The Joy in the Journey

Second Sunday in Lent
Light of Christ Anglican Church

Rev. Michael J. Moffitt, February 25, 2024

SCRIPTURE Genesis 22:1–14

For part of my truck driving career I trained new drivers who had just finished training at a truck driving school. The average cost was $5,000 and was usually a 6-week program that was 3–4 weeks of classroom preparing them to take the DMV written exams, how to do a pre-trip inspection, DOT requirements and laws concerning hauling hazmat. Then there was at least one week on backing up a trailer, followed by 1 to 2 weeks actually driving on the interstate highways and back roads. When they graduated they lived with me for 6–8 weeks.

My job was to help them understand that they didn’t know as much as they thought they did. Many of them viewed the life of a truck driver as the last American cowboy. They were excited and ready for the adventure of a lifetime. It’s true that one of the blessings is that you get to see a lot of the beauty of our country, but my job was to teach them what the job really entailed.

During the time I was a trainer a fairly large percentage of trainees eventually decided that truck driving was not for them. Many were terrified when heavy rain, snow or ice showed up or they were driving down a mountain with a very heavy load, or the long hours were more than they could tolerate. I never had anyone quit while in their training with me but once they were on their own it was another matter.

I’ve found that the same thing can happen when people decide to be Christ followers. Some are led to believe that once they gave their lives to Christ everything would just be sunshine and roses. When the promised trials and tribulations showed up they felt that God had betrayed them and the people who introduced them to the gospel lied, or at least didn’t warn them.

Our job as Christians is to share with the unbeliever that to disregard the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that places them in the category of God’s enemy. Only through repentance of sin and embracing the hope of the death and resurrection of Christ alone will there be salvation. This is true for everyone no matter how good they believe they are or how evil they have been. Christ offers new life in him alone. We can’t tell that truth enough, and unless we have conveyed that we have not spoken the true gospel.

As we read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, one of the things they all have in common is that the disciples were not prepared for the reality of what it would mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. However, with the exception of Judas, they all stayed the course until their death.

Why? Because once they encountered Jesus, the risen Savior, the now glorified Lord, leaving him was simply out of the question. I’m sure that when persecution was severe they were tempted to turn away from their calling, but none of them did because they wanted to be with Jesus again. There was nothing that anyone could threaten them with or do to them that would make them turn away. Jesus was their Master, their Lord, and the object of their affection.

The longer I pursue my relationship with Christ the more I am confronted with things that are more difficult than before. I also find that by his grace I make it through. Do you know why? Because he has trained me over the years to trust him and he’s failed me. I can look back over the years and see how trials and troubling times served to equip me for things that I would encounter in the future.

Today we will consider what it must have been like for Abraham when God instructed him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of God’s promise, as a burnt offering.

This is week two of the season of Lent which is a time of reflection on the journey that Jesus made towards Jerusalem and the cross. Last week we looked at the importance of obedience to the commands of God and we considered the example of Noah’s faithfulness to the command of God to build an ark.

Essentially, it took Noah and his sons 120 years to build it to God’s specifications and bring two of every kind of animal into it. He gave up a huge portion of his life in obedience to a command from God that initially made no sense. There had never been a flood nor had there been rain. Genesis 2:6 tells us that a mist came up from out of the ground to water the earth.

So Noah followed the command of the Lord to build an ark to protect himself, his family, and two of every animal on the earth at that time, from something he had never seen or experienced. Noah obeyed the command of God because he lived by faith (Hebrews 11:7).

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

It must have taken years just to cut down the trees necessary to build such a structure of that size. Then they had to move them to the site where they would build the ark and fashion them into planks. Not to mention gathering resources to feed the family and all the animals. Noah, his family, and all the animals were in the ark for 371 days.

Listen to Genesis 9:28–29, 

“After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.” 

That means that Noah was 480 years old when God commanded him to build the ark and 600 when the flood came.

Today, we’ll briefly consider the story of Abraham’s obedience to God’s command. I’ve found that these kinds of stories of men’s faithfulness to God once heard can’t be unheard. They point out that whenever God commands us through his word or through the urging of the Holy Spirit we have a choice to make. Obedience or disobedience

God promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation. In Genesis 15:5–6,

“And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

By this time in Abraham’s life he had followed the commands of the Lord for many years and received God’s blessings for it. So, in our passage this morning this was probably not a test of Abraham's faith but was to reveal his faith. When God first promised him a son through Sarah they were both well beyond childbearing years.

During this long wait God was building Abraham’s faith a little at a time. This test would reveal the depth of the faith that God had built up in him.

When he was 99 years old, the angel of the Lord, told Abraham that Sarah his wife who was 89 would give birth to a son the following year. In chapter 21:5–7, God keeps his word with the birth of the son, Isaac.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said,

“God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”

And she said,

“Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Our story from chapter 22 begins at least 12 years later when God came to test Abraham’s faithfulness,

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, offering him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you.”

Abraham waited 25 years for God to fulfill his promise of a son through Sarah, and not just any son, but one who would fulfill the promise that from Abraham’s line all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Then God commanded Abraham to take this son, whom he acknowledged was Abraham’s only son, whom he loved dearly. This is the first time that the word love is used in the Bible, and it is connected to the love of a father for his son.

It’s also the first indication of the concept of the sacrificial offering of a son. Abraham was to offer up Isaac as a sacrificial burnt offering before the Lord. In the pagan cultures it was not unusual for people to offer human sacrifices to their gods. God had promised that Isaac would be his heir and from him would come many. Didn’t this contradict what God had been promising Abraham for 37 years?

Then verse three reports that the next morning Abraham gets up, saddles the donkey, gets two servants and Isaac and everything they need for the sacrifice except the sacrificial lamb.

What the Bible doesn’t tell us is what it was like for Abraham in the time between verses two and three. My guess is that there was a war going on inside his mind. As he lay next to Sarah that night listening to her sleep in peace, what was he thinking? Perhaps he was reminded of the joy that came upon her at the birth of her son, Isaac. His name meant laughter and he had certainly brought that out of her as her public shame of being barren had been removed. Maybe he was remembering the young baby being cradled in her arms as she fed him with tenderness and a joy that she thought she would never have. Or her delight in watching him grow and run and play with the other young boys knowing full well that someday her son would be the heir of all that God had given to Abraham.

What would he tell her? Would she understand? Would she believe that God told him to sacrifice Isaac? Would anybody? Would this kill her? I can picture Abraham wrestling with God all night long trying to understand the reason for such a demand. I can see Abraham weeping before the Lord, begging him not to require this of him, but then reminding himself that God had always kept his word. I suspect that he didn’t sleep and had a massive case of butterflies in his stomach.

I am certain that God did not speak again that night because he had already said all that needed to be said. The command was not a request, and in the morning Abraham only had two choices. He could obey God or disobey him. You will notice that it was Abraham himself who saddled the donkeys and cut the wood even though he had many who worked for him that could have done it. He alone would be responsible for what had to be done. He had come to a decision that he would obey God no matter what it cost him.

Hebrews 11:17–19 gives us a glimpse into his heart,

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham was learning the difference between trusting the promise and trusting in the one who made the promise. Abraham reasoned that God had shown him many times that he alone was God, therefore he alone had the right to demand whatever he wanted from Abraham.

They traveled for three days before God showed Abraham the place where the sacrifice was to be made. All during that time Abraham alone knew what he had to do. Can you imagine him walking and talking with his son and thinking about what a fine young man he was turning out to be? I know that the tension and uncertainty must have been overwhelming.

Finally, he and Isaac leave the young men behind with the donkeys and Abraham laid the wood for the offering on Isaac while he took the fire and the knife. Isaac wondered about the lamb for a sacrifice, but Abraham assured him that God would provide the lamb. What a prophetic moment in the story. When Abraham responded to Isaac, he didn’t know how God would provide, only that he would. He also didn’t understand the prophetic role he was playing in the history of redemption.

I think it important that we be reminded that Moses wrote this story for the children of Israel while they wandered around the desert. He wanted to encourage them to follow the God of their father Abraham, who was always faithful to his word. At the same time, the Holy Spirit is calling us to recognize this story as a type and foreshadow of what the Father was willing to do for us through his Son, Jesus Christ, and why this is reason enough to trust in Him.

In John 1:29, John the Baptist seeing Jesus declares, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Unknowingly, Abraham speaks the ultimate word of truth, “God will provide the lamb.”

In Genesis 22:9–14, Abraham and Isaac go up on the mountain to make the burnt offering we can see the similarities to God the Father giving his Son as an offering for our sins.

Isaac was old enough and strong enough to carry the wood of the sacrifice and Abraham was at least 112 years old. Isaac could have easily run away from his father or resisted his efforts but instead he submits to being bound and placed on the altar.

This example of trust is extraordinary as the son trusts in the word of his father, and it foreshadows Jesus’ willingness to submit to the plan of his Father by allowing himself to be placed on the cross. The fact that the Angel of the Lord calls out to Abraham to not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him suggests that God knew that Abraham had every intention of following through with the command of God. He believed that he would have to actually kill his son for God to raise him up again. Now God saw that Abraham would withhold nothing from him, not even his only son.

However, those that Moses was initially telling this story to would have a question about the sacrifice offering. The question for the hearer now becomes, why did God provide a ram when Abraham very clearly said He would provide a lamb? The answer that was ultimately arrived at, was that Abraham was a prophet. God would indeed provide a lamb; however, He would do so in the future. Thus, since Genesis 22, the Jewish People have been waiting for the Lamb of God and this prophetic interpretation began to take on a messianic character and title.

We can see this title active and alive in the minds of the Jewish people in the Second Temple Period, so much so that when John the Baptist sees Jesus, he declares Him to be “the Lamb of God.” The disciples don’t ask, what is the Lamb of God? Many disciples stopped following the prophet John and started following Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Abraham went and sacrificed the ram caught in the thicket. God didn’t call off the sacrifice, instead he provided a substitute. Abraham called the place where God provided the sacrifice, Jehovah Jireh, “God will provide.” Moses recounted that even in his day, “it is said, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’” Everything about this story points to what God the Father would accomplish through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

God even planned it so that Abraham and Isaac traveled for three days and on the third day Isaac, who was the sacrifice, had a substitute provided by God and was spared from death. The place where Abraham built the altar that he placed Isaac on was the region of Moriah, where years later the temple in Jerusalem would be built. Moses was striving to encourage Israel to be faithful to all the commands of God just like their Father Abraham so that they could know the blessings of God that obedience afforded.

The Holy Spirit has the same lesson for us today as we focus on the cross. Our example is not just Abraham but Jesus, who chose obedience and willingly submitted to the will of his Father and because of that was spared from death on the third day.

In our Gospel reading from Mark 8:31–38, Jesus taught his disciples that he “must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

To Peter, this did not sound like the promise that God had made concerning the Messiah and so he rebuked Jesus for saying such things. Peter didn’t yet have the faith or the hearing of Abraham and was not willing to accept what Jesus was saying as remotely possible. Jesus knew who was speaking through Peter and addresses him directly,

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man!”

Like Abraham, Jesus had not misheard or misunderstood the command of the Father. He knew who he was and why he had come and it’s the next statement from Mark 8:34–36 that gives those who would follow his example of obedience to the Father its direction,

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

Like the Father, Jesus is speaking clearly and there is no doubt what he is saying. If we would follow after him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. Our cross is that we die to our wills and submit to the will of the Father, no matter the cost. What could be clearer? In truth, the question for those who call themselves Christians is, “Am I following the commands of the Father?”

This Lenten season I am asking the Holy Spirit to show me where I am falling short in that. If that is not the focus of my life as a Christian, then I have allowed myself to be distracted from the main purpose of life revealed to me by Jesus. We saw this attitude in Abraham who placed his love of God over his love of anything else and of course, we saw that Jesus followed the will of his Father out of love for him and for those who were lost, even though it cost him his life.

You will notice that once Abraham showed a willingness to follow the command of God, that God began speaking again. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane crying out to God to “let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39) the Father was silent. He had already spoken and now obedience was called for. Hebrews 5:8, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”

The story of Abraham is very sobering because the message is clear. We are called to relinquish control over our lives and invite God to be the Lord of every area of our lives.

You know what? Anything other than that is not Christianity, it’s religion. It has become increasingly obvious that the lines are being drawn in the sand between the secular world and Christianity. The moral differences in allegiance to the State versus the God of Biblical Christianity have never been more defined. The middle ground is evaporating and the words of Jesus to the Church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:15–16 have never seemed more relevant.

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Our examples within God’s word this morning have a common theme. The life of faith in God is not easy but actually brings us into spiritual warfare with an enemy that is tenacious. Rightly understood the invitation of Jesus the Messiah is to join with him in suffering. The reward of doing this reveals the paradox—the cross ends in glory. In Journeying with Jesus into his death we also receive the blessing of the resurrection and life with him. In essence Jesus invites us to follow his example of obedience and the reward is life with him forever. He warns,

“For what does it profit a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul?”

Let’s pray.