Trials and Trust || Genesis 22:1-2 || Session 37 || Verse by Verse Bible Study

Was it moral for God to command Abraham to sacrifice his son? In today's verse by verse Bible study, what if one of the most unsettling stories in the Bible holds the key to understanding divine testing? Join us on this episode of Reasoning Through the Bible as we dissect Genesis 22 and God’s harrowing command to Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. We'll explore the profound implications of this test of faith, drawing from scriptures like James, Peter, and Paul to illustrate how such trials are designed to fortify our trust in God's unwavering promises. Through thought-provoking discussion, we’ll connect these Scripture verses to our own experiences, offering a modern reflection on the nature of faith and divine testing.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:19

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. We're working our way verse by verse through the book of Genesis. So if you have your copy of the Word of God, turn to Genesis, chapter 22. In this chapter, god commands Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise, isaac. So we're going to see that here in this chapter. So read with me. Verse one says this Now, it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham, and he said here I am.

Speaker 1 0:48

He said Take now your son, your only son whom you love, isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. With this, steve, we have a very dramatic, very troublesome command Because, as we've seen, abraham was very old. He was 100 years old. His wife was 90 when they finally had Isaac. Can't have too many more years to live. Now God gives this command sacrifice your son, isaac. So the first question is how troubling is that? That seems quite dramatic. Then the second question is what reason does God give in verse one for telling Abraham to sacrifice his son?

Speaker 2 1:35

It's not just a request for Abraham to sacrifice one of his sons. This is the child of promise. This is the one that God had promised to both Abraham and Sarah and had took 25 years for it to come to fruition, and that God opened the womb of Sarah so that she could bear Isaac. So there's that connection that's going through here as well. This is the child of promise and God has given him that child of promise. But it says there the reason why is that God tested Abraham. This is the reason why God is giving this command.

Speaker 1 2:16

As you said, steve, it's troublesome enough God to command to kill anyone, but it's especially troublesome when this was the son of promise. This was Isaac. This was the one whom the entire Abrahamic covenant of which God repeated over and over I will do these things, I will bring about this great nation, and it's going to come through Isaac. He had told him this. Now God is saying go, sacrifice this son. This is especially troubling but, as you rightly pointed out, he's allowing Abraham to prove this faith that he has expressed in God.

Speaker 2 3:10

This is taking something that is near and dear to him. In verse two it says take your son, your only son, whom you love, isaac. This is something that Abraham is being asked to prove the faith that he has. We see some things as we go through the text that will show Abraham's approach to this that we'll talk about, and there's also a New Testament reference that gives Abraham's frame of mind but initially frame of mind, but initially. This is something that God is asking for Abraham to do to prove this faith that he has expressed in Yahweh To prove the faith in the sense of demonstrating to Abraham that his faith is valid, what God's actually doing here.

Speaker 1 4:00

the test is to prove to Abraham that God is faithful. That's the test. Will Abraham believe that God is faithful? God's not trying to determine whether or not he knows. Abraham's going to do something. God knows all, but that's clear from other passages in Scripture. The test to prove Abraham's faith in the sense that we're going to test it to make sure it holds up, Bring this to our day. Does God ever test us?

Speaker 2 4:28

I think that sometimes there might be situations that do come along to test our faith and it might be something that is as well to show to other people. You know, glenn, we went through the book of James and in James it talks about prove your faith or show me your faith. James actually uses this as a description of it. If you could allow me to read this few verses here from James, it brings a little more flavor to it. This is James, chapter 2, verses 21 through 23.

Speaker 2 4:59

Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works and, as a result of the works, faith was perfected or completed and scripture was fulfilled, which says that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God. So James uses this as a example and, just as you asked, does it ever happen in our day? Not to this extent, but it comes series through James. We went into great detail on that, but yes, I think there are times whenever we're asked how are you going to show this faith that you have? The question is, do we follow through with it and do we actually show the faith that we have in Jesus Christ?

Speaker 1 6:03

The New Testament tells us several times that God will test our faith. Besides the place in James that you mentioned, Steve, it also says in James that the testing of our faith produces patience, James 1.3. Peter says that the fiery trials will come to test us in 1 Peter 4, 12. Paul says that God will test our hearts in 1 Thessalonians 2, 4. So there's enough times where it talks about trials and tests in the New Testament that I think we should expect them. We should expect tests from God to demonstrate our faith, to the point where, Steve, I would say, if we're not being tested our faith, then therefore something's wrong. We should question something if God's not bringing something in to build our faith. Again, the test isn't to try to make us fail or to try for God to see our faith. That's not the point. The testing is to demonstrate to us that he is faithful. He will get us through even a trial. That's the idea is to build our faith by trying it and testing it.

Speaker 1 7:13

In this passage, God does command something that I'm sure Abraham didn't understand. We don't even really understand it today. Before we get into the specifics of dealing with the morality of this. Does God ever do things that we don't understand?

Questioning God's Morality and Purpose

Speaker 2 7:29

There are many things that we do not understand, that we don't understand. There are many things that we do not understand and the main reason why we might not understand it is because we don't know the end result. God knows the end result before the question even comes up. So we go through it and after it happens, then we can look back and see okay, that's the reason why it happened and we have a explanation and the understanding after the fact. That's generally. I have found out in my life how it works.

Speaker 1 8:00

There's a lot of things that happen in Scripture that God commands to do that people don't understand. Remember, he asked Hosea, the Old Testament prophet. He commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute, knowing that the prostitute would do what prostitutes do and run around with other men. Then, after she did that, says, go buy her back, because God had a purpose in this. He asked Moses, a man who didn't believe he could speak well, to be the spokesman before Pharaoh. Why in the world would you ever choose somebody that can't speak well to be the spokesman before Pharaoh? Why in the world would you ever choose somebody that can't speak well to be a spokesman?

Speaker 1 8:39

Jesus took a ragtag gang of disciples that were from very different backgrounds not a team at all and used them to change the world. God does a lot of things that we don't understand. Why in the world do you would ever regenerate me after all the things I did in the kind of life I was living? Why would he ever pay attention to me? Well, he does a lot of things that we don't understand. So I submit, Steve, we don't have to understand why God does things. He's infinite. We're finite. Are we ever really going to understand all of what God's purposes are?

Speaker 2 9:14

We're not going to understand, but we're going to see here and understand some of the things that God is doing through this test of Abraham, not only as we go through the text itself here, but also what happens later with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, where he's being asked to sacrifice Isaac, and all of this stuff works into a type of Jesus Christ. Through this story we can see a commonality between Jesus Christ. That is another sub-theme that is going on here. I think that happens many times in our lives, that when God is doing and working things it's for our benefit. We look back and go. I understand now why that happened. It doesn't mean that it might not have necessarily been painful as we went through it, but it also. It could be that after it it builds our faith and we understand and trust God more after it happens.

Speaker 1 10:16

At this stage, Abraham is now over 100 years old. It says here in the first verse that God is testing his faith, still teaching him, still testing him. Are we ever too old to be used by God or for God to teach us things?

Speaker 2 10:31

Are we ever too old to be used by God or for God to teach us things?

Speaker 1 10:45

No, I've seen people that in their latter stages of life, that are still learning and still their faith is being built up in God, even in their last days and last weeks, no less than the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul said this quote, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which, also, I was laid hold of by the Lord Jesus. He says that in Philippians 3.12. So, Steve, I submit this life is a journey that we go through and God teaches us things. This life is a journey that we go through and God teaches us things, and sometimes he teaches us very simple, soft things, and sometimes he teaches us things that are cold and hard and dramatic, and this is one of those. So, Steve, what I'd like to do now is to take a minute and deal with the morality of this, because this comes up and I think it's a natural question, but our atheist, skeptic and critical friends take it and run with it and don't look at it as an inspired text of scripture, but look at this as a place to criticize the Bible and its teachings. So if we were to ask ourselves let's deal with it head on. Is there a moral problem with God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son? Because remember what it's saying here is God gave a command that we would hold to be immoral, which is to go and do a cold-blooded murder. It's not capital punishment and just to kind of give the thrust of the criticism. God's intention is something we would hold immoral. His command is to do it. Whether or not he follows through. The command here is to go sacrifice your son. And the critics say that's immoral.

Speaker 1 12:24

And, Steve, not long ago I heard a debate. I witnessed a debate between a Christian and an atheist debate. I witnessed a debate between a Christian and an atheist and the atheist brought up this exact passage here in Genesis, chapter 22, where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, and the atheist kept pushing this that, oh, it's immoral, it's immoral. And at this particular debate I don't think the Christian did a quite very good job of answering this. But I've got a handful of answers that I think answer this. The first one is, if we take the question is God moral? Then my first word back to somebody that would ask that is how dare we, how dare we question God? Somebody that legitimately has that question. Maybe if you fall down right now on your face and beg forgiveness, then the almighty, all-powerful, all-wise God would give you forgiveness. But how dare you question the morality of God? That's the first answer. Now I've got others. But Steve, what's your response to this?

The Morality of God's Commands

Speaker 2 13:28

In your setup. You said the command itself, whether it's moral, whether or not God was going to follow through with it. But I think, glenn, the reason why he is commanding this does play into it. First of all, we talked about the reason why he's giving this command is to prove the faith that Abraham has. It's for Abraham's benefit, it's not for God's benefit. That's the first thing. The second thing is is that, as we go through here, abraham does seem to have an understanding that God is going to make amends for it some way, that Isaac is not actually going to be taken. We see in other New Testament texts that Abraham believed that Isaac would be raised from the dead if he actually went through with it. But before he goes, he tells the servants we're going to be back. When Isaac asks, hey, I see the wood and I see the other things, abraham assures him that God's going to provide the sacrifice. He stops Abraham. God's going to provide the sacrifice. He stops Abraham, he provides the sacrifice.

Speaker 2 14:35

So while, yes, whether or not the command was moral is a valid question, but to work into that, I think you have to take into account what was the purpose for it and was God ever intending for it to happen. It's clear that he wasn't intending for it to happen. The last thing I would say is is that in this it's a type of Christ Through this it's a story that we see. I just think that all these things work into it and, while it can be done as a wedge from the skeptics and the atheists but it's really the wrong question in my mind and I know they like to use it I think as Christians we should not get caught up in the single point of whether or not it was moral, but we need to encompass the whole story and the reason behind it and the results that came out of it, to discuss everything that was going on, not just the command itself To support what you just said.

Speaker 1 15:33

What had Abraham already seen from God prior to this? He had seen Isaac being born. Just Isaac being born was a miracle. It happened exactly when God said it was, and he had already seen God's hand move in miraculous ways and had evidence that God could bring about miraculous things. God had proven to Abraham multiple times that through Isaac all the nations of the world would be blessed. It was going to happen through Isaac. So he, abraham, had evidence, had proof, if you will, that God had shown him. Trust me so with that. We had also seen that up to now.

Speaker 1 16:18

But I've got, I think, seven, if I counted right here, different reasons why I think the criticism is invalid. One I've already given, which is how dare we question the morality of God? But as a practical philosophical response, the first one I want to give is what I call what I've labeled as the video game analogy. A programmer, game designer, will create an electronic video game and programs the thing, designs the thing, builds the thing. As part of that process, the game designer will work into their things that the designer can do in the background, that he doesn't allow the game players to do. For example, the game designer may want to jump to level three without having to go through the process of playing level one and level two, because he's the game designer. And it's okay for the game designer to jump down to level three or level seven or jump around within the game without having to actually follow the rules and play the game, because he's designing the game, building the game. He's not held to the same set of game rules as the players. Are these programming techniques?

Speaker 1 17:33

When the users get a hold of it, they have a name for it. You know what the name is? It's called a cheat code. That's what they call it To the users. Well, that's cheating. You're jumping up into the level three without having to go through level one and two. That's a cheat code. Well, it's not a cheat code for the maker of the game, because he has a purpose for jumping up to level three or level seven and he's got a purpose for not being held to the same. I got to sit here and follow the same game every single time when I want to make a tweak to the game. So from the game player's perspective it's cheating, but the game maker's perspective it's cheating. But the game maker's perspective it's not.

Speaker 1 18:11

The game maker is not held to the same set of rules as the game player. Likewise, there's no moral problem with the maker of the universe who sets up the rules, that wants to do something with the people that are in the rules to bring things about. Another way of using this is think of any of the superheroes. If the writer of the movie, of the superhero movie, fundamentally changed the character where it was doing something totally radically different, the people that were connected with that superhero character, why in the world are you doing this? That's not what the character does. It's wrong for the character, but the writer could do whatever he wants because he's the writer. So, likewise, god has the right to do whatever he wants in his creation, because it's his creation. He's not held to the same moral rules that he implies on us because he's God, because he's above all of this, he's not a human. He's not held to the same thing.

Speaker 1 19:12

Number three the same skeptics that criticize God for commanding Abraham to kill Isaac are the same people that criticize God for not forgiving people even though they're guilty. What they want to do is okay. Why can't God just forgive people even though they're guilty? Well, forgiving people because they're guilty is morally wrong. And they want him to be morally wrong when it comes to oh, forgive me of my sin, why did Jesus have to die to pay for my sin? They want God to cheat there and just wipe it away and forgive it. Well, that's cheating from our perspective. They want that to happen, but somehow, when it comes to this now, they're holding God responsible. Can't have it both ways. Since God, as creator, gives life, he has the right to take it back again.

Speaker 1 20:00

Number four in philosophy there's a logical fallacy called special pleading. Everything works this way, except for this one case. Because I can't figure out how to make this one case work. Some of the philosophers will say well, this is special pleading, saying that God is an exception. Well, back to logic, class 101,. Special pleading is an informal fallacy, not a formal fallacy, and as such, informal fallacies only apply when they apply. And if indeed there is a special case, ie a unique individual, a unique being that is in a unique situation, then it's not special pleading to say that God gives life. Therefore he has the right to take it back again, and we don't. So it's not special pleading.

Speaker 1 20:47

Number five it's clear in Genesis that God never intended Abraham to kill Isaac. We covered that earlier, steve. It was an extreme command to test his faith. To support that.

Speaker 1 21:00

The next one, number six, think of a military recruit going to boot camp. The drill instructor will sometimes give extreme commands in boot camp for a purpose to train people to follow orders. They'll give extreme commands because following orders is a fundamental thing. That an army or a navy or an air force or marines, they all have to follow orders or you're not going to win the war. So in boot camp they teach you to follow orders by giving extreme commands Because if you don't learn to follow the commands of the commander when you get out in the battle, you're never going to win the war. So it's okay for a drill instructor in boot camp to give outrageously extreme commands just to teach you to follow orders. Similar situation here in Genesis, number seven. It's not immoral to God to offer his son Jesus which is really the bang for the buck here this example of Isaac being sacrificed. What's the true sacrifice of the son over in the New Testament, steve?

Speaker 2 22:06

The true sacrifice is actually His life, that he gives up His life as a propitiation, the satisfactory sacrifice, as Romans 3 puts it, so that God could be just and the justifier. The last part there, that last number seven, glenn. Last part there, that last number seven, glenn. That's where I really see this story fitting into this. It gives an example for us after Christ's death, burial and resurrection, and also for the rulers and the people at the time when Jesus came, when he tells them first, this Messiah must suffer, that they can reflect and see this, what happens here, with Isaac as a type and as an example to carry through and to help them understand what God's real purpose is. I think that is something that is missed through all of this.

Speaker 1 23:04

We know in the passage and you alluded to this earlier, steve that Abraham understood God had the power to raise Isaac and still work through him, because he tells the servant stay here, we are going to go sacrifice and we will return. In Hebrews it tells us that Abraham knew that God could raise Isaac from the dead. Therefore, he had faith in God to bring this about. So bottom line answer is God's not held to the same moral code as we are, because he's God. Secondly, he has the right to give life. He has the right to take it back again and he never intended the death to happen. He was using it as an example to build Abraham's faith. Now, steve, I always have to say, because we get on these topics and we have all kinds of people that listen to us and we live in such a world that's sort of out of control Any of our listeners out there, if you're hearing God tell you to go kill somebody, don't.

Speaker 1 24:04

If you're hearing a voice from God telling you to go do anything that is normally unethical, immoral. You're hearing a voice from God telling you to go do anything that is normally unethical, immoral. You're hearing God tell you to go do something that there's commands in the Bible not to do, then do not do that. Go talk to a pastor, talk to a counselor, because this was a special case one time in history. It was overly dramatic because it's the one time in history. Therefore, we will never be given commands like this, and so any of our listeners out there, if you're hearing commands from God to do something, then just check it out with a pastor. I always think I have to say that because we get all kinds of people.

Speaker 2 24:44

Well, it's also not coming from God. Again, this was like you said. This is a special case, special situation, and this is not something that God does on a normal, regular basis. So, yeah, you're not hearing from God. You're actually hearing from demons or others.

Speaker 1 25:01

So we'll wrap up here. Abraham is in the midst of going out to sacrifice his son. God has given this radical command. We'll find out next time what actually happens when he goes and sets up the sacrifice. So we trust that you'll be back here with us next time.

Speaker 2 25:18

To reason through the Bible. Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.