Now I Know

Well, if you'd like a title to messages, let me give it to you right up front here. Three words, the title, Now I Know. Now I Know. And we're going to come to a moment in Scripture which, for me, is one of the most moving moments in all the pages of the Bible. So I invite you to open your Bibles, and let's turn to where those words are found in Genesis, chapter 22. If you'll turn there with me. Genesis 22, we're going to begin reading to set our foundation, verses 1 through 10. Genesis 22, verses 1 through 10, where we come to a moment in the life of Abram, Abraham, as he now is standing in profound contemplation with no doubt conflicting emotions, with God's voice reverberating in his ears, sending him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. And yet, amidst the inner turmoil, Abraham's trust and faith remained unwavering, leading him to obey without hesitation. And again, it's one of the most incredible acts of faith recorded in all the Bible that we now come to. Genesis 22, let's begin reading in verse 1. Now, it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. Then God said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then, on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey, and the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac his son. He took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father, and Abraham said, Here I am, my son. And Isaac said, Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Then Abraham said to his son, Look, the Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them went together. And they came to the place which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there, placed the wood in order. He bound Isaac his son, laid him on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Let's stop there.

Stop there right at that climatic moment, and we'll get to the rest of the story in just a moment. But I think we can say, as we move into this quite moving story, to read the Bible, even at a kind of a cursory glance, what we find is to walk the pathway of faith, it involves facing challenges, and it involves trusting promises, even when things seem too hard or too hopeless to do so. You know, again, if you've ever given yourself over to the Bible, anyone with any kind of understanding will know that biblical faith will put great demands upon anyone who's prepared to embrace it. In the Bible, you will find repeatedly, all throughout the pages, great tests of faith, great tests, but I propose that perhaps none come to us. There's no test that comes to us that has such a chilling challenge as this here in Genesis 22. Of course, second only to Christ's sacrifice, no doubt. Perhaps we could say that there's not a single test in the Bible that comes and hits us the way Genesis 22 does. Because when you look at this challenge, this test from God to Abraham, you know, God's not asking Abraham to part the sea. God's not asking Abraham to crumble walls or to defeat an army. Perhaps most striking, God's asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, a son to whom Sarah conceived, this son named Isaac. What a joy it must have been for Isaac to take this young child, Isaac, into his arms. He was 100 years old. It took 25 years from the promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah. It took 25 years for that fulfillment of the promise of that of a son. And when this son came, he was not only a blessing to Abraham and Sarah, but he did in fact come with an entire future held within this baby. Let me just remind you of the future that came with this baby. If you'll turn back just a few chapters or so, turn back to Genesis 15, if you will, verses 1-6. Here in Genesis 15, verses 1-6, we see that Isaac the baby came with an incredible promise that would affect mankind from that point forward. Look at this. Genesis 15. Let's begin reading verse 1 and we'll read through verse 6. Genesis 15, verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless? And the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. Stop there for a moment. Eleazar was the steward of the house. So if Abram remained childless, the custom was that Eleazar would become heir. Continuing here, verse 3. Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to Abram, saying, This one, Eleazar, shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said, Abram, look now toward heaven. Count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to Abram, So shall your descendants be. Verse 6. And he, Abram, believed in the Lord, and he the Lord accounted it to him, Abram, for righteousness. Now turn forward with me to chapter 21, if you will, in verse 1. Chapter 21 and verse 1. We see that God did, in fact, make good on that promise, and brought that heir, which was Isaac.

Genesis 21. Let's read verses 1 through 3. Here it is, the fulfillment of that promise. Genesis 21 verse 1. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at a set time of which God had spoken to him. In Abraham, verse 3, called the name of his son, whom was born to him, whom Sarah born to him, Isaac. So let's stop there. So this was some 25 years later. This boy comes here, the specialness of a boy, the blessing to a couple who had remained childless. But not only that, along with this boy came this incredible promise, as we read there in Genesis 15, that a multitude of descendants would come from Isaac. So you can imagine when when a Brahmin and Sarah held this little baby, they knew of the importance that this little baby would make it through the crucial months of infancy, right, and the incredible importance of protecting and bringing him through the pre-teen, and then on into the teenage years, and ultimately into adulthood, and ultimately into fatherhood, right? They knew of the extreme importance because of the promise which was attached to Isaac. But going forward to chapter 22, in a peculiar situation, we now have this that that promise of God now in the shadow of the test from God, right? The promise of this, the incredible inheritance, the heirs that will come from Isaac, now in the long shadows of and dark shadows of this test from God. Why? Why have the test come alongside the promise?

Well, simply stated, the test comes alongside the promise to determine our faith in the promise. Okay, it's a fairly clear, simple statement. I know it resonates with you what what a brahm is going through, what Abraham's going through. The test comes alongside the promise to determine our faith in the promise. So, simply stated, this is the truth, and the words here for test, here that that what God is bringing before Abraham, the words, the original words, mean simply to prove by trial. To prove by trial. To prove what? To prove our faith. How? By trial. By trial. So, it is to determine that no trial or test will ever overcome our faith in the promises from God. So that, in the end, we will hear those three words that were spoken to Abraham by God, now I know. Now I know.

That's ultimately our greatest desire, is to allow the test to prove that we were faithful to the promises that God gave us so that God will utter those three words to us. If we can end this physical life with those three words being given to us, that's a life. That's a good life. It's a good life. So, let's take a look at this test. I think it's going to be profitable for us to look at this test because it will help us navigate our test to that end. And so, I first want to break this, just to help organize our thoughts, I want to break this test here in Genesis 23, Genesis 22 into three categories, three parts. And first, look and notice, number one, the context. Let's look at the context of the test here. I think it's going to be important for us to see. I think we're going to relate with Abraham in this context. Now, with regards to the context of this, we're really not given any details with regards to the amount of time that lapsed from chapter 21 to chapter 22. We just see there that chapter 22 opens up with those words, you know, sometime later, now it came to pass after these things. But with regards to context, we can determine how many years had passed from Isaac's birth to now this challenge, this test. If you look at verse 6, we see that Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. So Isaac would have reached, I think we can confidently say, at least the age of a sturdy youth, perhaps, strong enough, old enough to make a three-day journey, strong enough, old enough to carry that load up the hill. So he was, at this point, a sturdy youth. Perhaps we could say entering into early teenage years. I think that would be a fair assumption. Also, in the context, we see that the two servants Abraham brought with him, they were called young men in verse 3. And it's the same word used to apply to Isaac in verse 5 and verse 12. So perhaps the young men that were brought along as servants were of the same age as Isaac at this point. So maybe, yeah, right around teenage, mid-teenage years, perhaps. So we can maybe confidently assume there had been 13, 14, 15, 16 years pass from the birth here. And now that is bringing Abraham and Isaac to this test. So that's a little bit of the context for us. And you know, be applying it. What promises has God made to you that is taking longer than a week? And you're starting to get worried. Has he listened? Is he going to answer it? Has it been a month? Has a promise been made to you that has not yet been fulfilled? And it's been a year? Two years? Ten years? So you begin to think about these other things and apply it to yourself. And it kind of recalibrates your expectations. And you begin to understand, you know, God is faithful. That's what I know. But perhaps His timetable is not the same as mine, you know? Very important. So it can help you in persevering for God to fulfill promises in your life. And it may be open yourself up to agreeing that it may take longer than what your expectation was. Another thing in the context here to look at this is to perhaps recalibrate your expectations as to the type of tests that God may present to you.

Maybe open up your mind to the type of tests. I don't know if Abraham would have been prepared for this context and this kind of test. And when I look at this, that God is asking of Abraham, my immediate, in my humanity, I immediately wonder, is this my God?

How could my God that I give myself to in faith and obedience, how could He ask such a thing of one of His children? Is this the God to whom I seek?

Well, the answer is yes. The answer is yes, it is our God. And so I need to maybe reflect upon my expectations, right? And I'll tell you, there are many who have balked at this story and many who have actually taken this story and it's caused them to move away from God to deny the authenticity of these verses because it doesn't square with their notion of who God is. But the key is that events square with God's notion of who God is, if you will. I could say that a better way, you know? And it's not that He square with our notion. And so with that, faith is needed, right? When we find God's ways mysterious, immediately we are challenged with whether we will have faith or not. When it doesn't align with what we see or if we're not able to see, and it's very mysterious the way God's working, immediately we're challenged in the realm of faith. In human reasoning, human logic will come in and it will deny this. It will explain it away. But faith comes and it confronts impossibility. Faith comes and confronts those things which are seemingly irrational to our human thinking. Faith says to those things, I can't ignore this. I gotta wrestle with it. I gotta wrestle with it. And we must wrestle with these things. And we do because it is in the inconceivable test where God's purposes are most often found. It's in the inconceivable test that we go through, most often where God's purposes are found. And so Abraham had to recalibrate. He had to get the noise out of his mind. He had to grab a hold of this request here, push back his own rationale, grab on to God's promise, his character. And because, you know, what did God know that Abraham didn't know at this point? Well, we may say that Abraham didn't know the fullness of what was going to happen. And God, perhaps at this moment, knew that ultimately he was going to have, he was not going to have Abraham sacrifice Isaac. Ultimately, God knew for him to fulfill his promise that he made, it was going to result in Isaac's life continuing. There would be a continuation of Isaac's life. But here, human rationale would have entered into the experience of Abraham. And that's what made this such a test. So let me ask you, what context are you in right now, which God has put you into circumstances, circumstances in which you do not know the full knowledge of how it's going to work out, therefore, what promise do you need to grab on to to get through it?

You know, this is such an important technique. When you don't know why this is happening, you don't know how it's going to work out, and by your vision, it can't work out by your human reasoning. The only way to get through it is for you to grab on to a promise that God has made you and never let go. And you'll say, I don't know this, but what I do know. What do I know? Well, God's mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. He said, I am his son. He said, I am his daughter. He said, he'll never leave me nor forsake me. Okay, I'm recalibrated here. So, I'm going to put my faith in those promises when everything else is legislating against it. Against it. So, that's the context. I hope you can connect with Abraham here. Number two aspect of this test that can be very valuable to us, that we can learn here. Number two aspect of this test is, number two, the cost. The cost. The cost involved. In order for us to develop the faith needed to make it to the end, let me just tell you, there will be costs involved. Absolutely. So, when you're presented with the cost, you're not struck unaware. It doesn't cause you to stumble by surprise or by something unexpected. When the costs come, you can say, okay, here we go. I don't like it. I'm going to pray for God's mercy, but I'm not caught unaware because I'm told and I've seen through the life of Abraham that there's going to be costs involved. And again, this is the faith that we're trying to build. Keep your marker here. Let's turn over to... and when we think about the costs here and developing the type of faith Abraham had, let's turn over to Hebrews 11. Again, keep your marker here. We'll come back. But, of course, Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 8, we have highlighted those of incredible faith, and Abraham's right at the heart of it all here. So, let's look at what it says about Abraham.

This is the great summary of what Abraham went through with his tests. Hebrews 11 verse 8, again, it's going to punctuate what we've spoken about so far and really highlight that there will be costs. Hebrews 11 verse 8, by faith, okay, so not by understanding all that was happening, not by God making everything clear, not by God bringing him a test that he could manage. No, solely by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

So, let's just stop there for a moment. Not knowing where he was going. What a wonder that is. And there's more. Go down to verse 11. We recognize this additional aspect of costs here. Sarah was beyond the age to bear a child. Verse 11, yeah, verse 11, middle of verse 11, she bore a child when she was past the age. That's astonishing. And then go down to verse 17, if you will, and here's where we just stand in silence before the the scripture here. Verse 17, here it is again, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He raised that knife. So, the cost is here, and it's remarkable. And I'll tell you, this is what faith is all about.

This is the core of faith. This is the essence of faith. What is faith? It is cost. Cost. You don't know where you're going. You're confronted with a physically impossible situation with Abraham's wife. And now you're performed to, you're asked to perform the inconceivable. That's faith. You don't know where you're going, where it's going to end up, how it's going to end, if it'll ever end.

You're confronted with some physical impossible situation, and you're asked to perform then the inconceivable. What a cost is involved here in the testing of Abraham's faith. And I propose you understand this. You understand this cost. When I just described what faith is, I know in your heart you're saying, yes, I'm with you on that. I get it. That's exactly what I'm going through. I'm facing these things. So in going back to Genesis 22, if you'll go back there, here it is.

Again, this encompasses all that was now coming to this moment with Abraham. Genesis 22 verse 2 again, God said, Genesis 22 verse 2, God said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and sacrifice him. And when I look at this, I don't even know if I know this kind of faith. I don't know if I know this here. But I think God needs to bring us to this kind of faith.

So as an individual, what leap of faith are you taking or willing to take for your faith? Or what are you preparing for? What might God ask you to the leap of faith to take in the future? Are you going to step up to it? Are you going to have this kind of faith? Are you going to understand what it's going to involve? There's cost involved in developing a faith needed to respond to God's calling. It's a deep level of faith, and there's real costs here. And in this kind of test, God may ask us to step up to establish the faith we need to finish this journey here on earth.

Where is God going to ask you? Where's God going to test you? And I'll tell you, it'll be in a test where it hurts the most, typically. Because, yes, we need refining in those areas where we're already strong. You know, that's a true statement. But ultimately, we need a shoring up of our faith in those areas where we're weakest. So God is going to provide, He's going to lovingly provide the exact tailored test to help shore up those areas where we need the most shoring up.

So He's going to come exactly to the place that you're most vulnerable. So as you're evaluating yourself and as you're going through your own recalling what you need, just know those are the areas where the test is going to come.

Is it pride? Is it family? Is it self-dependence? Is it having everything in control? Well, God's going to bring you a trial that's going to cause everything to go out of control, guaranteed. Is it future expectations? I thought this is the way my life was going to work out, and it's not.

All of it. There's going to be cost involved. So we understand the context. We understand the costs. In the third area, the last area to notice here, with regards to Abraham's tests and have it be effective in edifying for us, the third to notice is the consequence.

I planned it that all three start with C. There you go. There's no reason for that. There's no reason for that. There you have it. Number three to notice with regards to the aspect of this test is the consequence. And again, this speaks directly to our own human rationale. Sometimes that's the biggest challenge to overcome. What I thought it should be, what I thought was right, this is right, this is wrong, this is not what I thought, you know. We want to speak about the consequence. Again, what was going through Abraham's mind? If Isaac were to be sacrificed and killed, that would end the hope of the descendants, right? And by all human calculations, Abraham's actions would mean an end to God's divine plan.

And so, as we read these verses, one of the difficulties is, is when you think about God's promises in your life, it becomes clear that there's a problem that what God would ask Abraham to do with Isaac and what he promised to Abraham, those two things don't line up, human rationale. What you've promised me, God, and what you've asked me to do, these things don't line up, right? So, Abraham was ultimately confronted with a test which would determine if he would go the way of human logic, human wisdom, which would mean disobedience, or walk the path of faith.

You see, by human reasoning, the consequence of Abraham obeying God would logically mean to go against God's promise of an inheritance. So, human rationale, what are the consequences from me obeying God and basing my actions, relying upon myself? So, Abraham could have relied upon human logic to justify disobeying God's command. Well, I'm not going to do that, God, because then your promises would not be fulfilled. So, by my own human reasoning, I'm going to decline God.

And, man, this is where you're getting into just the real marrow of the situations and what we go through and our intellect and our motivations and our thinking, and therefore then our compromises and our justifications. And it can lead to us not fully and purely obeying God. That has to trump it all, right? We can never use human logic to justify disobedience to God. This is a trap that Abraham could have fallen into, but he didn't. And when you look at Abraham's actions, it's almost as if he's just needing to put his head down and think, obey, obey, obey, obey. There's so much noise out here in my own thoughts, and there's almost clinical steps that Abraham makes here. Look at verse 3 again here in chapter 22. He rose early in the morning, saddled this donkey, took two of his young men with him and his son, and his Isaac his son. It's almost clinical. He didn't allow himself to roll over in bed, pull the covers up, you know, struggle. Why? Why? Why, God? Why? No, it's click. Obey. I got to keep going forward. I know what to do is right, and I know God. I need to obey God. So I'm going to get up early, of all things. And so I don't think this is no emotion. I think he had quite a bit of emotion, but it's almost as if he's, it's almost as if he had a scale. And on this side of the scale is human emotion. It's human reasoning. It's weighing the consequences. And on this side of the scale, we have the choice to put trust and faith in God. And there, trust and faith in God. It will, it should always outweigh anything of our own, anything human, our own human reasonings. And where we battle with weighing what the consequences are in obeying God.

Faith and trust in God must always persevere, persevere. Must outweigh it all. So let me ask again, which way has the pan fallen in your life over the last few days, over the last year? Which way are the scales tipping as you face your future? Because what Abraham's test here tells us, and what he was facing, is exactly our test today. And so we see his clinical movements. He's getting up early. He's saddling the donkey. He's preparing the wood. He's going forward. He's moving his feet and allowing his heart to catch up, perhaps. And this was no small challenge. Look at verse 4. On the third day, verse 4, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. So it wasn't even like a day's journey. Now you had day one, right, traveling, walking with his son. Day two, walking with his son. Day three, walking with his son. And he looks up in the distance, and it's still far away off, you know. Plenty of time to think about all the consequences which will come from obeying God. Plenty of time to change his mind, come up with another scheme, make a U-turn. But he kept going. He kept going. Amazing. And so when we get to verse 6, they get to this place. Verse 6, he took Abraham, so Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on his son. Can't imagine. He took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. And then this dreaded question, which perhaps Abraham was able to remain clinical in his movements up to this point. But the full brunt of it came full force when his son Isaac, verse 7, spoke up and said, My father, Abraham said, His father, here I am, son. And he said, Isaac said, Look, the fire, the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And in verse 8, man, this is the answer that reverberates throughout all the generations from that time forward. Another three words. Here in verse 8, Abraham said, My son, God will provide. He'll provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them went together. God will provide. In verse 9, they came to the place which God had told him. Here. The place in which God had told him. You know, this is really when you begin to think about Abraham being the father of the faithful, it really, you know, we can talk about aspects of Abraham. He was a hero of the faith, the father of the faith, all these things. But I think in moments of extreme test and trial, what got him through was that the prominent aspect was that he was an obedient man. He was obedient man, an obedient man of faith. And perhaps many of us have not reached the place of trust and faith because we're not in the place of obedience. We're not in the place of obedience and we're holding back.

And again, personally, in my life, and perhaps this relates, I'm holding back because I want to know all the details. I want to know how it all works out. You know, give me all the details. And what God says is, no, go. And I'll give you the appropriate details in the right time. It's so remarkable. There in verse 2, God tells Abraham first just to go to the region, right? Go to the land of Moriah, verse 2, and offer him there up on one of the bird offerings on one of the mountains, which I will tell you, right? No, no, no. I want to know exactly where I'm going, you know. Tell me which mountain. Go there first. So it's in this incremental type of situation. God doesn't give us all the information. We're just to go, right? So the journey, you know, perhaps God is waiting for us just to get to the region, and then he's going to provide us more clarity. Then he's going to say, here's the next step. And the reason we haven't reached a higher level of trust and faith is we haven't actually just moved to that area that he first wants us to go.

Maybe not knowing all that's in the plan of God. Abraham didn't know.

So think about in terms of increments, and God will give you what you need as you go. And often it's in reflection. Often it's in reflection, we know. And even think about where Isaac was here to all you young people, to all you parents and grandparents as you teach our young people. Isaac even had to develop a strong faith in his physical father. Look at verse 9 and 10 again. Then they came to the place which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar, placed the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, laid him on the altar upon the wood. Verse 10, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. This is not, you know, Isaac's remarkable. There's no indication that there's any force here. In no doubt, Abraham communicated to Isaac and made it clear, son, I don't know. God hasn't told us exactly where we're going, how long it will take. He's just said go. Son, there's so many things I don't know in this journey we're taking. But I asked you, come along with me, and I'll tell you the one thing I do know. One thing I do know. The Lord God will provide. He will provide. That's the one thing I do know. I don't know a lot else. So, son, if you will trust me, as I trust our heavenly Father, and Isaac, what a remarkable young man, does just that. So, do you believe that God will provide in your life? Do you know that the journey of faith may begin with you acknowledging that belief? And you might not know where you're going. And you probably won't, I'll tell you that. But when you get to the rest of the story, we understand that the Lord did provide, and provided a sacrifice to replace Isaac, verse 11 through 14. Let's finish the story here.

So, Abraham raises the knife, verse 11. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, so he said, here I am. And he said, do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him. For now, I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Then Abraham lifted his eyes, looked over, and there behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went, took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. So that's tough here. Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. And of course, this foreshadows the sacrifice of God's son, Jesus Christ, for the sin of the world. God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. The Lord provided a substitute for Isaac in the same way God has provided a substitute through his son's sacrificial death, Jesus Christ. And in this, God's great love for us required of his son what he did not require of Abraham. I'll repeat that. God required of his son, Jesus Christ, ultimately what he did not require of Abraham.

Wonderful. So what a comforting thing that is to know that God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, don't ask us, don't ask anything of us that they weren't willing first to go through.

What a remarkable, incredible love God has for us, our Father, and our incredible Savior, his son, Jesus Christ. And so, as we observe this event and work to a conclusion here, we realize that this inconceivable test, instead of it breaking Abraham, it brought him to the summit of his lifelong walk with God. And it may be the same for you. Like Abraham, may our test of faith bring us to this high summit in a moment in which God the Father will speak those three words to us, those three beautiful words that our hope and joy will be at the end of this earthly journey that we'll hear. May he speak these three words to us, our Almighty Father, in the end. Now, I know.