One Son for God

OT Lesson: Genesis 22:1-18 (NLT)

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 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.”

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. 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.”

Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

NT Lesson: John 6:1-15 (NRSV)

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. Today is the first Sunday in Lent. We began the Lent with the joint Ash Wednesday service, which was great. I hope to do more things together with other churches. Being in Lent, I am supposed to follow the common lectionary and preach the Lenten sermon, but as you know I couldn’t finish the sermon last Sunday, and didn’t even mention anything about the OT lesson at all. So today, I am going to spend all the time on the OT lesson only.

Sacrifice Your Son

This Genesis story is very famous. To some, it is troublesome, and to others, graceful. So the basic story is this: “God told Abraham to kill his son to receive lots of blessings. Then Abraham was actually going to kill his only son, and God stopped him right before the killing.” Now, let me ask you this question: How many of you are willing to sacrifice or kill your child so that you can be much blessed? I don’t want to. And probably you don’t either. There are always some weird and exceptional people but I believe most parents would choose rather not to be blessed than to sacrifice their child. But here, Abraham did. It is really hard to believe that he actually tried it. In America, we cannot really understand what it means to have a son because we don’t care to have a daughter or a son. Many people intentionally choose not to have any child at all. But my parents may understand a little better because they had five daughters to have one son in the end. In the old patriarchal society, especially in the Biblical times, having a son was the whole reason and purpose of their entire life. Abraham got one son at the age of one hundred. Well, he had another son, but it was so to speak out of wedlock, so that is a totally different story. This Abraham chose to kill his only legitimate son to receive tons of blessings.

This is hard to believe. And yet God said in the Bible to Abraham, “I am going to bless you much because you have not withheld your only son.”1 Many preachers justify Abraham’s action saying the same thing that Abraham did not spare even his only son, and God blessed him much, and that we got to do the same to receive as much blessings as Abraham. And I say, ‘What the heck? I don’t want to.’ But as a preacher myself, do I need to encourage you to kill your child if needed to receive tons of blessings? Well, it depends on what God wants.

God Does Not Want This

Now the new question is, “Does God really want this from us?” The easy answer is of course not. First of all, God stopped Abraham before killing. If God wanted, He could have just let him do it. Second of all, there was a weird religion in the ancient Canaan along with Baal worship, which was called Moloch or Molech. And one of their practices was letting their child pass through the fire, that is burn them to death. With this, they believed that they will get the utmost blessings than other practices. In one sentence, their doctrine was like ‘Sacrifice your son to Moloch and you will be as rich as Bill Gates.’ But God made it very clear and says many times ‘Do not make your children pass through fire’ in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Kings, Chronicles, etc. So obviously God does not want us to sacrifice any of our children. I am very grateful for that because I don’t want to. Then, what does it mean that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son and Abraham obeyed. Let us learn about it.

Isaac as Symbol of Jesus

Third of all, this is actually one of the prophetic moments in the Bible. Through this episode, God was showing us symbolically what will happen in the future. Abraham is the father, and he in this episode represents God the Father. Isaac is the son, and thus he represents God the Son, who is Jesus Christ the Messiah. Abraham sacrificing Isaac shows that God the Father will sacrifice His only Son Jesus Christ. Isaac was about high school age like sixteen or seventeen, and his father Abraham was obviously over one hundred. Isaac was standing still while Abraham was tying him with a rope. Only if Isaac wanted, he could have resisted, pushed his old father to escape this situation. But he chose not to. Not that he couldn’t, but he chose not to resist. Likewise Jesus could have summoned more than twelve legions of heavenly army to escape the situation. But Jesus chose not to. Not that Jesus couldn’t, but He chose not to resist. Isaac only once asked his father where the sacrificial lamb was. Jesus also asked God the Father only once praying to let the cup pass. God clearly showed us His future plan to sacrifice His only Son for you and for me. Because Isaac was not real Jesus but symbolically represents the Messiah, God did not actually sacrifice him. God provided the actual sacrifice, a ram in this case which also symbolically means Jesus Christ the Passover Lamb. Hebrews 9 says, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!”2 Apostle Peter declares that Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb.3 Many times the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed in our place, just like the ram was sacrificed in the place of Isaac.

Jehovah-Jireh

At this moment of the story, Abraham says the famous phrase יְהוָה יִרְאֶה‎ (Yahweh-Yireh) or with the more familiar pronunciation, Jehovah-Jireh. There is even a quite well known Christian music with this title. “Jehovah-Jireh, my Provider, Jehovah-Jireh cares for me. My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory. He will give His angels charge over me. Jehovah-Jireh cares for me.” This is a beautiful song. I love it. And I have no doubt that God will supply all our needs. Jesus says to us, ‘Don’t worry. God feeds the sparrows. God dresses up the lilies. How much more God will supply your needs.’4 But I have to say that it is not what Jehovah-Jireh is really about. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 not to worry about those needs because these are what the gentiles seek after. So supplying all our needs is needless to say because it is given and granted. So when Abraham said that God will provide, it was not about the money or other supplies for our needs. As God did in today’s OT lesson, God will provide the Lamb to be sacrificed in our place. That is, God will provide us with our salvation. Money is what the gentiles seek after, but salvation is not. So Jesus tells us to seek the kingdom of God.5 And this is what God provides us—the kingdom of heaven, that is the salvation.

Previously in Genesis 15, God already told Abraham that God will make him a great nation through his only legitimate son Isaac, and Abraham believed it, and God counted it as righteousness. So in chapter 22 when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham still believed God’s promise that Isaac will make a great nation in the future. But dead boy cannot make a woman pregnant. So in effect, Abraham believed that even though my son dies, he will not die because God promised me. Abraham believed in life—even though my son dies, he will not die. That is, my son will rise again. Abraham believed in resurrection. And this is exactly why Abraham was able to willingly sacrifice his son. Abraham was not seeking after the earthly blessings as gentiles do.

Stars and Sands

Later when God was blessing Abraham, God says that his descendants will be like stars in the heaven and the sands on the seashore.6 Some of Abraham’s descendants will be the stars in the heaven. Some other descendants will be the sands on the seashore. Stars and sands are dramatically different in location, estate, and destiny. One is up in the heavens shining and admired by many people. The other is down there trampled under feet of the people. So God declared that not all the descendants of Abraham will be the same. They are divided into two different groups. Jesus also confirmed this that on the last day of judgement when Jesus comes back in His glory, people will be divided and separated into two groups of the sheep and the goats. The sheep will inherit the kingdom of heaven, but the goats will go into the eternal fire.7 John the Baptist assured us that people will be divided into two groups of the wheat and the chaff. Upon harvest, the wheat grains will go into the granary but the chaffs will be burn with unquenchable fire.8 Those descendants of Abraham who are the sands on the seashore will say to the great judge on the last day, “We have Abraham as our ancestor.”9 But Jesus’ answer is clear: “Who cares? You are the sands. Be trampled under feet. You are the goats. Go into the eternal fire. You are the chaffs. Burn with unquenchable fire.”

Then what does this mean that Abraham has two different groups of descendants—stars up in the heavens and sands down on the seashore? That means, just because we come to church, we are not all saved and we are not all automatically going to heavens. We have to choose to be the stars to go up in the heavens. We have to choose to be the sheep to inherit the kingdom of God. We have to choose the be the wheat grains to go into the granary. Then how can we do that? We can do that by the faith of Abraham, that is the faith of resurrection. We just began the season of Lent, which is the journey with our Saviour to the cross, to the death, and to ultimately to the resurrection. The whole purpose of the Christianity and the entire reason of the church is the resurrection. Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, ‘If there is no resurrection of the dead, we Christians are among all people most miserable, pitied and sad.’10

If we believe in Jesus for blessings, if we come to church to be rich, or for any other reason beside resurrection and salvation, we are seeking after the earthly things like the gentiles do. And that is choosing to be sands on the seashore, choosing to be the goats, and choosing to be the chaffs. And we all know the consequence for that choice.

Conclusion

Just like not everybody living in this country are the citizens of the United States, sadly I have to say that not all the church-goers in the world are true heirs of the living God. God states in Deuteronomy 30, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death.”11 So God had set those options on the table so that we can choose. So which one do you want to choose? To be the stars up in the heaven or the sands on the seashore? To be the sheep or the goats? To be the wheat grain or the chaffs? In the same verse of Deuteronomy, God begs us ‘to choose life so that we and our children may live.’ So friends, let us choose life by the faith of resurrection. Then you and I will shine like the stars up in the heavens forever and ever with all the glories of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb who walked the road to calvary all because of you and me. Amen.