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 Faith on the Rollercoaster
Genesis 22:1-14
November 24, 2002
In the movie, Parenthood, Steve Martin is living life as a normal guy, struggling through life. His one son is struggling with keeping up at school and will have to go to a special school, his extended family has all sorts of trouble, including the brother who is in trouble with gambling debts. He refuses to play the ridiculous politics at work and gets passed over for a promotion, so he quits his job, only to be informed by his wife that she is pregnant. So he has to crawl back and ask for his job back. Isn’t life hectic enough as it is? How will they survive yet another kid? Why doesn’t life just smooth out, calm down? When will things be normal? His grandmother tells him a story of when she rode a rollercoaster—it was exciting! She preferred it to the merry-go-round.
We often confuse “ideal” for “normal.” We think that life should always go smoothly, and when it does not, we get frustrated and bewildered.
But life is not a smooth, gliding monorail; life is better seen as a rollercoaster: ups and downs, frightening hair-pin turns and crashes, followed by up-hill highs. That’s life; that’s “normal.” Unlike a monorail, which functions to take people smoothly to some destination, the rollercoaster is designed with the ride in mind, not the destination. Some people see the rollercoaster as frightening, some call it exhilarating. Which one are you? If you do not like feeling out of control, if you fear that the cars will fly off the tracks, you do not like rollercoasters. But if you enjoy the feeling of being out of control while all the time knowing that the cars are perfectly safe in staying on the rails, then you enjoy rollercoasters. But, if you started to doubt that the cars can stay on the tracks, you too would fear just like the first group.
When we look at the life of Abraham, we see a roller coaster of a life. In Genesis 12, he is called by God to leave his homeland, his family, and his father’s inheritance for another land that he has never seen, for a another family—God promises Abraham that he will be the father of a great nation (even though for 75 years his wife has been unable to have children), and for another inheritance of some vague “blessing.” He chooses by faith in God to go; he decides to trust that God’s promises of greater things will come true.
He trusts that this rollercoaster ride will be exhilarating, but that God can be trusted. God is like the cars of the rollercoaster. Even though life plunges up and down, and Abraham gets a little queasy in his stomach, he knows that the cars will not fly off the track. In the end, all will be well. The ride will actually be exhilarating. There are twists and turns, but he is trusting all the way through the ride.
Watch the rollercoaster go up and down in his life. In Genesis 15, we read:
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6)
What an incredible promise, and Abraham believes God.
But the roller coaster took a deep dip when Abraham had a son by way of his wife’s servant Hagar, instead of through his barren wife Sarai. The birth of Ishmael was not what God has in mind. In Genesis 17, the promise is explained to Abraham in greater detail:
God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” (Genesis 17:15-21)
The promise God makes Abraham is more than just to finally give him a son through his wife Sarah. While it is important to many of us to have a child, and for those of us who have struggled through not being able to have children, that can be quite heart-rending, the point is even grander than that. God has promised Abraham an incredible thing: Abraham will be the father of an incredible line of people who will have an intimate covenant relationship with the God of the Universe! The promise is that Abraham and Sarah will be the parents of the greatest people on the face of the planet—the very People of God through which God intends to bless the rest of the world. What a PROMISE!
But the agonizing part of it is this: HOW? Abraham is 100, Sarah is 90. Sarah has never been able to have children. I know couples that have gone through fertility procedures after trying to have a child unsuccessfully for ten years. They were naturally frustrated and saddened at the prospect of not having children. Abraham and Sarah have been trying to have a child for over 70 years! You just resign yourself to the fact that, “You know what? It just ain’t gonna happen!”
Then this God speaks and says to Abraham that he will not only have a son, but that through this son his descendants will be the source of greatest blessing in the world! This son will be the epitome of every promise given Abraham. Through Isaac, the promise of becoming a great nation will come to fruition. Through Isaac, the promise of the land will be brought to fruition. Through Isaac, the promise of blessing will come to fruition! Whoa!
In Genesis 18, we read Sarah’s reaction:
Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.” (Genesis 18:10-14)
It makes her snicker. “Yea, right! I’m going to have a kid at 90 years of age!” But a year later, Isaac is born to them (in Genesis 21)!
Oh, the roller coaster of their life has finally smoothed out! All is going well! God sure is blessing their socks off! For the next 15 or so years, all looks good. Isaac has grown to be a great kid, and Abraham and Sarah could not be happier. It’s just when all seems to being going just right that the bottom falls out. Look at what happens in Genesis 22.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then 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.”
(Genesis 22:1-2)
WHAT?
You’ve got to be kidding me! After all we have been through? After leaving our original home for this place, after the whole Hagar-Ishmael fiasco, after waiting 100 years for Isaac to be born, after he has grown to be a teenager, you now ask me to do WHAT? WHY?
Of course, in Abraham’s day, it was common to believe that this is what gods asked of humans all the time. Human sacrifice was common practice in Abraham’s day. It was not as shocking to Abraham that a god would make somebody do this. But this God seemed different. This God made promises and kept them! This God seemed just and loving, not selfish and needy and spiteful. This has got to be completely tearing Abraham apart!
"What is this God doing? Can I trust him anymore? This boy is not just any boy—this boy is my only son! This boy is not just any boy—this boy is every promise you have given me in one package!"
Without Isaac, we have no promise of blessing! Without Isaac, we have no promise of my descendents being given this land! Without Isaac, we have no promise of being a great nation!
Here is the key to understanding what is going on here: God is not just telling Abraham to kill his only son whom he loves (which would be bad enough!), he is telling
Abraham to kill the very promises God has made! God is saying to Abraham, “You know all those promises of blessing in your life? Well, I want you to forget all that.”
The roller coaster has never been more terrifying. What would you do? Look at what Abraham does.
Early 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. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
(Genesis 22:3-4)
Abraham set out to do what he was told to do. And it took him three days to arrive at his destination. Three days of agonizing over this. This is not some knee-jerk obedience. He is not able to push himself through this quickly before he can feel it. He is unable to think, “Let’s get this over with!” Three days he has to live with what he must do. And he continues on his dreadful route with the boy whom he loves beside him.
He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham 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?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. (Genesis 22:5-8)
Those three days of prayerful reflection on what God has commanded has brought Abraham to a new conviction in his heart. Instead of turning his back on God, who at this point seems to have an egregious disregard for human life and for keeping his promises, Abraham reasons that even though all appears one way, the truth must be different. He does not know how things are different than they appear, he does not have a clue as to what God is doing, but he decides to trust that which he cannot understand. He decides to keep in trusting God.
He tells his servants, “We will worship and then we will come back to you,”
and then he tells his son,
“God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
Abraham is absolutely positive that he will have to use that knife. He is absolutely certain that he is going to have to burn his boy’s body. But he is thinking, “Maybe God can bring him back from the dead!” That is what the author of Hebrews tells us,
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Hebrews 11:17-19)
Then we watch, in what seems to be agonizingly slow motion deliberate action, the moment of truth:
When 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. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
(Genesis 22:9-10)
How terrible. But then look what happens!
But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“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.”
Abraham 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. So 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.”
(Genesis 22:11-14)
The ram is provided by God! Abraham does not have to follow through on this awful act!
And we are finally told why God put Abraham through this ordeal. Look again at verse 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.”
Up until now, we had no idea why God has put Abraham through this ordeal. Now we are told. Why did God put Abraham through this? He wanted to know something about Abraham’s heart. Of course, in his omniscience, God already knows everything. But there is a difference between knowing something in your head and knowing something through experience. God wants to know us and for us to know him in our experience with him as we live out our lives in faith and worship. For instance, God wants us to pray even though he knows what we are going to say and may already have the answer in motion.
God asks us to express our faith and love, not just inside but with words and actions—it is when we act that we are really living out what we believe. It is in what we do that displays our love and devotion and worship—even though God knows what is in the heart.
Let me give you an example. My wife and kids know that I love them. But it is still very important that I say that I love them, and that I continually display in my actions that I love them. There is a difference in head knowledge and experiential knowledge. Head knowledge is not always enough—they need to see it and hear it.
And here Abraham is asked to demonstrate more than he ever was asked to demonstrate before. When he was asked to leave his father’s land and inheritance, it was in the prospect of getting something better. Every choice of faith that Abraham made up to this point is balanced by the fact that he was trusting that it would actually profit him to trust in God—things are always better when you obey God. God always made it worth his while; there was always something to lose, but more to gain!
Here, however, there is nothing to gain. No promise balances out the loss of his son. In fact the act he is about to do would nullify all the promises!
So, this is the “test” that is given to Abraham: It is one of trusting and loving God over all the things he can get from God. It is a test of
Abraham’s relationship with God! It asks whether Abraham’s trust is really in God, and not simply in what God can do for Abraham. T. W. Mann writes, “Abraham has built altars before and sacrificed to this God, when God renewed the promises. Is he willing now to build an altar and sacrifice the promises themselves, embodied in his son, in order to demonstrate his unswerving trust in the God who stands behind the promises?”
In other words, is Abraham’s faith motivated by personal gain or simply by his love for God?
Up until now, we really don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe Abraham himself does not know the answer to that question! The test forces him to evaluate whether his faith is in God or in what he can get out of God. Is God and God alone what he wants? Is he willing to give up all he desires in this life, all that he loves, all that he hopes for in order to gain God and God alone?
There is an insidious theology that has crept into the modern church. You hear it all the time on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and from the leaders of certain churches and in popular books. It is the heretical notion that there is a promise of prosperity if you become a Christian. It is that God blesses Christians with health and wealth, and you should desire those things from God above all else. The problem with this warping of the biblical message is this: Why are you seeking to become a Christian—for what you can get out of God, or for getting God Himself? Kenneth Copeland would say, “For what you can get out of God.” The Bible says, “For God himself.”
We do not become Christians for material benefits. If that is your motivation, you are in for a rude awakening someday.
True Christians do not desire just what God can give us, we desire God Himself! We do not desire heaven as a place for bliss and comfort for bliss and comfort’s sake, but as a place to be with God for all eternity—for it is really GOD that we desire! It is God and God alone that is the source of our satisfaction!
What we must check is how warped theology may creep into our thinking as well. We often think that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between our obeying God and God providing our every need. We think that if we obey God and trust him and do all the things that good little Christians are supposed to do, then our lives will be smooth and uneventful. No tragedies, no crises, no rollercoaster.
But this raises the question: Are we being obedient for what we can get out of God, or are we being obedient because, well, because we simply love God?
This is the test for us: What if I got NOTHING in return from God but God Himself?
What if there were no promises of heaven or blessing or health or prosperity from God—would I still love him and trust him? Or am I in it for what I can get out of it?
Don’t get me wrong, God has made promises to Christians of incredible blessings. But, what so often happens is that we make a god out of the blessings from God. We put our hope in what we can get out of God! What if there was nothing in it for us in this life? Would we give God our lives if he gave nothing back BUT HIMSELF?
If the rollercoaster of life takes a terribly unexpected dip, will my faith be shaken? Will I lose my hope? If so, the question must be asked—in what am I placing my hope—in a life of comfort or in God himself?
So, is God testing you today? Know this: God will not test you in the same dramatic way he did Abraham. He is not going to ask you to give up your child. It would be a mistake to infer from this very particular moment of unrepeatable history that he would ask us to do the same. That is not the point. The test is not primarily concerned with whether you would give up your child for God. It is deeper.
The test we are asked to give ourselves in light of this passage is this: We must answer a simple question.
What motivates me to be in a relationship with God? Is it the benefits he provides? Or is it God himself? Is my faith focused on what I can get out of it, or is it focused on God? That is what Abraham is asked when he is asked to build that altar to destroy all that he has benefited from his relationship with God.
God asks no less of us than to be our all in all. |
