1.
Grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word this First Sunday
in Lent is taken from Genesis 22:1-18, and is entitled, “The Lord Will Provide,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
If
we wanted to devise a test that would be comparable to Abraham’s, we wouldn’t
ask, “Would you be willing to give up
your child?” Instead we would have to ask, “Would you give up eternity in heaven for God?” In the 1970s a
popular spiritual by Andrae Crouch explored this question. The song asked what
motivates us to serve God: “Is it just
for heaven’s gain?” The chorus says it all:
“But if heaven never were promised
to me; neither God’s promise to live eternally; it’s been worth just having the
Lord in my life—living in a world of darkness he came and brought me the light.”
3.
What
a challenging lyric that is! We could just as easily sit with John Lennon for a
moment and “Imagine.” Though Lennon
would have seen heaven and hell as fantasies that prevent people from living in
the real world, his words can function differently to help us think of what our
faith might be like without the hope or threat of eternity factored in. “Imagine
there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine
all the people living for today …”
4.
Would
we give God a chance if there were nothing in it for us? Would we give God our
lives if he gave nothing back but himself? Would our lives have a place for God
if we were “living for today”? It
should be our aspiration to respond to those questions with a resounding “yes!” That’s what Abraham did when he
built his altar on Mount Moriah and bound his son. God asks no less of us than
to be our all in all. Yet, how many
people, including those in the Christian church are “living for today” as Lennon writes in his song, “Imagine.”
How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m too busy, I don’t have enough time to go to worship at Church on
Sunday morning.” How often are the
things of God put on the lowest part of our priority list on a weekly
basis? So often, our devotion and
worship of God is put on the back burner for the things of this world. And, this also happens in the needs of our
neighbor. We live in a society of
self-gratification, self-glorification, selfishness, instead of selflessness. We live in the iPod, iPhone, the iPad
generation. It’s generation, “me, myself, and I.” God has been pushed off the throne of our
lives, and the all-powerful, almighty self has become the supreme god. Our false god has become ourselves, our own
wants, our own desires and how unfortunate is this idolatry at the expense of
our own family members, our church, and our friends, when our own personal
wants and desires destroy the relationships we are in. Our own personal happiness is more important
than following the Lord and His will for our lives. This is very much in stark contrast to
Abraham, who trusted that the Lord would provide for Him in Genesis 22 this
morning.
5. Here in Genesis 22 we see the
climax of Abraham’s life of faith comes when he who loves his son so much is
willing to offer him as a sacrifice to his Lord. Surely Abraham finds great
relief when God provides the ram in the thicket. Often we fail tests of faith
that do not begin to compare to Abraham’s. Thankfully, there was an even
greater sacrifice when God the Father in heaven offered the sacrifice of His
beloved Son to secure forgiveness for our failures.
6. Genesis 22:14 says, “On the
mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
The test was unthinkable: take
your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him as a sacrifice. Who has ever heard of such a thing? The promised one, for whom Abraham had waited
for so long, was to be a burnt offering upon the mount of the Lord. Unspeakable, unsearchable—who has ever heard
of such a thing? The covenant God made
with Abraham lies in the balance, the heir is to die, and the seed is to be
sacrificed.
7. Abraham was faithful; he believed and he went, and after three
days he lifted up his eyes and saw the place.
His stomach churned, his face fell, but he took his son Isaac up the
mount of the Lord. When Isaac
questioned, his answer, “God will provide
for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” (vs. 8), proved true
and prophetic. God stayed Abraham’s
hand, and a ram was found in a thicket; Isaac’s life was preserved. “On the
mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
8. The language tells us that there is more here than meets the
eye. The mount is Moriah and becomes the
temple mount in Jerusalem. Here will be
the place where the people will offer up sacrifice after sacrifice in hope,
waiting for the ultimate sacrifice. The
blood of lambs and goats will be poured out as they wait for the Lamb of God,
whom the Father loves, is sent to this mountain. The beloved Son, who has come into our world,
becomes the all-atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. On the mount of the Lord it has been provided.
9. Our sins of greed, lust, laziness, envy, rebellion against those
in authority, idolatry, adultery, covetousness, stealing, gossip and slander
required a sacrifice, but the Lord has stayed his hand, withheld the knife of
slaughter, and provided His only Son, His beloved Son Jesus in our place. Jesus carried His wood outside the city walls
as He bore our sins beyond the gates.
There, on another mountain, Jesus died in our place, a substitute. There our sin and guilt was cleansed, and
there Jesus proclaimed the task to be finished.
There on the mount, the Lord provided, and we are saved.
10. The unthinkable has taken place.
Who has ever heard of such a thing—the Father offers up His Son, and
this holy Lamb “goes uncomplaining forth, The guilt of sinners bearing” (LSB
438:1). Unthinkable, unfathomable; what
wondrous love He bears, laying Jesus in the grave so that we might not taste
eternal death.
11.
The
Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was faithful for us in all trials and
temptations, now offers forgiveness freely, including those times when we prove
unfaithful in the midst of life’s trials. With joy and thanksgiving, God’s
words to Abraham can be spoken to him concerning his own Son, Jesus Christ: “You have not withheld your son, your only
son, from me.” In this way, when we face life’s trials and wonder if God
will provide help for us in time of need our cry “Why me?” can become an
expression of wonder and astonishment in the face of God’s grace toward
sinners.
12.
The
fact that God provided for Abraham also reminds us that God is always working
his ultimate and loving purposes, even in the midst of life’s tests and trials.
(See Rom 5:1–5; 1 Pet 1:6–7; James 1:2–4.)
In a 1522 exposition on 1 Pet 1:7–8, Luther provides a succinct
explanation of God at work in the life of the person undergoing trials: “Thus St. Peter here compares the gold that
is tried by fire to the trial of faith by temptation and suffering. The fire
does not make the gold any less, but it does make it pure and bright so that
all dross is removed. So God has imposed the cross on all Christians. By it
they are cleansed and well purged. As a result, their faith remains pure as the
Word is pure, and they depend on the Word alone and trust in nothing else. We
need such fire and such a cross daily because of the old, corrupt Adam” (WLS
§ 4446).
13.
The Psalmist says in
Psalm 66, “Bless our God, O peoples; let
the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and
has not let our feet slip. For You, O
God, have tested us… Yet you have
brought us out to a place of abundance” (Psalm 66:8-10, 12). Abundant love, grace, and mercy, for on the
mount of the Lord it has been provided. Amen. Please pray with me:
Lamb of God, You take away the sin
of the world. We thank you that on the
Mount of Calvary you poured out your blood and gave of your very body for us
for the forgiveness of our sins. Give us
the faith of Abraham this Lenten season to follow you wherever you lead
us. Help us to trust in You, that You
will provide for us with all our needs.
Have mercy on us Lord. In Jesus’
name. Amen.
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