Well, you may have seen from the bulletin I selected for our meditation this evening a very famous portion of the Old Testament Scriptures, namely Genesis 22, verses 1-19. I'd like to also read, because it will be an integral part of our meditation this evening, Genesis 12, verses 1-3. So if you open up your Bibles there, and you might keep them open as I preach, and I'll be referring to the Scriptures here, I'd like you to flip between Genesis 12 and also Genesis 22. For those of us who are fathers, this is a most amazing and engaging passage to contemplate what Abraham was commanded to do. First of all, Genesis 12, verses 1 through 3. Hear now the very infallible word of God given to you. The Lord had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land that I will show you. And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. And I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And then turning over to chapter 22, we'll read the first 19 verses. Chapter 22. Sometime later God tested Abraham and he said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied. And then God said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you about. And early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. And he took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. And when he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. And on the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. And he said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there, and we will worship, and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, and he placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. And the two of them went on together, and Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham, Father, yes, my son, Abraham replied, the fire and the wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. and the two of them went on together. And when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. And he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, here I am, he replied. Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. And Abraham looked up, and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. And he went over and he took the ram, and he sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide. And to this day it is said, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. And the angel of the Lord called Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. Then Abraham returned to his servants and they set off together for Beersheba and Abraham stayed in Beersheba. Thus the reading of God's word may he bless it not only to our hearing and our understanding but also to our obedience. It was G.K. Chesterton, that well-known Roman Catholic journalist some of you may know about. He's most famous for writing the Father Brown mystery series. But a very prolific writer who said, and I quote, The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble with this world, G.K. Chesterton said, is that it is a reasonable one, but not quite. It is not an illogicality, but this life indeed is a trap for logicians. Now listen carefully, he said, this life is not an illogicality, but it is a trap, he said, for logicians. Now, packed in that terse little quotable Chesterton verse is a lot of truth. And it really expresses so much of what was confronting Abraham as he was called by God to go to Mount Moriah. Because what we see in essence here with Abraham's test, if you will, is that it was not strictly speaking a moral problem. After all, the one true God calls him to kill his most beloved son. nor was it a logical problem. The real problem from Abraham was that his mind was perplexed by two fundamental propositions, two truths. Now, I'll tell you what those are in a minute, but first we have to turn to the story in order to understand the problem. And so I want to rehearse some of the story and point out a few things, especially correspondences between themes or motifs. Motifs, kids, are just themes that we see in chapter 12 and themes that we see in chapter 22. Now the Jews, if you looked at any Jewish Bible, this famous portion of scripture is called the Akadah. That's based on a Hebrew verbal root called Achad, meaning to bind. So for any Jew to stumble upon chapter 22 of Genesis, they say, ah, the Akadah, the binding of Isaac. And they would know right away what the story was about. This famous, famous story of commanding Abraham to go and sacrifice his only beloved son. What I want to do as we unpack this story is to look at the story first of all, then the problem that it sets up, and then the solution. So if any of you kids are taking notes, or any of you adults are taking notes, it's the story, the problem, and its solution. Because what we see with Abraham is an amazing singularity of the firmness of his faith. Perhaps unparalleled amongst all the Old Testament saints. But are we merely to look at Abraham's faith? Does this become a preeminent example to us by which we are to follow? Or is there something more that we're to look at and look for? We'll get to that in a moment, but first the story. There are five parallel themes or five parallel motifs, both in chapter 12 of Genesis, but then also in chapter 22. And there is an amazing integrity and parallel between these themes in both chapters. And what this does is it communicates to you that God wants you to see the rising of the curtain on Abraham's life and the closing of the curtain on Abraham's life. And these are tied together in chapter 12 and chapter 22 by these five themes. Here's the five themes, basically. First of all, the divine command to Abraham. Similar in both passages. Secondly, God's blessing to Abraham. Similar in both passages. thirdly, the fulfillment of the command by Abraham. In other words, what he gets up to do in response to the command. And then fourthly, this further or second revelation of God to Abraham in chapter 12 and chapter 22, which is paralleled exactly. And then finally, the fact that in both chapters you have the building of an altar. Those are the five themes. Let's look at them briefly to unpack this story. First of all, the divine command to Abraham. Did you notice, you're surely familiar with chapter 12, knowing how important it is for the whole warp and woof of scripture. Did you notice how it begins? God comes, notice children, in chapter 12, verse 1, this most famous of verses, and says to Abram, his name's not changed yet, go forth, get yourself up and go. In Hebrew, it goes like this. Lech lecha. Well, guess what? That exact phrase occurs in chapter 22, verse 1. Sometime afterwards, God put Abraham to the test, and he said to Abraham, and Abraham answered, here am I. And he said, take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and get yourself up and go. Lech lecha. And guess what? That's the only two places that this occurs in the Hebrew Bible. And it never occurs again after that, that exact phrase. So what God is saying is this has singular importance, this rising and falling of this patriarch, namely Abraham. The phrase occurs nowhere else. It's intensified in its drama. Do you notice what he's commanded to do? Look at the pronouns if you're sensitive to them. Leave your native land. Leave your father's house. Okay? Chapter 12. And then notice chapter 22. Take your son, your beloved son, and the one whom you love, and go. Lech, lecha. So obviously, these two chapters are bound together, no pun intended. Chapter 12 and chapter 22. And then notice how we go on. Having seen the divine command, how it's paralleled. Okay, the author wants to tie together chapter 12 and chapter 22. He does that through the second theme as well. Notice God's blessing to Abraham. This blessing formula happens seven times in chapter 12. This blessing formula happens seven times in chapter 22. Actually, some exegetes, Bible scholars only see five times. Ah, seven times, five times. Nevertheless, the blessing formula is identical in chapter 12 and chapter 22. Obviously, again, binding these passages together. Chapter 12, verse 3. And in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Chapter 22, verse 18, just one example. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. I won't cite the other examples because I heard at the graduation for Calvin Christian School that you're always invited back and you're a popular speaker if you keep it short. But there it is, the blessing formula, the command formula. And now we turn to the third theme. Notice the fulfillment of the command by Abraham. And here what we have is a travel formula that's attested not only here in the Hebrew scriptures but in a neighboring literature and country, the Ugaritians, just north of there. And it's a particular formula that they used with only certain words and words particularly. And it basically goes like this. And A took B and C and D and got up and went. Or A took the chattels of B and the chattels of C and the chattels of D and got up and went. And this is repeated in both places. Chapter 12 and again chapter 22. So there's the third theme. So kids, the divine command, the same in chapter 12, the same in chapter 22. God's blessing, seven times, seven times, perhaps seven and five, doesn't matter. But nevertheless, it's repeated in both chapters, showing you these two chapters hang together and everything in between. And then the fulfillment of the command. And now we turn to the fourth theme, a further revelation of God to Abraham. in each story first in chapter 12 and then also in chapter 22 God appears not just once but he comes and he appears again look at chapter 12 verse 7 the Lord appeared to Abram and said I will assign this land to your offspring so not only are all the nations going to be blessed in Abraham's progeny his children but also the land promise goes with that now look at chapter 22 verse 15 and 17 the same thing and the angel of the lord called to abraham a second time from heaven and said your descendants shall seize the gates of their enemies so the lord appears again a second time now the last theme the building of the altar notice in chapter 12 verse 7 the lord appeared to abram and said i will assign this land to your offspring and then he built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him. And of course, notice chapter 22, verse 9. With the binding of Isaac upon the altar, we have an altar theme as well. They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there. He laid out the wood. He bound his son Isaac, and he laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Now, what's all this data and information meant to communicate to you? This one thing, kids. Chapter 12 and chapter 22 are like the rising of a curtain on the drama of Abraham's life and the closing of the curtain. And everything else in between hangs together as a story. And what's the most important part of the story in between these two ends, these two bookends? The birth of Isaac. God takes Abraham out. Condescending, sensitive God that he is, he accommodates to Abraham and says, Look, Abraham, not just by word, but just like the sacrament, he gives him a visual sign. It says, Look at the stars. So numerous will your children be that all nations will be blessed through you and in you. Greater than the sands of the seashore, another sensible sign and seal, so that he may have faith and believe. So it's the birth of Isaac. Now you see how this hangs together in this literary composition. And now you're prepared to see what the problem is. What was the essential problem for Abraham? Fathers, who was called to sacrifice his only son, or his most beloved son, not his only son, but his most beloved son, his favorite son. I suggest to you that it was not, strictly speaking, a moral problem, nor was it, strictly speaking, a logical problem. The problem that was presented to Abraham was a problem of the mind. Because he had had two propositions that were put before him. Two things, the promise and the command, that we'll get to in a minute. Now, some people think that the problem here flows forth from what's called an ethical theory, divine command theory. And it basically goes like this. The problem that Abraham had and the problem that John Calvin had in interpreting Abraham is that we have to obey a God whose goodness is inscrutable. In other words, invisible and unattainable. The more, it's like a biographer said of Napoleon, the more he got to know him and to research him and to write him, the more elusive he became. Well, God is not Napoleon. And that's not true of the scriptures, and it's not true of Abraham, and it's not true of John Calvin. Now, nothing looks so true as when you compare it to what it's not. So let me tell you a little bit more about this divine command theory. Take, for example, one author, Alistair MacIntyre, who, believing John Calvin to be a proponent of the divine command theory, basically that we have to obey God whatever his commands are and and and we're not sure of his goodness and we don't know the outcome he says the following about Calvin quote Calvin too presents a God of whose goodness we cannot judge and whose commandments we cannot interpret as designed to bring us to the end to which our own desires point. And as with Luther, so with Calvin, we have to hope for grace that we may be justified and forgiven for our inability to obey the arbitrary fiats of a cosmic despot. Let me paraphrase. We have to hope for grace that we may be justified and forgiven for our inability to obey the unpredictable commands of a cosmic tyrant now i suggest to you that that is not calvin's view i suggest to you that's not the view of the holy scriptures either calvin's view of the akadah that is the binding of isaac was not a divine command theorist namely that you cannot know god's goodness let alone that he is some kind of cosmic despot that you just have to obey what kind of consolation is there in that when you are hit by the slings and darts of an outrageous fortune in this life it's no consolation whatsoever rather here is the conflict for abraham and calvin nailed it abraham people of god has a problem in his thinking so to speak because he has been presented with these two propositions. Think about it. Abraham knows, kids, that God has promised him that through Isaac's progeny, that is his children, all the nations in the earth are going to be blessed. He's the hope. He's the joy of reconciliation and of God's kingdom plan. But Abraham also knows that God has commanded him to sacrifice the very son through whom he said that promise was going to come. That's Abraham's essential problem. He's stuck between two propositions which he can't reconcile as of yet because he doesn't have enough information. And it's only if you grasp that that you see the essence, that you see the profundity, that you see the robustness of abraham's faith let me repeat it so you can get it it's not too hard to understand think of chapter 12 abraham has been promised through you and your seed all the nations of the world will be blessed he knows that's isaac his beloved son and now second proposition he's commanded to sacrifice to kill that son. That's a problem. And how does Abraham respond? Abraham responds with immeasurable, remarkable grace and faith and hope. Because despite the fact he can't understand how these two propositions are ultimately going to be resolved, he steps out in faith and in hope with eyes veiled, so to speak, and still obeys God, trusting God that he will provide the extra information. And he'll not only provide the extra information to bring about a resolution, he'll provide a resolution that will go far beyond the extra information. You see, Abraham's problem here and the crisis, if you will, of Genesis 22, it's not a crisis of logic. It's not even a crisis or a problem of morality that how could a good God ask Abraham, his patriarch, to sacrifice his son? The problem is a believing problem, a thinking problem. Can he, that is Abraham, entrust his son to God? Abraham's faith is demonstrated in the fact that Abraham shows by his life and work that he has not heard God's last word on this. He expects God to say more. He trusts God to say more. He looks forward and hopes for God to reveal more. And the test comes through the interim. God must provide a way out of this problem. And his faith is seen in the fact that he obeys the command, even though, kids, it looks like it's going to go against the promise. Nevertheless, he steps out in faith. Now, lest you be wondering whether what I said about Calvin was true, let me read a short quote from Calvin, and you can see, as he often does, with which pristine clarity he grasps the issue. Calvin says, and I quote, His mind, however, must of necessity have been severely crushed, violently agitated when the command and the promise were conflicting within him. But when he had come to the conclusion that the God with whom he knew he had to do could not be his adversary. Isn't that beautiful? The God with whom he knew he had to do could not be his adversary. Although he did not immediately discover how the contradiction may be removed, he nevertheless, by hope, reconciled the command with the promise. Because being indubitably persuaded that God was faithful, he left the unknown issue to divine providence. And meanwhile, as with closed eyes, he goes with her, in other words, where he is directed. Now, that's beautiful. That sums up Abraham's problem and dilemma and faith in a nutshell. Abraham's faith resides in essentially this. He knows that God will reconcile these two propositions. God, you have promised that you will bless all the nations in the world through my children. God, you have commanded me to sacrifice my son, not any old son, my beloved son, my favorite son. And yet he steps out in faith, and he steps out on the promise, and he steps out on the command. His problem of ignorance will be resolved because he waits expectantly with eyes veiled, but nevertheless stepping forward in faith for God to provide for his son, his favored one. Okay, so we've seen the story, we've seen the problem, now comes the solution. Sure enough, as the story goes, and you know, when we read, God provided the solution. God provided not only the immediate solution, didn't he, kids? There, as he was about ready to plunge the knife, think about that, the father, into the chest of his son, about ready to plunge the knife. Abraham, stop. Stay your hand. And there is a ram caught in the thicket by the horns. So at the crucial moment, God provides the ram. Some manuscripts say not only a ram, they say the one ram. There is provided by God the additional information. And Abraham must say, aha, I see. Now think about this. What did Abraham see on that day? Well, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us. Do you remember as he was confronted by the Pharisees in John chapter 8? Just before the great self-revelation of himself, before Abraham was, I am, I am who I am. And you know that he caused an offense. Why? because they picked up stones to stone him. They realized exactly what he said. Two verses before that, what does our Lord Jesus say? Our Lord says, Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day and he saw it and he was glad. In other words, Abraham saw into the essential nature of substitutionary atonement, perhaps like no other Old Testament saint at that particular point in history. If there is any grand idea and example of substitutionary atonement in the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures, here it is. God providing a ram in place of his son for him as a sacrifice so that he did not have to slay his son. There is the essence of substitutionary atonement. And Abraham saw it. Our Lord says, and was glad. Saw it in shadows, but nevertheless, saw it crystal clear with pristine clarity. There it is, substitutionary atonement. But God not only provided the immediate resolution for the problem that Abraham had, God provided the ultimate resolution for the problem as well. Have you ever thought about the similarities and differences between Abraham sacrificing his son, or at least the suspected or portended sacrifice of his son, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? There are many similarities, but there are also many differences. And that's exactly what you would expect people of God with typology. In other words, with veiled shadows and what is provisional in expectation of what is permanent and what is antitypical. In other words, the fulfillment of the type. The fulfillment of the type is always greater than the type. And here you see a perfect example of it. People of God, think about this because you are on the borders, even though it's an Old Testament passage. You are on the fringes of great, profound mystery with respect to substitutionary atonement and our Lord's provision for that. Abraham stepped out in faith. He was willing to sacrifice his son, his only beloved son. And guess what? That same word in Greek that's used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures is used at Jesus' baptism when breaking out of the heavens, It says, this is my only beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Obvious connection and illusion. But for Abraham, there was a possibility of another with regards to the substitutionary atonement. Abraham knew that these two propositions would be reconciled. Abraham knew that God would provide. There would be another. For Jesus Christ, there was no other. Abraham held the dagger up and was willing to plunge it into the chest of his son. And yet then the angel stayed at his hand and provided another. For Christ, in his incarnation, who came into the world and through an eternal arrangement with the Father, was willing to take the law upon himself in order to win the inheritance, namely His church, and undergo suffering. And your Heidelberg Catechism says, not just at the end, but through His whole life long, but especially at the end. And there He looked up into heaven and He saw the Father. But think, people of God, as far as a difference, there was no staying of the hand. The Father plunged the knife into the Son. Had to happen in order to turn away His wrath, in order to satisfy all the demands of divine justice so he might win the inheritance namely all those who were in Christ think about that substitutionary atonement when Christ yelled out on the cross Eloi, Eloi, lama sabaxani my God, my God why have thou forsaken me and he did it in Aramaic because it was the language of the people and they need to hear it in their own language there was no staying in the hand it was a total abandonment the father abandoned the son for your sake and for my sake and because of our sin even if you weren't there hammering the nails into his hands wrath had to be satisfied sin had to be atoned for probation had to be fulfilled and righteousness had to be undergone without sin negatively it is withdrawal of all the creaturely comforts. Think of this. There was no sun. The moon was turned to blood. The earth shook. It was dark. All those normal creaturely comforts we take for advantage were away from Christ our Lord. Positively, it was the Father pouring out all His wrath upon the Son. Unmitigated wrath. All the horrors you read about in the book of Revelation and more poured out upon the Son for your sake, for my sake, if you believe in him the father plunged the knife so to speak 21st idiom christ went through hell for us he descended into hell that's the right understanding of the creed we recited earlier that was hell on the cross and he went through hell for you and me so that we might gain entrance to heaven christ died the death of god forsakenness unlike isaac unlike abraham's son 2 Corinthians 5.21, the apostle says, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung upon a tree. Do you see my point? There is no another. Christ is the substitutionary atonement. Christ is the one who becomes the curse on our behalf. And even though it was a total abandonment, and I cannot make complete rational sense of this, but I know that this is scriptural truth. The Father and the Spirit were intimately involved in that transaction as well. It was the Son who went to the cross. It was the Son who paid the penalty for our sins. It was the Son who underwent the death at the crucifixion. But the Father was not absent, even though He was totally abandoning the Son. 2 Corinthians 5, 18-19 says, All things are of God who reconciled us to Himself. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Mystery of mysteries. Hebrews 9, 14 says, the Holy Spirit through the eternal spirit he offered himself without spot to God. And surely that reference to the eternal spirit as John Murray said is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Mystery of mysteries that's the divine and glorious gospel. The immeasurable sacrifice that was made on your behalf. So people of God we've had short meditation upon the Scriptures. There's the story in all its glorious richness. Chapter 12, chapter 22, everything in between. Isaac, the child of promise. This life that's almost reasonable but not quite yet so. A trap for logicians. Drive you crazy if you try and figure it out. This amazing faith of Abraham. This singular vision of going forth to obey despite the fact of the promise. But people of God, I would be very amiss if I left you here with only an example of Abraham. His faith is mesmerizing, is it not? But you are called to meditate on something more than Abraham's faith, you're called by God on this scripture tonight to meditate on the object of Abraham's faith, to look beyond Abraham's faith. You want to know where real power is, the kind of power to obey God that we see testified to in Abraham. It's the object of Abraham's faith to which he's looking that gave him the power, the strength to endure all the vicissitudes and all the torments of this sin-cursed life. Our Lord said, Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day, the Messiah's day. He saw it. And he was glad. Oh yes, what a remarkable instance of firmness Abraham's faith is. Ah yes, it had real power to it. But it was because of its objects. He believed in Christ. He believed in a Messiah to come. He believed that God, a great majestic God, would provide the extra information that he needed to resolve this mental torment that he was going through. That God would provide so he didn't have to sacrifice his son. The commonest kind of trouble, G.K. Chesterton said, in this life is that life is basically reasonable. But not quite so. Our sin-cursed world makes life really difficult, doesn't it? You've had people sin against you. You've sinned against others. God forgives, but you have to deal with the consequences of that sin, don't you? We all fall short. Sometimes we can't even see why we undergo the problems of suffering that we do. It happens beyond the eclipse of our horizon. Why is this person cut down in the prime of life? Why does the policeman show up at the door and say, I have to inform you, your child is dead. He was killed in a car accident. Why do we struggle with the old man again and again and again and the same old sins over and over and over again? Why do we have to deal with someone who lives a perfect, if you will, albeit relatively obedient life, and they have a retarded child, and the person next door lives a life of profligacy and immorality, and yet they have the perfect baby, and yet this one who's been obedient to their Lord does not. On the examples go, what do you do in this kind of situation? If you are a Christian, then your deepest, your greatest, your most intimate longing and desire is to please your sovereign Lord, is it not? How do you do that? You do that through the power of the gospel. You look beyond these great examples of the faith to the object of the faith. There is a real penalty-paying substitution that is satisfied for every sin that you ever committed that you ever presently are committed or will commit if you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ there is a real probation keeping that fulfills all righteousness that is without sin that accomplishes everything the first Adam is supposed to do and earns a righteousness which you are clothed in technically is imputed to you and given to you so that the father looks down and sees his child, his beloved child, in the eyes of Christ. People of God, that's where the power is. Amen.