Jehovah Jireh
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
March 9, 2014
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Genesis 22: 1-19
John 3: 16-32
Let
us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For
your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
22 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him,
“Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your
only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him
there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” 3
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of
his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt
offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown
him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far
away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the
donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will
come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and
laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the
two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham,
“Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are
here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said,
“God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of
them walked on together.
9 When they
came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid
the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of
the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to
kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham,
Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your
hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since
you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And
Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went
and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14
So Abraham called that place “The Lord
will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
15 The angel
of the Lord called to Abraham a
second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, says
the Lord: Because you have done
this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will
indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of
heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall
possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall
all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have
obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they
arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba. [1]
If I was going to plan a sermon series where I
preached through the Old Testament, trying my best to use the natural rhythms
of the Christian calendar to enhance the stories, I would have picked this
Sunday, the first Sunday in Lent to tell the story of Abraham and Isaac, and
the sacrificing, the very story that we come to today, on this the first Sunday
of Lent. I would have done it this way if I had planned it, but I'm not good planner, so I didn't plan it, it just
worked out this way. The reason that this story fits Lent so well is that Lent
is a season where we look inward, we look at ourselves and honestly take an
appraisal of ourselves, our faith, our life, our connection to God, our
relationships, where we are from a Spiritual Wholeness Standpoint. Lent is
about preparing us for Easter, preparing ourselves for the amazing reality of
the Risen Christ in our lives and everything it means. For that reason it is
pretty awesome to look at this story and the high water mark of faith, for that
is what this story is about, as gruesome as it seems, it is about faith, faith
that God keeps His promises. For God has promised Abraham a ton. The land, the
blessing, the nation, all of that, it all hangs on the balance of the life of
this child Isaac. There is no way that Isaac's death is part of the bargain,
right? right? How would that work, no Abraham heads out going through with the
unthinkable, the unbelievable, the impossible, Abraham heads out to offer Isaac
as a burnt offering. . . complete offering. . . the slaughtering of Abraham and
Sarah's only son, the child of promise, the child they have been waiting for,
the child we have been reading about. . . just born last chapter, and now is
being put on the altar as a sacrifice. So
as troubling as this story is, and as troubling as that soul search of Lent sometimes
is, they are a good match. . . for there are certain parallels that come to the
surface here.
If the promise is made there in chapter one of
this Biblical redemption story, chapter 2 is all the walking from place to
place, chapter three this baby is born, and here in chapter four has quite a
twist. If the walk of faith with all of its twists and turns wasn't enough to
test your faith, or to spoil the story as a
reader, this one would surely make you close the book, but it is
important that it is only chapter 4, because though here the plot thickens,
this story is about more than Abraham's faith, it also is all about
foreshadowing. Here you have so many precursors to later pieces of the redemption
story. The details all come up to the surface all showing the future in all its
glory. I want to take a look at some of those details right now.
First, in this story you have an important
word repeated, in English it is actually three words, it's "here I
am", but it Hebrew it is the one "hineni" this becomes later in
the story the response call of prophets, of those seeking to do God's will, to
begin their missions, it is the mark of real intimacy between God and prophets
later on, but it finds its first utterance in the story here, and the intimacy
that it will display between God and the later prophets is built here. Look at
the passage, "here I am" is repeated three times, each time by
Abraham. First when he is called, "Abraham", Abraham responds
"hineni." Here I am God, where shall I go, what shall I do, I am your
vessel, shape me, mold me, direct me, I am yours. All of that is wrapped up in
that little word "hineni' and it will be echoed by Moses, and Samuel, and
Isaiah, and others. God calls us by name, we say, here we are, and the mission
begins. . . thy will be done, type stuff. And here the will of God is for
Abraham to slaughter his son, that child of promise. The next, "here I
am" comes from Abraham, this time in response to his son. . . showing that
devotion that way as well, a man with love in two directions at once, duty to
God duty to son, this is what is being put to test. . . Isaac says,
"Father" and to this as well, Abraham responds, "Heneni, here I
am." A strange response, awkward in English, showing that the "here I
am" is much more meaningful than merely a statement of place, but also of
attentiveness, focus, devotion, care. Here I am, physically, spiritually whole,
and completely present, ready to hear what you have to say, willing to do
whatever you ask, that is the presence embodied in that Hebrew word. And then
the third time it is said, when the Angel of Salvation comes, when the knife in
Abraham's hand is stopped, saying, "Abraham, Abraham", and then we
hear Abraham again, "Hineni," "Here I am" remaining
faithful, ready to do whatever it takes, ready, able, and somehow willing. . .
"do not lay a hand on that boy or do anything. . . " It's quite a
full circle, with that one important word laying the framework.
What we have in this story is some of the most
interesting details. The Hebrews did not have a ton of words to use. . . like
most other ancient languages and peoples, they told their stories with simple
language, and the poetry of it had to fill in the deeper meaning. In writing
like that, details are important, and they aren't wasted. They aren't just
willy nilly thrown together, and they were noticed by the audience. When they
heard certain phrases it mattered to them, and the story teller wouldn't use
them on accident. An example of what I mean is like the basket that Moses is
placed in to save him as he floats in the water, yes it was "ark" the
very same word used to describe Noah's vessel of salvation meant to do the same
thing. In this story we have so many great details. Look at the beginning of
this, where God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, he doesn't just say,
sacrifice Isaac, he says, "Take your son, your only son, whom you
love" . . . certainly sounds familiar doesn't it. Hmm interesting. . . Now
look at verse 4, "on the third day" he sees the place, and Isaac and
Abraham venture forth alone. . . another familiar parallel. . . and they keep
coming. . .
They take up the wood, and he lays it on
Isaac, yes, Isaac carries the wood that he will be sacrificed upon, and the
knife. . . again the parallels, and Isaac says, "Father, we have the wood,
but where is the lamb for the offering. . . and here you have it, the promise,
the truth, the one reason that Abraham can go through with his life, his faith
built upon promises and a journey, leading up to this point, his entire life is
built on faith that there is more to this story than the end of a promise here,
and his entire life is on the line when he says, "God, himself will
provide. . ." God Himself will provide the lamb. . .again how very
familiar and how very true. The prophetic understanding of what Jesus will do
is so wrapped up in this story, that the prophecy is strong here, rivaling even
the prophecies in Isaiah.
And then you get to the real moment of truth,
the third of the hineni's, prefaced by this statement, a statement that is one
of the most paradoxical and harsh in all of the world's literature, so much
more than Priam doing the unthinkable in the Iliad, when he kisses the hand of
the man who murdered his son. . . kissing Achilles hand in an act of humility.
. . no so much worse than that, and it is slow, drawn out, in great story
teller fashion, here we have, "Then Abraham reached out his hand and took
the knife to kill his son." Could you imagine? I was writing this last
night with Coralee beside me on the couch, she had thrown up twice already, and
was lying there peaceful, and I would do anything in the world, anything in my
power to take pain from her, and here Abraham has to do the opposite. . . and
then there is the but. . . But the Angel
of the Lord called to him from Heaven." Right at the perfect moment. . .
again the promise shows up and is real. "I know that you fear God, since
you have not withheld your son" . . . again, "Your only son from
me." An at that moment God looks up and sees a ram, caught in the thicket
by its horns. . . and that becomes the offering. . . The Lord Provides.
And so Abraham names that place, the Lord
Provides, in Hebrew that statement holds one of the Old Testament names for
God, most often transliterated as. . . Jehovah Jireh. . . Jehovah, of course
being. . . the name for God. . . the I am, we will get from Moses and the
burning bush much later. . . that strange unpronounceable name for God. . . and
then Jireh. . . will provide, or other times who provides. Jehovah Jireh, God
will provide the lamb. . . and God does. . . and the paragraph ends with
another important statement. . . "as it is said to this day, "On the
mount of the Lord, it shall be provided." Does that mean Ararat, where
Noah's Ark reached land beneath the rainbow of promise, or Sinai where the name
of God was given to Moses, and then later the law, or Horeb? or Zion, the hill
on which Jerusalem stands, the Mount where Jesus preaches, or is it the story
that has been paralleled throughout this text, Calvary. God provides. Jehovah
Jireh.
15 The angel
of the Lord called to Abraham a
second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, says
the Lord: Because you have done
this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will
indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of
heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall
possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall all
the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed
my voice.”
And to close out this story, the
promise is again restored, and now is again expanded. Abraham is not just to be the father of a
nation, a nation blessed through him, but the entire world, all the nations of
the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice. From
the darkness of this story, the violence, self slaughtering of hopes and
dreams, through faith on the other side is promise, light, peace, promise,
blessing. Here we have God again, as God has done since the beginning, bringing
darkness to light, and fulfilling His promises beyond doubt, and beyond our
wildest imaginings. The Lord provided Isaac, and the Lord would not force
Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the son he loved. . . no God would not make
Abraham do that, even though Abraham was willing, instead God would save that
sacrifice for himself. Let's close with the Gospel lesson for today again, John
3:16-21
6 “For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him
are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because
they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And
this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all
who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds
may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the
light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.[2]
The parallels are impressive, and show us the nature of
faith, the nature of God's promises, the nature of being "tested",
the depths from which darkness can be turned into light in God's control, and
that God in fact will provide, Jehovah Jireh. . . I'm still uncomfortable with
this story. It is one of the most troubling stories in the Bible, but when seen
in context, within the story of salvation, and that God does in fact do what he
doesn't require of Abraham, and there is real power in the story, real meaning,
and I thank God for it having happened, and for it being in God's Word, to show
us another glimpse at the amazing nature of God, of which I am in awe and wonder.
Allelujahovah Jireh, Hallelujah and Amen.
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