Passing the Test

                                                                     Sunday School Lesson
                                                                        December 18,2011

Lesson Focus:
Faithfully obey God
through your trials
Lesson Scripture:
Genesis 22:1-2,6-14

Introduction:

God told Abraham,"Take your only son,Issac,whom you love and go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there".God tested Abraham,not to watch him fall and sit back laugh.God's test was to help develop Abraham's character,faith and obedience.The next morning Abraham, without hesitation,started off with Issac on a two or three day journey to the place of sacrifice.Surely, Abraham had plenty of time to change his mind, disobey God,and return home.Or he could have spent the trip pleading with God to stop this nonsense.However,Scripture gives no indication of any such conversation with God.Abraham's response boiled down to two words, trust and obey.He believed this tragedy could only result in good.God will provide; On the third day,Abraham told his servants to stay behind,and he and Issac started the climb up Mt. Moriah.When Issac questioned, "My father,where is the sacrificial?" Abraham spoke  faith language: God will provide." Abraham had come to the place in his life where he would say,"God knows, I don't. It's on Him, God is in charge". Abraham placed Issac on the altar and held up the knife to slay him.Abraham apparently believed somehow God would raise Issac back up to carry out His promise about Abraham's seed producing a great nation(Heb.11:19).In a simlar way, people are under "God's knife", His wrath. But God so loved the world,that he desires to put no man to death.So like the Ram in the bush that saved Issac, He sent His precious Son,our sacrificial lamb to die on a cross to save us.

Abraham Is Tested

Genesis22:1-2KJV

 ¹And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

   ²And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Footnotes:

God's command to Abraham to sacrifice Issac has perplexed readers of the bible for many years.We are told many times in the old testiment how much God disdained human sacrifice.This passage begins, however, with the notion that God was testing Abraham, and not simply making an abrupt and inexliable request.In this command,God acknowledged Abraham's love for Issac.More than the promise of God is at stake here.This is a father who deeply loved a son who was given as a miraculous gift to him and his barren wife in their old age.God told Abraham to take Issac to the region of Moriah,Abraham must have wrestled with his thoughts a wondered what would happen there.

God Will Provide

Genesis 22:6-8KJV

 ⁶And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

   ⁷And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
   ⁸And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Footnotes:

In a foreshadowing of Christ carrying His own cross,Abraham had Issac carry the heavy wood up the hill.But the implements of the sacrifice,the fire and the blade,he carried himself.Issac asked his father about the location of the actual sacrifice.Abraham answered his son's question with an expression of faith in God's provisions.Abraham did tell the servants that the two of them would return.Ours is a walk of faith with the roads paved only with the word and promises of God, and we must just trust and believe and walk by faith in the truths of God's word and the strength of His promises.

God Stops Abraham

Genesis 22:9-14KJV

  ⁹And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

   ¹⁰And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
   ¹¹And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
   ¹²And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
   ¹³And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
   ¹⁴And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

Footnotes:

The test ended when God called out to Abraham through the angel of the Lord.At this point,God revealed the nature of the test.He could see,or more importantly perhaps,Abraham could see,that the patriarch was willing to obey God unconditionally,regardless of the cost.He would not even withhold his own son. We like wise must be willing to obey the word of God without doubt regardless of the cost knowing God will provide.We also should rejoice in God's provision of atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Unlike Abraham, God gave His only Son that we might live.We were under the knife of God's judgment when Jesu s,our ram in the bush took our place and lai down his life for the sins of the world.