Genesis 22-23

Genesis 22-23

Despite all the times that Abraham doubted God and thought that God was not going to come through on His promise, when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham did not seem to hesitate. He did not argue with God and he did not question God. I feel that I have would have asked God “why?” How can the promise of his descendants numbering the number of stars in the sky and the number of grains of sand on the beach become reality without Isaac, the chosen son? Abraham may have been thinking these things, but he did not question God. Instead, the text tells us that he got up and did exactly as God had commanded. He gathered the wood, he went and got Isaac, and the two of them headed out to Moriah just as God commanded.

Upon arrival, Abraham took Isaac alone and headed to the mountain, telling the men with them that they were going to worship. That takes a lot of faith. Not only is he preparing to sacrifice his son, but he is even calling it worship. Abraham has finally come to a point in his life where he trusts God completely. He has no doubts that whatever God decides, He will still provide. Either God is about to provide another lamb for this particular sacrifice, or God is going to provide Abraham with another son to replace Isaac. Either way, Abraham seems to believe that despite the outcome of the day, God will still be able to be trusted.

As Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac to the Lord, God calls out to him to tell him to stop. Just as Abraham had told Isaac, God provided. Seeing that Abraham had complete faith in him, God sent a ram to replace Isaac on the altar. God once again proved that He is trustworthy, and Abraham expressed that He trusted God. This is the ultimate picture of God’s provision. In the same way, we can trust that God will provide for us today. It may not look like we had imagined. We may have had different plans for our lives. But if we have faith in God like Abraham did, then we will always recognize that despite the circumstances, God will always provide for us.

Afterwards Abraham received the promise once more, as a reminder. Abraham’s family would indeed be blessed. His descendants would be so numerous it would be nearly impossible to count. God was about to create a people for Himself out of Abraham. Genesis 22 closes with more historical information, this time about Abraham’s brother, Nahor. This may seem insignificant, but remember that it is Scripture. I do notice any connection right off the bat, but I guarantee that these names would have been familiar to the original audience. They are probably some tribes that are later mentioned in Scripture.

In Genesis 23, the death of Sarah is recorded. Abraham, living near the Hittites at the time asked for a place to bury her. Like Abimelech, the Hittites recognized Abraham’s face, calling him a prince of God. They noticed something different in him and knew that he could be trusted. So they gave him the choice of tombs in which to bury Sarah. The leader of the Hittites was Ephron, and he too saw the faith of Abraham. He saw it so much so that he was willing to give the land to Abraham, not allowing Abraham to pay for it. Abraham ended up paying full price, because he did not feel comfortable accepting the land for free. But still, Abraham’s faith was so evident that those who came in contact with him knew that he could be trusted as well. Now I am not going to restate what I wrote yesterday about how our lives should look to the outside world, but once again we see that Abraham lives out his faith, and it becomes obvious to those around him.

Matt