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Soaking in the Gospel: “The Moriah Test”     Genesis 22:1-14
Pastor Larry Sundin                                 July 8, 2007

On my drive to the office Tuesday morning, I was thinking about the questions I gave us to ponder at the conclusion of last week’s talk, and I wondered if anyone used them or if we are really grappling with this question “Is IT in You?” “Is the gospel of Jesus Christ really taking hold inside of us, changing us, renewing us, awakening us to all that God has for us?” Then I asked myself the question “Is IT in me?” Am I walking with God the way He would have me walk with Him. Sure I have “My relationship with God.” But then it struck me. I have MY relationship with God, but what about God’s relationship with me? Am I really walking with Him throughout all the day? In my walk with God am I expressing my faith in all my decisions, in all my relationships, in all my living? Then I thought, well, if I’m asking those questions, are you? Are you asking those questions?

If I were to cut you open would you bleed God’s grace? Would your heart be beating in tune with God’s heart? If I could put your soul under a microscope and see the invisible reality of your faith, would there be a solid and unwavering confidence in the God who sought you, bought you, and made you His own? Or would I find some wishy-washy, doubt scarred, fragile religiosity that’s dependent on the last good thing that God did for you? Is the gospel of God’s grace making a difference in you? Is it changing you? Are you coming alive to God? Is your faith real?

If you’re new with us today, or if you haven’t been here with us for a while, this question: “Is It in you?” is the tag line for this message series we’re calling Soaking in the Gospel. The definition of the Gospel we are using is this: The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community, for good of others and the world. Now that’s a mouthful, but during the course of this series we want to illuminate the different ways God works to restore us. So last week we looked at the very first work of God’s grace in history: Where God came searching for Adam and Eve, who had hidden themselves from Him because of their rebellion, because of their willful disobedience. And we learned that as God sought them out, it was His kindness that draws us out of hiding, it is His kindness that covers our shame and restores us to friendship with Him. God pursues us with His love. That’s good news.

Now, this week, in trying to answer the question, “Is IT in you?” The aspect of God’s work we want to highlight is God’s provision. How God sees our need and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. But the interesting thing about God’s provision, is that Faith is the key that opens the door to God’s provision. I’m not the only one wanting to know if the faith in us is the real – God wants to know as well. And so God has a way of measuring our faith. He tests us. And today, we are going to look at one of those tests. I call it, The Moriah Test. It’s the test God gave Abraham that’s found in Genesis 22.

And it’s fitting that we look at how Abraham passed this test, for Abraham’s life is a lesson on the Way of Faith. Here is a man whose life story overflows with faith in God’s provision. James writes of him: And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. James 2:23

His story is an amazing story. It begins at the age of seventy five, when God comes to him and says: “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” And so Abraham believes God and goes to the land and lives there by faith, trusting that God will come through on His promises. Along the way, we see Abraham make some mistakes, we see him not trust God for the welfare of his wife (twice). We see him try to make the promise come true by taking matters into his own hands and taking Hagar as a wife. She bears him a child – but God’s says no – this is not the child of promise. But eventually we see God come through - When Abraham and Sarah are well past child bearing age – God provides a son. All is well for a number of years, and then God tests Abraham’s faith once again.

He tests Abraham to see if he was just using God for what He could get for himself, or did he really have IT in him. Did he have a genuine faith? So gives Abraham the Moriah Test. And I believe that God give that same test to us to see if our faith is real, or are we just using God. So how does the Moriah Test work? Well, let me just say this: The Moriah Test focuses on what’s most important to us: Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

The Moriah Test will show if Abraham’s relationship with God is one sided. It will show if he really believes God or if he’s been using God all along. It’s easy to say you trust God when life is good, when everything is working out your way. There’s no real need of faith when you’ve got everything you ever wanted. And that’s what Abraham had. At 75, he didn’t have an heir. Now at 100 plus, he’s got an heir, all the land he could ever want and all the blessings of God. God has really come through for him. But now God is going to test to see if “IT’s really in him. If he has a faith in God, not just in God’s goodies. So God gives him the ultimate test: give up the one thing you love the most – your son. The son of promise.

Now, at first reading this seems like a crazy command. If I were to read this without knowing the whole story of Abraham, I’d think that God was cruel. But this is not the first time God had tested Abraham’s faith. From that first call of God until now, God had been testing and maturing Abraham’s faith. And every test had to do with something of value.

Somewhere along the way, God may test you this same way. He may ask you to give up something of great value to you to see if you really trust Him. He may ask you to give up your wealth, your position or your reputation. He may ask you to give up your plans, your home, your future. He may ask you to give up your friends or even your job. And if that happens you will be faced with the reality of your faith. You may say “Is IT in you” now, but you can’t really know for sure until you are tested.

I had great conversation with my brother-in-law the other night. He was telling me how he finally passed his own Moriah Test. It all started around 12 Years ago, when he bought a chicken farm. After about a year later he lost that farm. He told me, “It was all my doing. I didn’t really trust God and thought I could make it happen. I really didn’t know what I was getting into and it cost me.” At the time, Greg was an Independent Contractor and was making a good money being his own boss so he was able to recover from that loss. Then about three years ago God tested him again. Greg got in two consecutive car accidents, neither his fault. But now, he could no longer do the physical part of his job. After going deep into debt and nearly loosing everything, he had no choice but to start trusting God to provide. This past year God came through. Greg was hired by major construction firm where he could use his experience and people skills. But he was immediately tested when his new boss asked him to lie to a client about a job. Greg said, “No, my faith would allow me to do that.” He said that knowing it might cost him his job. So Greg responded honestly to client, and an amazing thing happened: rather than lose the client, the opposite occurred. Their firm were thanked for their honesty and a positive relationship was established. Now, his boss who once mocked him for his faith is coming to him about personal matters. He trusts Greg because Greg is has passed the Moriah Test.

So the Moriah test begins by focusing on what’s of great importance to us. But there’s more. Secondly, The Moriah Test may be a lonely journey The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”

I love how God’s doesn’t just give us a definition of faith. He shows us faith what faith looks like: With Abraham there’s no debating with God. He doesn’t ask: “Isn’t there another way?” He just responds. He rises early, saddles his donkey, grabs two of his servants, chops the wood, and sets out. The journey is long, about 50 miles. Three days on a tough road. He does not talk with his servants about what God’s told him to do. As he gets within view of Moriah, he leaves his donkey and servants behind. This image just heightens the isolation for Abraham. He leaves everything and everyone behind. But his faith is unwavering. He says to his servants before he leaves them: “We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”

Here’s a man who believes God will provide. He has no companions to encourage him - only a lifetime of God’s faithfulness to sustain him. And sometimes that’s all God will give you. Sometimes God may put you in a place where you’ve got no one to trust but Him. Sometimes God may take you through a season of difficulty where the end is still far off. And sometimes you may be the only one who understands what God is asking of you. You see, we live in a quick fix culture - but sometimes living by faith means nothing gets fixed until God intervenes. But it’s during these times we get to show what faith looks like. The Moriah Test is often a lonely test.

Now there’s one thing about the Moriah Test and it’s the hardest: The Moriah Test will require radical obedience So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. Genesis 22:6-10

This is a picture of radical obedience – an obedience that will destroy everything of this earth that Abraham had hoped for. Going through with what God asked of him meant that Abraham would have no son and no future. But somehow, Abraham was willing to go all the way with God. Someho Abraham had learned from his previous sacrifices that a life with God, a life of faith was a life of emptying self so he could receive from God.

So Abraham wasn’t playing games with God. He wasn’t just going through the motions of sacrifice. When he came to the place God had showed him, he was fully committed to make the sacrifice. He picked up his knife with full intention to slay his son, and offer him to God. If God didn’t intervene, the Bible tells us he would have done it. The New Testament book of Hebrews says: “Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again.”

That’s an unshakable faith. Not a wishful hope. You could not raise this knife and cast it down and hope the sacrifice would survive. The blade in Abraham’s hand was meant to kill, and the fire was meant to consume. This was to be a whole sacrifice. There’d be nothing left but ashes. This kind of sacrifice required total obedience. And Abraham was willing to give it.

Eugene Peterson clarifies this way of faith, saying “The way of faith does not serve our fantasies, our illusions, or our ambitions. Faith is not the way to God on our terms, it is the way of God to us on his terms.” (Eugene Peterson, The Way of Jesus, page 55)

So at that critical moment, Abraham’s faith was complete. He was willing to do life totally on God’s terms no matter what it might cost him personally. He had passed the Moriah Test, and at that very moment God stepped in and delivered: At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.” Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” Genesis 22:11-14

And so we see that God rewards those who pass His test of faith

You see the Bible tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6
Abraham believed that God would provide. Abraham confessed that God saw his dilemma and came through for Him. That’s what “Yireh” means. God sees. Abraham had such a close walk of faith with God, that He knew without a doubt that God saw everything about him. His relationship with God was that solid. And so when God saw that his faith was genuine – God provided..

And that’s it. That’s what God wants us to get. God tests our faith so we can express our faith. That’s how we show that IT is in us. That’s how we show our faith – by surrendering everything to him. Abraham did it. He passed the test and God provided. The Moriah test is God’s way of testing to “see” if your faith is real: IS “IT” IN YOU?

Wow. Abraham knew God so well, that he was willing to trust him with what mattered most to him. No wonder he is our example for the way of faith. God wants to build into us a faith like Abraham’s. To have an unwavering faith that God so that you might be able to say

The next time I face an absurd or impossible situation to stay the course, I will trust that God will see me through. God will provide for me, or God will make a way!