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GENESIS 22:
THE PARALLEL
Genesis 22:1-19
(Note: Due to the limit of the amount of content in this sermon, it is
strongly urge that you read the above verses ahead of time so that this message
would be more clearer for you. This
sermon came from the same message delivered to Christian Youth Fellowship of
Mark Keppel High School during Feburary of 2001.
May God speak to you as you read this.) There might have been a time in your life when you find
some situation that brings up the aged old question of: "Why is God so mean for?" In
trials and tribulation of life, God might be allowing certain things to happen
in your life for a higher purpose of his. When
we reexamine the question of "Why is God so mean?", we find that this
is just only the tip of the iceberg of the real issue. The real dilemma isn't whether about if God should or
shouldn't punish you; afterall, God is God, he can do whatever he likes to us
since he's more powerful than we are. Looking
at it from an ultimate perspective, God would more than adequately have the
rights to punish us whatever way he wants.
We're sinners! Now, the
question of "Why is God so mean?" is actually, when it really comes
down to it, a rephrasing of the question:
"Can I trust in God, even when situation seems to demand
otherwise?"
That same question was the question Abraham faced in the story told in
Genesis 22. God was going to test
Abraham by asking him in verse two to sacrifice Abraham's ONLY son Issac (whom
Abraham loved, by the way) as a burnt offering to the Lord. Who knows what kind of torment Abraham must have went
through. He probably struggled all
night, his heart and soul ripped up as he tries to comprehend the reasoning and
purpose behind such a demand from God. We
don't know what kind of anguish Abraham went through but we do know what he was
going to do that following day. In
verse three of Genesis 22, we see Abraham getting up EARLY in the morning with
two servants and his beloved son Issac to the place God told him to go towards.
It appears to be an amazing feat that Abraham was able to be not only
faithful to God despite the circumstances, but to execute out his faith so
obediently, with little or no hesitation. How
many of us can do that under less demanding circumstances?
They finally arrived upon their destination on the third day and Abraham
told his two servants to wait with their donkey.
Abraham and Issac were to go to the actual location alone by themselves.
Issac carried the wood of burnt offering while his dad held the flames
and the knife. As a sharp blade
that enters a heart with a pang, Issac ask his dad in verse seven something to
the effect of: Here we have the fire and the wood....but what about the lamb
that we need to sacrifice?
If there were ever any doubt or questions about the insanity of the whole
event, Abraham would have had it at
least by now. This would have
either broked him or make him do what he has been ordered by God to do. At that precise moment, it would have been very easy to drop
the whole plan altogether, and not trust in God.
Afterall, what God was requiring was beyond Abraham's reasoning or
understanding. He might have even
thought inside his mind, "God, are you sadistic? Are you playing games with me?
Do you know what this whole situation feels like in my shoes?" But
in a surprising twist, the words that came out of Abraham's mouth was that God
will provide the lamb. Here again,
we see an amazing picture of Abraham's faith in God.
Abraham built an altar at the location and put his son Issac on top of
it, bounding him to the woods. All
this time, Abraham must have been thinking really heavily.
He must have been very sad about having to kill his only son Issac.
Somehow, with amazing strengths, Abraham was able to lift up a knife, the
very knife that he very well knew was going to slay his son.
Were there tears? We don't
know for sure, for the Bible didn't say. I
don't know, but if you meditate on this chapter in Genesis and really let the
Word of God soak in, you might be brought to tears also.
Cause here was a man, who always wanted a son.
Now that he had one, which he hold so precious, Abraham was now going to
sacrifice him for the Lord. What a
story. If you were like me, the
first time I heard this story, I asked, "What kind of God is this, that
demand such a scary amount of faith in order to follow him?" and also
"How can anybody place their trust in a God who demand such
circumstances?" Which is the
real question whenever we think that God is some kind of impersonal,
non-attached, far-off grandpa with sadistic and tortous play games. And to think that I'm not even in Abraham's shoes and I'm
already thinking like that! How
much worst could it get under Abraham's shoes.
Maybe you're feeling like you're under Abraham's shoe right now in life.
Maybe...
Fortunately, when Abraham lifted the knife and was just about to kill
Issac, an angel of the Lord stopped Abraham just in the nick of time. Boy, that
must have been a close one! In
verse 12, we see the angel telling Abraham that he has shown his faith to God,
even to such an extent as giving his beloved son up.
The son is then replaced by a ram. The
angel then came about a second time, telling that since Abraham was even willing
to give up his only son, God will bless him with a large uncountable mass of
people born through Abraham (which later became the Jewish people).
Through Abraham's line, God will bless the world with it.
But the story doesn't just end there.
If we look more carefully, we can see God the Father being in Abraham's
shoes. The thing Abraham went
through was actually to parallel another event several thousand years later,
when God send his only son Jesus to be a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. We see again the woods on Issac's back this time on Jesus'
back. We see the anguish of the
Father, as his son was lay bare, a sacrifice for all of mankind.
The grief that must have come to the Father. And yet, unlike the Abraham's story with Issac in Genesis 22,
we don't see God stopping the knife from stabbing his son's body and flesh.
God the Father allowed Jesus Christ to be torn to pieces and left hanging
there so that the world may see what the cost was to save the world from
recieving an eternal lasting damnation if they just only come to faith in
Christ. What an agonizing scene for
the Father to have watch. And
little did we understand when we asked in our mind to God, "God, why don't
you understand?" Or "God, you don't know what it's like in my
circumstances!" How ignorant
those statements seem now!
Instead of having a ram take the place of Jesus Christ on the cross,
Jesus was, figurately, the ram or the sacrificial lamb.
Given the situation, why won't you place your faith in Christ today?
If you have never done so, please email me at Crazycyf@hotmail.com or IM
me at Pulpitpastor on AIM.
Since Jesus takes the penalty for our sins on the cross as a sacrifice
already, wouldn't you want the free gift of eternal with a God that loved us so
dearly?
Would you come to him? --Jimmy Li [Edited on December 17, 2001]
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