Great Tests of Faith – Abraham
A Sermon Delivered by Thomas J. Boone, PhD
Delivered at Central Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Sept. 16, 2007
Genesis 22:1-14

George Segal’s seven foot bronze statue “Abraham and Isaac” stands in the plaza between the library and chapel at Princeton University. Originally designed to memorialize the shootings at Kent State on May 4, 1970, Kent State refused to receive it on account of its apparent insensitivity to the historic conflict that pitted one generation against another. But, the administration had missed the point that Segal was attempting to portray. The conflict that the statue illustrates is not between parent and child, older generation and younger, but the internal conflict in Abraham.

Isaac, hands bound and kneeling, looks upward into the eyes of his father Abraham. His face is an artist’s commentary on fear enmeshed with trust, and his body is positioned as one praying that the imminent shall not come to pass. Abraham stands looking down on his son. Both of his hands are at his sides, one clenching a knife, the other clenched as a fist. His arms’ vascularity illustrates the enormity of his struggle, but they strain against nothing external. There’s nothing forcing him to lift his knife into striking position, and there’s nothing keeping the knife prone against his waist. It’s up to Abraham himself either to follow God into the pain of obedience or take the easier path of preserving his son’s life. His left hand will either hold his son’s head back for the right hand to cut the carotid artery, or both hands will either surrender to his heart of love for his son and release him.

To see Abraham’s face in Segal’s statue is to witness the torment that obedience to God can sometimes mean. Abraham’s face is an icon of sadness and pain, blended with determination and will. In Genesis 22 we read that Abraham assured Isaac, “God will provide the sacrifice” as they began their ascent to the place of sacrifice with wood and no animal. Segal brings out the emotions behind these words. “God will provide the sacrifice,” says Abraham. “God, please God, don’t make me do this. Anything but this,” screams his soul with every step up the mountain.

The struggle between obedience to God and self-interest is one that each of us knows all too well. But, if we’re going to have an unshakable faith we will have to learn obedience in tough times.

I sat across the lunch table from a friend not so long ago who was as close to tears as I’d seen him. For three years he has struggled against his wife’s deliberate attempts to sabotage their marriage, which has produced three children in five years. Her affairs of the heart, overspending, and abusive language haven’t been enough to rip him apart from the vows he made to God at the altar. Friends telling him to leave and a set of in-laws and parents who think that divorce is the only way out of the mess haven’t been enough either. I asked him why he’s still in the marriage and he simply says, “She’s lost, and I have to take my vows to God seriously even if she doesn’t.” He says “She’s lost,” because she is. She is the product of a family ripped apart by alcoholism, which has made choosing longterm commitments an insurmountable psychological barrier. Obeying God to keep his vows hasn’t been easy, and the marriage may yet cave in, but I stand in awe of his decision to put his obedience to God first in the face of such terrible loneliness.

I met a missionary couple at a conference a few years ago. Their story is much like what you’d hear from any missionary. Their journey into a life of missions wasn’t achieved as an overnight decision, but it involved a gradual detachment from their earthly dependencies to a life more dependent upon God. They’d been Christians for years, but admitted that their faith had been surrounded by a materialism that prevented them from viewing God as provider. It’s easy, they said, to thank God for providing all things when you’re driving two nice cars and have a five bedroom house. It’s another thing to thank God for providing when you stay in a community where if you don’t boil your water you’ll end up in the hospital, and where the nice house on the block has a window air conditioner and a roof that doesn’t leak too much. They stayed as missionaries not because they loved their conditions, but because they had grown to love God more.

John Piper tells this story in his book Desiring God.

Picture 269 people entering eternity through a plane crash in the Sea of Japan. Before the crash, there are a noted politician, a millionaire corporate executive, a playboy and his playmate, and a missionary kid on the way back from visiting grandparents. After the crash, they stand before God utterly stripped of MasterCards, checkbooks, credit lines, image clothes, how-to-succeed books, and Hilton reservations. Here are the politician, the executive, the playboy, and the missionary kid, all on level ground with nothing, absolutely nothing, in their hands, possessing only what they brought in their hearts. How absurd and tragic the lover of money will seem on that day (Desiring God, 189).

The depth of one’s faith has much to do with the extent of one’s abandonment of self to the Savior. Jesus once asked, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?” When we’re stripped down to nothing but your soul, as we will all be, what will be its condition? Will you be one who did all the proper Christian things yet obeyed the desires and logic of flesh, or will you be before God’s throne as one who both believed and obeyed Jesus without counting the cost?

Obeying God without counting the cost is the story of Abraham. He had no idea that a ram would replace Isaac as the sacrifice. He only knew that it was enough for God to have commanded him. He probably didn’t like it, and he definitely didn’t find the hike up the mountain to be an easy one. How could it have been easy? But, if Abraham had learned one thing by this time in his life it was this: God would provide.

Learning that God will provide comes only from having waded through the murky moments of life and not abandoning God despite the temptations. Maybe you can relate to some of them: the temptation to abandon a marriage when your spouse is doing nothing to fulfill his or her end of the covenant; the temptation to remain silent when your Christian friend or relative is leading a life of addiction; the temptation to nurture division because the Session makes a decision you didn’t like; the temptation to conduct business in a worldly manner; or the temptation not to tithe in order to dig out of financial problems. In each case the temptation is to choose the self over the Savior.

Each of us has faced these temptations, or others like them, and perhaps we’ve succumbed to them. But to succumb to them is, in each case, a violation Jesus has made himself clear on each of these situations. Marriage is to be a lasting covenant neither entered into nor departed from lightly. Christians aren’t supposed to judge each other into heaven or hell, but we are commanded to hold one another accountable to Jesus’ teachings and God’s law. Jesus’ final prayer concerned the unity of the church, so you’d better believe that preserving the unity of the church rather than nurturing a negative spirit in it is close to the heart of your Savior. As for our business dealings, it’s impossible to read the Old Testament and come away with anything but a clear understanding that God has utter disdain for business dealings that are unethical or take advantage of the poor and uneducated. And as for tithing, Jesus never revoked the command to tithe that has been the practice of God-followers since the time of Abraham.

God intended us to be happy, but we achieve this not from focusing on fulfilling our self-oriented desires. Rather, as Christians our obedience to the Lord is the foundation for all our joy, hope, peace, gratitude, and pleasure. One of the tragic consequences of the fall of Adam and Eve was that people thought that happiness was possible by pursuing their own notions of how to be happy. How utterly confused we are when we fall for this trap of the Evil One! Things sour in a marriage so we’re tempted to find fulfillment outside of it. We love someone and don’t want to hurt their feelings so we keep our mouths shut about their sinfulness no matter how much it’s destroying them and their family. Business becomes lean so we’re tempted to join the throng of colleagues and bend the rules a bit to generate more revenue. Things get tough financially so we’re tempted to view the church as one charity among others and give accordingly. What’s the deal, folks? Since when were we ever supposed to think like this?

The blunt truth for Christians is that we must live differently than the way the world suggests we live if we’re going to discover the depths of joy that God wants for us. He’s just not going to open up the treasure of blessing and joy because we say we believe! But, He will open this treasure the deeper our discipleship goes, and we show this through our obedience. That’s why the author of Hebrews lauds the great men and women of faith above the rest of us who go from one day to the next thinking that it’s enough to say we believe and not concern ourselves with obedience regardless of the cost.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about people and parables that illustrate the great tests of faith that each of us face. Today’s test was a choice that boiled down to a simple question for each of us: “Do I trust God to provide for me or not?” Abraham believed, and despite the internal war that raged, he marched up that mountain, bound Isaac, and lifted his knife to kill his son. God didn’t want a verbal contract with Abraham, he wanted whole-hearted devotion no matter what the cost. What are you holding back from God that shows Him you’re only a verbal kind of Christian?

On October 24 you’re going to have the opportunity to commit your stewardship to this church. My prayer is that you use this question to guide your commitment. God has commanded a tithe, and over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about the various motivations we have in keeping this command. But today I’m putting the issue into direct terms because I think you can handle it. God’s tithe is an issue of our obedience and commitment. Does the way you approach your tithe reflect an obedient spirit or a spirit that looks for reasons to get out from under it? I think there are reasons not to tithe, there are seasons of life in which God will say enough is enough for the widow’s mite. But these reasons are limited and the seasons are just that: seasons.

The perpetual state of our faith is to be one where we look at our giving not as an extra thing, but as a core commitment out of obedience to the Lord. Consider this one last point. Abraham’s tithe comes in Genesis 14, long before the obedience required with Isaac. In other words, the obedience in tithing was the obedience of a rookie. If we can’t obey with even giving God His tithe, then how can we ever dream of being trusted to obey with more? Enduring the internal conflict between faith and flesh is part of our lot as Christ-followers in this life. The good news for us is the same good news that was for Abraham. God did provide. God will provide. Hallelujah. Amen.