Genesis (Part 26)
Bible Study Time 12-14-08
(From James Roberts 2-16-97)
Bible Study Time 12-14-08
(From James Roberts 2-16-97)
Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we saw that there were three incidents in Abraham's life that illustrated his life of faith. Abraham is preeminently spoken of in the Old Testament as a man of faith. He was called a friend of God, and he was one who walked by faith.
In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we see these three incidents recorded. The first incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave UR of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would show him. God said that He was going to give this land to Abraham and to his descendants after him as an inheritance. Abraham, without hesitation, acted upon the word of God, believing what God had said.
The second incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him that he was going to have a son. Now, Abraham was 99 years old, almost 100 years old, and Sarah was past 90 years of age. Both were well beyond the age of bearing children, so when God promised Abraham a son, Abraham thought immediately of Ishmael. He said, oh that Ishmael might live before You. But God said, no, it’s not going to be Ishmael. It’s going to be a son by your wife, Sarah, the free woman, and you shall call his name Isaac.
In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we read that Abraham did not consider his own body to be dead, but he believed that what God had promised He was able also to perform. Being strong in faith, Abraham did not waver. Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God, but he believed what God said.
The third incident we looked at briefly last week. It relates to God’s command that Abraham should take his son, Isaac, and go to a mountain that God would show him. That mountain was Mt. Moriah, where Solomon’s temple was ultimately built. So God led Abraham to Mt. Moriah, and there Abraham was ready to offer up his son as a sacrifice in obedience to what God had said.
This was a tremendous act of faith on the part of Abraham because, as we saw last week, Abraham told the young men in his company that they should stay at the foot of the mountain with the donkeys because he and the lad would go up to worship and then come back again.
He knew something. He knew that even though God had told him to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice, Isaac would be coming back down that mountain with him. Now, how did Abraham know that? Well, let’s look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, and we will see a commentary on Genesis, Chapter 24.
In verse 15, we find that Abraham and his sons dwelt as sojourners in the land of Canaan. This means that they did not receive the inheritance while they were living. They received the promise of the inheritance, and they dwelt in tents looking for a city that God had built, a new city, a heavenly Jerusalem, which will be discussed at length later in the book of Hebrews. But now I want you to notice in verse 15:
Hebrews 11:15-17 NKJV
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . .
Here we find the writer to the Hebrews saying that Abraham offered up Isaac, but when we look back in the book of Genesis, Chapter 24, we find that Abraham was ready to offer Isaac. According to the Genesis account, Abraham had the knife in his hand, and he was ready to slay Isaac in obedience to the command of God, but God spoke out of heaven and said, don’t kill Isaac. God said, I see that you love me even more than you love your son, and therefore, if you'll just look over in the thicket, you’ll see a ram that can be offered in Isaac’s stead.
Accordingly, Abraham took the ram that was caught in the thicket and offered it up instead of Isaac. Notice, he offered the ram instead of Isaac even though the book of Hebrews says that Abraham offered up Isaac. Now, let’s talk about that. Just keep that thought in your mind as we continue in Hebrews, Chapter 11:
Hebrews 11:17-18 NKJV
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,"
Abraham offered up his son, his only begotten son, that son through whom the promise was given which said that in Isaac Abraham's seed would be called.
Now, why do you suppose the writer to the Hebrews mentioned this little detail concerning the seed being called through Isaac? Well, this is very important to our discussion of Abraham as the man of faith. Notice as we read in verse 19:
Hebrews 11:19 NKJV
19 (Abraham concluded) that God was able to raise (Isaac) up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
God accounted Abraham’s faith as a righteous act, and in the mind of God, God saw that ram as if it had actually been Isaac. What did Abraham believe that assured him that Isaac would be raised from the dead if necessary?
Well, God had said to Abraham, in Isaac your seed shall be called. God had said this when He announced the birth of Isaac, when Abraham was past the age of begetting children, when Sarah was past the age of begetting children. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son and they were to call his name Isaac. God said that it was going to be through Isaac that the seed would be called.
According to the book of Genesis, Isaac wasn't married at the time of this incident. Therefore, He had no children. So if God was going to be true to His word, Abraham knew that if he offered up Isaac, God would have to raise up Isaac from the dead so that Isaac could have children. Abraham knew that the promised seed had to come through Isaac. The whole nation of Israel, the multiplied seed, had to come through Isaac.
So Abraham said, well God, I’ll do what you tell me to do because I know that if you can give me life even when I am dead in terms of begetting children, then I know that you can give life to Isaac in order to accomplish Your word.
This is a great example of believing what God has said, and this is what faith really is. We walk by faith when we simply reckon upon what God has said. Today, so much of what people call walking by faith is really walking by fancy. It’s walking by feeling. People so often go simply by what they feel God wants them to do. But when we feel that God wants us to do something, it may simply be a manifestation of our own desires.
In reality, faith is a matter of going to God’s word and reading God’s word and believing God’s word. Then we yield to the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit, Himself, take the word of God and guide us through the principles that are set down in the word. This is how we should determine the specific will of God for our lives.
God has a general will for each one of us, and that general will is that we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within us. Then we must read and study God’s word so that God, Himself, will be able to use the word. In this way the word of God becomes a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
That’s what faith is; it is believing what God has said. We don't look for signs. We don't look for miraculous things to lead us. The Holy Spirit of God teaches us the principles of the word of God as we read and study, and then He leads us according to those principles.
Abraham believed God explicitly, and without any hesitation he did what God told him to do. I want you to notice that as far as God was concerned, Abraham actually killed Isaac. God was able to count that which was not as though it was. Abraham did not literally slay Isaac, but when God looked at the ram, He saw the faith of Abraham, and He counted the death of the ram as the offering up of Isaac.
We also see that God not only saw Isaac as having been killed, but He saw Isaac as having been raised up from the dead. Isaac did not literally die and come forth from the grave alive, but as far as God was concerned, Isaac died and was buried and was then raised from the dead.
Now may I just say this to you? This is a great example of the Biblical principle of identification. God saw Abraham's faith, and God counted it to Abraham for righteousness. In like manner, when you and I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe explicitly what God has said in His word about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God counts us as though we were actually put to death with Christ, as though we were actually buried and raised up with Christ to walk in newness of life. Then the book of Ephesians tells us that when Christ ascended back to the Father in heaven, in the mind of God we too ascended with Him so that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
Now does that have any implication for our Christian life? Well, in Colossians, Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says that if we have been raised with Christ, we should seek those things which are above where Christ is seated, for we are dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God. He tells us that we have died, we have been buried, and we have been raised with Christ so that we can actually say with Paul, I am crucified with Christ; I have been given new life so that I can walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus.
I see our time is gone for this morning. Next week, the Lord willing, in our Journey Through the Scripture, we’re going to look the selection of a bride for Isaac. Well, until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
In the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, we see these three incidents recorded. The first incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave UR of the Chaldeans and go to a land that He would show him. God said that He was going to give this land to Abraham and to his descendants after him as an inheritance. Abraham, without hesitation, acted upon the word of God, believing what God had said.
The second incident was when God appeared to Abraham and told him that he was going to have a son. Now, Abraham was 99 years old, almost 100 years old, and Sarah was past 90 years of age. Both were well beyond the age of bearing children, so when God promised Abraham a son, Abraham thought immediately of Ishmael. He said, oh that Ishmael might live before You. But God said, no, it’s not going to be Ishmael. It’s going to be a son by your wife, Sarah, the free woman, and you shall call his name Isaac.
In the book of Romans, Chapter 4, we read that Abraham did not consider his own body to be dead, but he believed that what God had promised He was able also to perform. Being strong in faith, Abraham did not waver. Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God, but he believed what God said.
The third incident we looked at briefly last week. It relates to God’s command that Abraham should take his son, Isaac, and go to a mountain that God would show him. That mountain was Mt. Moriah, where Solomon’s temple was ultimately built. So God led Abraham to Mt. Moriah, and there Abraham was ready to offer up his son as a sacrifice in obedience to what God had said.
This was a tremendous act of faith on the part of Abraham because, as we saw last week, Abraham told the young men in his company that they should stay at the foot of the mountain with the donkeys because he and the lad would go up to worship and then come back again.
He knew something. He knew that even though God had told him to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice, Isaac would be coming back down that mountain with him. Now, how did Abraham know that? Well, let’s look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, and we will see a commentary on Genesis, Chapter 24.
In verse 15, we find that Abraham and his sons dwelt as sojourners in the land of Canaan. This means that they did not receive the inheritance while they were living. They received the promise of the inheritance, and they dwelt in tents looking for a city that God had built, a new city, a heavenly Jerusalem, which will be discussed at length later in the book of Hebrews. But now I want you to notice in verse 15:
Hebrews 11:15-17 NKJV
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . .
Here we find the writer to the Hebrews saying that Abraham offered up Isaac, but when we look back in the book of Genesis, Chapter 24, we find that Abraham was ready to offer Isaac. According to the Genesis account, Abraham had the knife in his hand, and he was ready to slay Isaac in obedience to the command of God, but God spoke out of heaven and said, don’t kill Isaac. God said, I see that you love me even more than you love your son, and therefore, if you'll just look over in the thicket, you’ll see a ram that can be offered in Isaac’s stead.
Accordingly, Abraham took the ram that was caught in the thicket and offered it up instead of Isaac. Notice, he offered the ram instead of Isaac even though the book of Hebrews says that Abraham offered up Isaac. Now, let’s talk about that. Just keep that thought in your mind as we continue in Hebrews, Chapter 11:
Hebrews 11:17-18 NKJV
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,"
Abraham offered up his son, his only begotten son, that son through whom the promise was given which said that in Isaac Abraham's seed would be called.
Now, why do you suppose the writer to the Hebrews mentioned this little detail concerning the seed being called through Isaac? Well, this is very important to our discussion of Abraham as the man of faith. Notice as we read in verse 19:
Hebrews 11:19 NKJV
19 (Abraham concluded) that God was able to raise (Isaac) up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
God accounted Abraham’s faith as a righteous act, and in the mind of God, God saw that ram as if it had actually been Isaac. What did Abraham believe that assured him that Isaac would be raised from the dead if necessary?
Well, God had said to Abraham, in Isaac your seed shall be called. God had said this when He announced the birth of Isaac, when Abraham was past the age of begetting children, when Sarah was past the age of begetting children. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son and they were to call his name Isaac. God said that it was going to be through Isaac that the seed would be called.
According to the book of Genesis, Isaac wasn't married at the time of this incident. Therefore, He had no children. So if God was going to be true to His word, Abraham knew that if he offered up Isaac, God would have to raise up Isaac from the dead so that Isaac could have children. Abraham knew that the promised seed had to come through Isaac. The whole nation of Israel, the multiplied seed, had to come through Isaac.
So Abraham said, well God, I’ll do what you tell me to do because I know that if you can give me life even when I am dead in terms of begetting children, then I know that you can give life to Isaac in order to accomplish Your word.
This is a great example of believing what God has said, and this is what faith really is. We walk by faith when we simply reckon upon what God has said. Today, so much of what people call walking by faith is really walking by fancy. It’s walking by feeling. People so often go simply by what they feel God wants them to do. But when we feel that God wants us to do something, it may simply be a manifestation of our own desires.
In reality, faith is a matter of going to God’s word and reading God’s word and believing God’s word. Then we yield to the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit, Himself, take the word of God and guide us through the principles that are set down in the word. This is how we should determine the specific will of God for our lives.
God has a general will for each one of us, and that general will is that we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit who is dwelling within us. Then we must read and study God’s word so that God, Himself, will be able to use the word. In this way the word of God becomes a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
That’s what faith is; it is believing what God has said. We don't look for signs. We don't look for miraculous things to lead us. The Holy Spirit of God teaches us the principles of the word of God as we read and study, and then He leads us according to those principles.
Abraham believed God explicitly, and without any hesitation he did what God told him to do. I want you to notice that as far as God was concerned, Abraham actually killed Isaac. God was able to count that which was not as though it was. Abraham did not literally slay Isaac, but when God looked at the ram, He saw the faith of Abraham, and He counted the death of the ram as the offering up of Isaac.
We also see that God not only saw Isaac as having been killed, but He saw Isaac as having been raised up from the dead. Isaac did not literally die and come forth from the grave alive, but as far as God was concerned, Isaac died and was buried and was then raised from the dead.
Now may I just say this to you? This is a great example of the Biblical principle of identification. God saw Abraham's faith, and God counted it to Abraham for righteousness. In like manner, when you and I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe explicitly what God has said in His word about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God counts us as though we were actually put to death with Christ, as though we were actually buried and raised up with Christ to walk in newness of life. Then the book of Ephesians tells us that when Christ ascended back to the Father in heaven, in the mind of God we too ascended with Him so that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
Now does that have any implication for our Christian life? Well, in Colossians, Chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says that if we have been raised with Christ, we should seek those things which are above where Christ is seated, for we are dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God. He tells us that we have died, we have been buried, and we have been raised with Christ so that we can actually say with Paul, I am crucified with Christ; I have been given new life so that I can walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus.
I see our time is gone for this morning. Next week, the Lord willing, in our Journey Through the Scripture, we’re going to look the selection of a bride for Isaac. Well, until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
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