many contemporary Christians subscribe to Jesus' second great commandment, but not to the first."

Vacek continues: "In short, it is not enough just to love our fellow human beings. Sincere conscience and anonymous theism are not enough." Vacek suggests that every age has its central religious concept and a question that will challenge all of us today is this: "`Do you love God?' That question evokes the endlessness of our heart's quest as well as the incomprehensibility of God, and it gives us an absorbing center for our lives." (Courtesy e-mail & Fred Kane)

What does it mean for you and me to be in a love relationship with Almighty God? This 4,000 year-old story of Abraham sheds a lot of light on that question.

I. LOVE FOR GOD WILL BE A DEMANDING LOVE

Love for God ALWAYS demands "first place" in our loyalties:

Matthew 10: 37 - 39 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

The story of Abraham and Isaac underscores the cost of loving God

By the time we come to the sacrifice scene on Mount Moriah, we are nearing the end of Abraham's life. He is an old man. He has walked in obedience to God for many years. He had done what God had told him across the years. He had even put away Hagar and Ishmael, the son of his own self-assertion, and that had been hard to do.

What Abraham had left was Isaac, the son of God's promise. In Isaac were all Abraham's hopes and dreams of the great things God had promised him way back in the land of Haran.

Then a stunning thing happens. God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to him on an altar of burnt offering.

Make no mistake about it, this is a difficult lesson for us to understand.

One of my correspondents, Fred Kane wrote:

It is a most difficult text. As has been pointed out:
God prohibits child sacrifice, yet sacrifices God's own Son.
Reading the story as one of commitment, sacrifice and obedience
challenges my hypocrisy as I call others to give what I am unwilling to give.
I relish the Gift, but do not trust the Giver
(who asks for the Gift to be returned)
to give again and again....
I want God to be God on my terms.

(Transition: But a demanding love like this doesn't come like a request to foolishness. God is like a patient lover. He calls us, reassures us— for)

II. LOVE FOR GOD IS A GROWING LOVE

The Abraham Saga is a Pilgrim's Progress that illustrates HOW God calls, and encourages, and works with a person who wants to walk with Him.

The ABRAHAM COVENANT does not spring full-blown into this crisis on Mount Moriah. It BEGINS (12:1) when Abraham sets out to follow God. It is RATIFIED FORMALLY (15) when Abraham BELIEVES GOD, and sets out the sacrifice/covenant God asks. It is RENEWED (17) when a mature Abram gets a name change— indicating a growing God-likeness. It is further REFINED (21) in the giving up of Ishmael, representing Abraham's self-striving. And finally it is CONFIRMED (22) in today's story of supreme sacrifice— giving up even God's own gifts so nothing stands between Abraham and the heart of God.

This is a mysterious, difficult story which we will never fully understand this side of heaven. Abraham had made a complete consecration and covenant with God. But every consecration is tested. The covenants we make never work out perfectly smoothly, exactly as we thought. That is when the character of the covenant makers is made clear. Keeping our word when the going gets tough proves what sort of stuff we are made of.

(Transition: Love for God will be a growing love— and will be a challenge to our faith... but)

III. LOVE FOR GOD WILL BE A DEEPLY SATISFYING LOVE

There are several important lessons we can learn from Abraham's faithfulness:

  1. THERE IS NEVER A STOPPING PLACE IN SAYING 'YES' TO GOD

    When do we stop "living by faith?" When do we stop "giving all to God" and sit back and take it easy in the walk of faith? I certainly don't know when that time is.

    I remember one day talking with Lillian Irwin, Mrs. Don Irwin, whom I respected very highly as a woman of prayer and a godly woman. She was facing some very difficult times, times that often made her weep. I remember her saying: "I don't give God my LIFE now. I give him my days— each day as it comes!"

    But this story also assures us:

  2. THERE IS REALLY NO CRUELTY IN GOD! GOD CAN BE TRUSTED WITH THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER

    There is mystery involved in why God would ever ask this of the great Father of Faith. Much is made of the cruelty of the request. Some preachers on my study list have asked, "How do you imagine Isaac felt? He would be scarred for life!" And probably there is humanly speaking that question to be asked.

    This mystery reflects an even greater mystery— the mystery of the Atonement itself. When Abraham took Isaac up the hill of sacrifice God prepared a ram to substitute for the son of promise. But when God's own Son walked up the hill of Calvary there could be no substitute. What happened on Calvary, and why it was necessary is a mystery that we cannot understand. That greater sacrifice speaks of the awful seriousness of our sins:

    All we like sheep have gone astray
    We have turned every one to his own way
    And the Lord has laid on HIM
    The iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53)

    Isaac was safe even though Abraham had to give him up to God. God cares about the things that matter— even more than you do. He is in charge!

  3. LOVING GOD MAKES A PERSON MORE AND MORE LIKE HIM
    • Abraham became a friend of God (I can imagine God saying to Abraham "No one know how I feel in giving my only begotten Son!")
    • Abraham actually became A PICTURE of God
    • Abraham became a blessing!!

And so will we—

Love is what makes life worth the living. And loving God makes life wholesome and clean and good.

BUT— do WE LOVE God for what WE get out of it? Do WE go to church because WE want to go to heaven? Do WE help others so that God will reward US? That is the question from this text today: Do you love God? Is God more important than your car, your possessions, your family, your children? Do you love these blessings from God more than you love God?

When the test of our faith comes, we can remember Abraham, who believed in God's love no matter what. When our faith is on trial, dare to love God and to trust Him! He who has spared not His OWN Son will provide!

Prayer

#142 Wonderful Savior followed by

#133 I Love You, Lord