Jehovah Jyra
Genesis 22:1-19
by
Todd H. Hilkemann
Preached on
02/11/07
at Calvary Christian Reformed Church
Edina, MN
Our text this morning is Genesis 22. This story is one of the most important stories in all of scripture. It is central to the theology of both Jews and Christians. It is one of the high points in the Old Testament. And not only the Old Testament, it is one of the greatest stories in all of the ancient world. It has been told and retold. It is the focus of many famous works of art. It is dramatic and full of emotion. Many of us are familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac. It is a classic of the highest order. But at the heart of the story is God. Even though this text tells us about Abraham and Isaac. The Lord is the main character in this story. This story reveals God. It tells us that the Lord calls; the Lord sees; and the Lord provides. In the midst of this beautiful story we must not forget that God is the one who initiates it, He sees all of the events unfolding, and when it matters the most God shows up. The Lord calls, the Lord sees, and the Lord provides.
This passage tells us that the Lord calls his people to a life of active faith. The Lord Calls. In this text the Lord calls Abraham. Look at verse 1. We are told from the very beginning that this is a test. Abraham did not know it was a test, but that’s what this is; it is a test from the Lord. God calls Abraham to respond in faith. This didn’t happen at Abraham’s prompting. He didn’t ask to follow God, he didn’t beg to prove his loyalty. God initiates the call to faithful living. God is the prime mover. Notice that this is a very personal call. God calls Abraham. He uses Abraham’s name. This was not a general call to a group of people. God did not say, “Hey, is anyone down there listening to me? Will someone please respond to this test?” This was a specific call to a specific person whom God knew by name. That’s the way God calls. God calls His people to respond to Him in faith. He doesn’t call just anyone. John Doe just won’t do. He calls Abraham. He calls Isaac. He calls Cody Statema and Linda Ribbens. He calls Nicki Kuiper. God’s call is personal and specific. Like a loving father, God calls His children by name. He calls His children to a life of faith.
That’s a comforting thought isn’t it? It is comforting to know that God calls us personally and specifically, but before we get too comfortable in that knowledge we should understand what God’s calling His people to. God’s call isn’t easy; it involves hardship and challenge. God’s call involves sacrifice. When God calls us to faith He calls us to a life of sacrifice. For Abraham, that meant a literal sacrifice. God called Abraham to sacrifice His son Isaac. The call to sacrifice a son, to lay one’s progeny on the altar and surrender him to God is hard enough, but this is not just any son. This is Isaac. This is the son whom Sarah bore to Abraham when she was old and when he was more than 100. The text emphasizes the cost of this sacrifice. Look at verse 2. God says, “Take your son.” Which son? “Your only son.” Who? “Isaac.” And then God drives the point home, “whom you love.” We know that Abraham had more than one son, he also fathered Ishmael from Sarah’s servant Hagar, but in chapter 21 at God’s command, Abraham sent Ishmael and Hagar away. Abraham only had one son left; that was Isaac, the child of promise, the one whom God gave him in his old age. And that’s what God calls Abraham to do. Sacrifice Isaac. When God calls someone to a life of faith it involves sacrifice. If we want to live a life of faith we must surrender some of what we cherish. Although God does not call us to literally kill someone, He does call us love Him above everyone else. Listen to what Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 10:37-38. “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” In fact, when God calls His people to faith, they must not only sacrifice their loyalty to other people, they must sacrifice their own desires. God’s children must surrender our lives to Him. This is what Paul tells us in Romans 12. Paul writes, “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” When the Lord calls us to faith, he calls us to sacrifice our family and our own lives to Him. God’s call involves sacrifice.
That is a high calling. It is difficult, indeed impossible to do with only human strength. But in this high calling, God is gracious. God is gracious because his call to follow him is progressive. God meets us where we are. He is patient and He knows that a life of faith takes time. This is true for Abraham too. Really, we are being a bit unfair to the text today. We are looking at Genesis 22 without the advantage of the rest of the story. Genesis 22 is the pinnacle of Abraham’s story. Everything else prepared Abraham for this moment, and after this chapter the focus moves to Isaac. But Genesis 22 reminds us of God’s earlier call in Abraham’s life which began all the way back in Genesis 12. Note the similarities between the two calls. In Genesis 12:1 God tells Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Here God tells Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac … and go to the Region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there … on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” God’s first call came early in His life, but God called again. God wasn’t done with Abraham. God’s call was progressive. Now God’s call in Genesis 12 and 22 are very similar but there are at least two enormous differences. The first call came with a promise, “I will make you a great nation …I will make your name great … I will bless you.” This one had no such promise attached to it, which leads us to the second difference, namely that Abraham has already received God’s promise in Isaac, and he is now called to surrender even that. So why is the call different? God has not changed, so why has the call changed? But Abraham has changed. Abraham has walked with God for many years. By the time we come to Genesis 22, Abraham’s faith is more mature so the call to faith is a bit more difficult. That’s because God’s call to a life of faithfulness is progressive. God meets us where we are in our faith journey, but He does not leave us there. He keeps calling us to higher and higher levels of faith. He calls us to grow in the journey, to experience the challenges and joys of following Him in new ways. Faith is always progressive. This side of the new creation we will always need to grow stronger in our faith. Faith is sort of like a football team during the course of a season. Tom Brady, the Quarterback of the New England Patriots once said, “Each week we get better, or we get worse. We don’t stay the same. We try hard each week to get better.” That’s what God wants from us, he wants our faith to get better. Like a good coach God calls us to deeper levels of faith. He won’t be satisfied with us until our faith is a reflection of His character. God’s call to faith is progressive.
In these initial verses, we see that God calls His people to a life of active faith. His call is personal, it requires sacrifice, and it is progressive. God calls us to trust him, to obey him, to love him. The Lord calls us to a life of active faith. Then the Lord sees our response. When the Lord calls us to faith, when he tests us, he watches us, he walks with us. The Lord sees those who respond in faith.
We see this in our text with Abraham. Abraham hears God’s call and he responds in faith. How do we know that Abraham responded in faith? We hear his faith in his words and we see it in his deeds. We know that Abraham believed God and followed God because of what he said and because of what he did. First let’s listen to Abraham’s words. Look at verses 1 and 11. When God calls, Abraham responds, “Here I am.” What Abraham says is, “Yes Lord, I’m listening. I’m ready to hear you. What is it that you are asking of me?” Abraham responds to God’s call. Then listen with me to Abraham’s words in verse 5. Here, we hear his remarkable faith when he says to the servants, “Stay here…while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Although he is going over there to sacrifice Isaac, his words tell us that he believes in God’s promise. He believes that Isaac is the child of promise and that both of them will come back from the mountain. Then again we hear his great faith in verses seven and eight. When Isaac asks him, “Where is the lamb?” Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” Abraham knew, he had faith, that, God would provide. Now, I don’t believe that Abraham actually thought that he would find a ram at the top of the mountain to sacrifice instead of Isaac. But Abraham believed that God would provide for Isaac. Abraham believed that God would meet his need. That is what the New Testament says about Abraham. The author of Hebrews in chapter 11 says this about Abraham: “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.” When we listen to Abraham’s words, we hear that he had faith in God’s promise.
But we not only hear Abraham’s faith in his words, we see it in his actions. Abraham puts legs to his faith. When God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac the text tells us in verse 3, “early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey.” He didn’t delay. He acted promptly. We see his faith because he keeps walking; he keeps moving in obedience to God’s call. In fact he moves for three days to go to Moriah. That’s a long time to reconsider and to turn around and go back. But Abraham keeps acting in faith. He obeys. He arrives at the foot of the mountain. He leaves his servants behind. He takes wood and burning coals for the fire. He takes a knife. Abraham takes Isaac. He comes to the place God showed him and he builds an altar. He ties Isaac up and takes a hold of the knife. He raises the knife ready to plunge it into his only son. We know that Abraham believed God would provide for him, because we see Abraham act. That’s what we read this morning in James 2. James writes, “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” Abraham demonstrated his faith in his words and in his actions. And God was paying attention. At just the right time God pronounced that Abraham had passed the test. God says, “Don’t do anything to the boy. Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
God saw Abraham the whole journey. I’m sure on that journey to Moriah there were many times when Abraham said to God in prayer, “God are you sure you know what you are doing? Do you see me down here?” But God heard and saw his great faith. God saw what Abraham needed. God does the same for us. When he calls us to follow Him, He knows the journey will be difficult. He knows there will be trials along the way, but He sees our faith. He is with us in the journey. It is significant to note that the Hebrew word that we translate “provide” can also mean “see.” Thousands of years ago Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek. That is called the Septuagint. When they translated verse 14 they wrote, “And Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord has seen; so that today people might say, on the mountain the Lord was seen.” God sees our faith. He is with us in the journey; He is with us in the calling; He is present. The Lord sees.
So, God is the one who calls us. The Lord calls. And God is the one who sees our faith. The Lord sees. But most importantly, the Lord provides. God is not arbitrary, he is not simply curious about how we will respond to certain situations. The Lord is actively involved in providing what we need to respond faithfully. He sees our needs and He provides for them.
The Lord provided for Abraham and blessed him. At just the right moment, just as Abraham had the knife raised to plunge it into Isaac, God showed up. The Lord said, “Abraham, Abraham,” and stopped him from slaying his son. Abraham dropped the knife. And then he looked up, and saw God’s provision. Look at what the text says in verse 13. “Abraham, looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.” Remember that I said the word “provide” also can mean “see.” Here is that word again. Abraham “saw.” That’s the same word. Because Abraham was obedient to respond to God’s call He saw God’s provision. Abraham saw God deliver Isaac from certain death and provide a substitution. Can you imagine that worship service on that mountain? Can’t you just see father and son dancing, rejoicing, and singing praises on that mountain because God delivered Isaac from death. Oh what a worship service that must have been because they saw God provide. And so Abraham names that place, “Jehova Jyra.” The Lord will provide. You see that is the point of this narrative. This story tells us about Abraham and his faith, but this story is about the Lord calling, the Lord seeing, and the Lord providing. That’s what Abraham believed and that’s what he saw. He believed that God would deliver Isaac and then he saw it. He saw God work. And in the midst of their joyful worship the Lord confirms His promise to Abraham again. The Lord swears by Himself that Abraham’s descendents would be too great to count, that they would possess the land of Canaan and that every nation on earth would be blessed because of him. What a promise! Think about what Abraham would have missed if he had stayed in Beersheba, if he didn’t answer God’s call. Abraham was comfortable in Beersheba. He had a loving wife and a son named laughter. Abraham didn’t need any more adventures. He’d lived a good life. He was so wealthy that neighboring countries made treaties with him. He could have stayed in Beersheba, lived the good life, and avoided all the pain and suffering he experienced in offering Isaac on the altar. But think of what he would have missed! He would have missed out on seeing God’s provision. He would have missed God’s blessing. All of the pain in following the Lord was worth it for that moment on Moriah when he and Isaac rejoiced in the Lord’s provision and in His blessing.
That’s what the Lord wants for us too. The Lord wants us to rejoice in Him, in His provision and in His blessing. The Lord calls us to leave our comfortable Beersheba’s and go on the impossible adventure of faith so that we will see Him do the impossible. God is calling us to a higher and deeper faith. The call involves sacrifice, but He will provide along the way. Let me share a story with you about how God is doing that right now at Calvary Church. Many of you know that we host a women’s Bible Study called Coffee Break. Coffee Break is designed to be a small-group Bible study for women in the community. And our Coffee Break ministry is thriving. Right now there are more than 40 women who meet at two locations on two different days who are studying God’s word and growing in their faith. But that wasn’t always the case. Coffee Break began many years ago at First Church and when First closed its doors, Coffee Break almost stopped too. There were only 8 women who were involved, the group was shrinking, and they were short on leaders. But they were long on faith. They knew that God was calling them to continue, so they prayed and they walked in faith. They continued to meet and for a while they saw no growth. Then God provided a new location and they began to meet at a Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park. They began to canvas the neighborhood inviting women to come to the study. And God Provided. Women began to come. After the September 11 terrorist attacks they were distributing flyers about coffee break and two women who were out on a walk found the flyers and decided to come. When they started, these two women did not have a strong faith and they did not know much about the Bible. But God has worked in their life. The leaders tell me that both of those women are growing in their faith and one is even moving toward leadership. And God provided. In fact both Coffee Break groups are getting so big that the leaders are now praying for more leaders to serve the women who are coming. You see, these women heard God’s call, God saw them respond in faith, and God is providing for them. They get to see God’s hand at work, and it is exciting. They have seen Jehovah Jyra.
What is God’s calling on your life today? What sacrifice is He asking you to make? Maybe it involves your career. Maybe it involves how you spend your free time. Perhaps God is asking you to make that difficult phone call, or to extend forgiveness to that person in your past. Maybe God is calling you to use your gifts and talents in the church or in another ministry. My friends, respond to God’s call. When you do, you will see God work and you will rejoice in His provision.
Maybe today you sense that God is calling you into a relationship with Him. And you want to respond in faith. This story is for you too. It reminds us that nearly 2000 years ago God sent His own son Jesus, the Messiah, to earth. Jesus left the comforts of heaven. He too journeyed by faith to the top of a hill outside of Jerusalem carrying the wood for a sacrifice. Only this time Jesus, God’s only son, was the provision. Jesus was the ram. He was pierced for our sins. He died on a cross for our wrongs. But He rose to life on the third day so that we can have a relationship with God and we can have eternal life in him. If God is calling you to a relationship with him, look no farther than Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God. Put your faith in Him.
My friends, The Lord Calls, his call is personal, it is sacrificial, and it is progressive. The Lord Sees, He watches His people and He knows our needs. The Lord Provides, He gives us what we need, so that we will rejoice in His glory. The Lord Calls, The Lord Sees, The Lord Provides. Won’t you answer his call? Lord grant us the strength to do so. Amen.