Bible Study for Texas lesson for Dec. 30
Spiritual growth is a step-by-step experience
___Genesis 22:1-19
___1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
___"Here I am," he replied.
___2 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."
___3 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. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 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."
___6 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, 7 Isaac 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?"
___8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9When 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. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
___"Here I am," he replied.
___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."
___13 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. 14 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."
___15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
___19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
|
___By Amelia Bishop
___"Can you spell 'commitment'?"
___If someone were to ask me this, I would probably nod my head with some degree of confidence, optimist that I am.
___But if someone were to say, "Do you think that your life exemplifies total commitment?" that would be a horse of a different color. The word "total" changes the picture. How do you exemplify total commitment?
___ There have been those who, at one time or another, seemed to do so. Some of these we know or know about. And we have been blessed by knowing these people. Others we do not know; their paths never have crossed ours, nor have we read about them. Nonetheless, they are there and their lives are making a difference where God has placed them. He knows their names; that is enough.
___Abraham is one we do know about. He was a man whose faith journey was a series of steps, each one bringing him closer to spiritual maturity. (And this description of spiritual pilgrimage tells the story of many of us, if not most.) When the call came to go to a far country, he went.
___But when he went to Egypt, he stumbled badly. Later, his graciousness in dealing with Lot demonstrates beautifully putting others before himself. But when it came to his covenant with God, he was grateful, yet he kept thinking, "How can this be?" Yet even that doubt ultimately was resolved.
___Thus we know his growth was a step-by-step process, perhaps taking two steps forward and one back. Ultimately, it came to the point where he clearly demonstrated his total commitment to the God whom he followed, as we shall see in Genesis 22.
___Studying the Scripture passage for this week, we have found Abraham living a seemingly undisturbed life with his wife, Sarah, his son, Isaac, their larger family and his entourage. All was going well. Then suddenly he was given a seemingly impossible task, and, to make it worse, no reason was given for it. He was called upon to do the absolutely unthinkable. His world promptly turned upside-down.
___A call beyond understanding
___First, God said, "Abraham!" And Abraham responded, "Here am I" (Genesis 22:1).
___At first glance, this seems like a simple statement of facts. But look beyond. There was no repeating of the name, and seemingly no time lapse before Abraham's reply. Also, it was obviously not a pre-arranged conference.
___It is obvious that Abraham had continued to live close enough to God to hear him when he called, even as we saw him doing in earlier years. Even so, he was totally unprepared for what followed.
___God said the unthinkable: "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. ... Go to the region of Moriah. ... Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering ..." (Genesis 22:2).
___There it was. A directive completely beyond understanding. A summons that seemed to negate everything God had promised. Isaac was the focal point of Abraham's life, his link with the future. And now?
___We have no way of knowing what went through Abraham's mind, but we can imagine its tortuous turns. Why? Why? He could not understand in any way.
___But Abraham was not expected to understand. God had spoken, and Abraham's response was to obey. That was it. Seemingly, there was no thought to do otherwise.
___He got up early the next morning. Did he decide it was better not to face Sarah with this awful responsibility that had come upon him? Or did he perhaps think he'd better do it and get it over with? In all probability, he hadn't slept anyway. He saddled a donkey and took with him two servants and his son, Isaac. Before leaving, he cut enough wood for the burnt offering.
___And so they started.
___The journey, the altar
___The three-day journey to Moriah would have been a long one indeed. Abraham's mind undoubtedly was in turmoil, yet his purpose did not waver. He was following God's instructions, and if those instructions seemed so different from what he knew of God, then there must be something about the whole scenario he did not comprehend.
___Hadn't God, at earlier times, said that murder was wrong and that there was a severe penalty attached?
___He was so grateful for Isaac and had tried to be a good father. Now this was diametrically opposed to everything a father should do and be for his son. It was hard for him even to imagine it. How could he possibly be asked to do it?
___What had Isaac done to deserve this? He had been a loving, dutiful son, hadn't he?
___How could he ever face Sarah again?
___Perhaps he even reviewed the tests of the past. All those long years ago, God had asked him to give up his home and kinfolk, and he had. God had wanted him to believe implicitly in the covenant between them and stop worrying about an heir. Ultimately, he had. That was all in his past. Now, was God asking him to give up his future? That's what it would mean if Isaac were sacrificed.
___Abraham did not know any of the answers, yet he trusted God and plodded steadily onward.
___When he saw the mountain in the distance, Abraham asked his servants to wait there, while he and Isaac proceeded. In his instructions, he indicated the two of them (both Abraham and Isaac) would return. (Note the use of the word "we" in Genesis 22:5.) Even here, Abraham did not know just how God would provide the needed sacrifice, but somehow he obviously believed the situation would be resolved.
___(A second interpretation regarding the use of the word "we": Some scholars have suggested this simply could have been Abraham's way of reassuring the servants.)
___And then, on the way up the mountain, Isaac pointed out that they had fire and wood and asked wonderingly, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" (Genesis 22:7).
___Abraham simply answered that God would provide. And they kept going.
___Deliverance! Affirmation!
___When they reached the designated place, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood. He bound his son and laid him on the altar. There is no indication that Isaac tried to run away or protest. Apparently, he had complete faith in his father.
___Abraham raised the knife to slay his son.
___Suddenly, God's voice came. "Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy. ... 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" (Genesis 22:12).
___This is a particularly interesting verse. First, let us remember that in the Old Testament, "fear God" meant to follow him in complete obedience. Certainly Abraham was known to be one who did. And certainly also, God, being omniscient, would have known this beforehand. But consider this, the verb form of the word "know" used in this verse sheds some light on the situation. "Know" in this instance means to "know by experience." In other words, God had known before this happened that it was in Abraham's heart to be obedient. Now, by this experience, God has seen it demonstrated.
___Then, as the Scripture tells us, Abraham looked up, saw the ram and sacrificed it. Scholars point out this was not a sacrifice in place of Isaac but that the sacrifice was Abraham's response to the goodness of God.
___Knowing with all that was within him that God had provided the answer to his heart-rending dilemma, Abraham named the place "The Lord Will Provide."
___Indeed God did. And he crowned the occasion by renewing his promise to Abraham and did so with superlatives. In doing so, he used the expression, "I swear by myself," which is the only time this expression is used in the book of Genesis. The covenant had been said and sealed earlier; now it was sworn.
___Abraham then returned to his servants and to Beersheba.
___I wonder what he told Sarah when he got back.
___Gleanings
___One of the wonderful things about Bible stories is that no matter how often we read them, we continue to learn from them.
___That is certainly true here.
___Some have wondered, "Could our God--a God of love--really ask Abraham to make such a sacrifice ... to do such a thing?"
___Two thoughts may be projected here.
___First, in the opening of Genesis 22, we find these words, "Some time later, God tested Abraham ... ." Thus the reader is told that what follows is a test. God did not want Isaac to die; he stopped Abraham's hand when the knife was raised.
___Second, scholars remind us that we are living "on the other side of the New Testament." In other words, we have the advantage of knowing what God is truly like because it has been demonstrated for us in the incarnational life of Christ Jesus. The people of Abraham's day had no such opportunity.
___Perhaps it is true that each generation responds to God, and tells his story, in the light of their own understanding of him.
___ It is important beyond words that we be true to what we know, to what we understand, of God and his message.
___ Are we?
Questions for thought and discussion
___ "I really admire Nancy! She's what I call committed!"--or--"Did you see all the work that George did down at the mission? He's really committed!" We hear comments like this from time to time, and often they are deserved. But exactly what is commitment? Is it participation in the total church program? Is it dependability? Is it teaching a Sunday School class or leading the GAs or RAs? What do you think?
___ Our lessons on Abraham seemingly have shown that he could hear God's voice because he was close. What are some of the times you have felt close to God? Is being in a church involved or perhaps being on a mountaintop? Or is a specific locale involved? Did it follow some momentous experience, or did it happen suddenly?
___ None of us has faced the type of "test" that Abraham did. But have there been times when you felt that God was asking you--leading you--to do something that was far removed from anything you had ever done? Or even considered doing? Were you surprised or maybe even stunned? Is it an occasion you can share?
___ At times, in the process of doing what you feel God wants you to, you still have doubts or questionings somewhere in the back of your mind. How do you handle this?
___ In this lesson, we have noticed growth is a step-by-step process. Can you identify with that? How has it been with you? Are you prepared to do things now that you would not have in the past?
The Baptist Standard
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
|