A Sermon on Hebrews 11.17-19 “Trial, Obedience, & Blessing”
This is the transcript of A Sermon on Hebrews 11:17-19 “Trial, Obedience, & Blessing”
Let us turn our attention now to God’s Word, as we consider the account in the book of Hebrews of Abraham and Isaac. Today we are going to be in verses 17 through 19 of Hebrews chapter 11. As we do this, we keep in mind the words that we had from Genesis 22 earlier, which we will reference a few of those as we go throughout, but that is the larger picture of what we are considering today.
Now we look to Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse 17.
“By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
Let’s pray.
God and Father above, as we approach this word, I do ask you several things. Number one is I have sought to prepare in a way that brings you honor and glory. I do know that there are words in this sermon that do not need to be here. And so remove them and replace them with words that do honor and glorify you, so that your truth may be proclaimed clearly.
Lord, I also know that your people need to hear from you in this. And so open their ears to the truth that you have in these verses. Open their hearts to your glory that is revealed in your word.
And by the power of the Holy Spirit, may all of us leave this place changed to be more holy, to be more loving of you and more loving of our neighbor. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
So what is it that God is calling you to do today that absolutely scares you? It may be something that the rest of your friends and family think is easy, maybe like changing a job. It may be something that your friends and family like you think is difficult and scary. Maybe a big move.
I would imagine that one of the reasons that decisions like this are difficult and scary is because these types of decisions involve giving something up that is valuable and important to you. Changing a job means giving up seniority or the comfort of the familiar. A big move means leaving behind a place where memories have been solidified and entering a new home with unknown neighbors and unknown issues.
Difficult life decisions are difficult because they involve sacrifice. Sacrifice of security, sacrifice of comfort, sacrifice of stability, and sometimes the sacrifice of friends. As we continue to consider the faith of Abraham, we see that his calling from God involved the difficulty of sacrificing Isaac, the child of promise.
How does Abraham react to this call from God? Well, we know the answer to that because he is in this list of those who lived out by faith. And so we know that he answered this call from God with faith. And as we consider this account of Abraham’s call to sacrifice his son Isaac, we will see that Abraham suffered a severe trial by faith, that he offered difficult obedience by faith, and that he received an important blessing by faith.
A SEVERE TRIAL
First, Abraham suffered a severe trial. The author of Genesis has God coming to Abraham and saying these words, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moria. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
For several decades, Abraham had been called by God, he had been called to leave his home, to leave his family behind and go to a land that God would show him. And part of that promise of going to the land that God would show him is that that God would give him possession of the land. He would give him innumerable descendants, and he would make Abraham a blessing to the nations.
All of the nations would be blessed by Abraham. And throughout Abraham’s wanderings, throughout Abraham’s going to the land, he wrestled with the fact that in order to have possession of the land, in order to have lots of descendants, descendants that outnumber the stars in the heavens or the sands on the seashore, in order to be a blessing beyond himself to the nations, he needed one particular thing, and that was a child. He needed a son who would inherit all of his, all these promises from God and all of the things that he acquired as he followed God.
But as we saw before, also throughout this entire time, Sarah is described as barren. And then finally, after decades of waiting, after decades of questioning, after decades of trusting, Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. And the promise is finally secured.
The promise of possession of the land, the promise of descendants outnumbering the stars of the sky, the promise of being a blessing to the nations is finally secured in this one son, Isaac. And then 13 years later, God comes to Abraham and says, I want you to take that son, that only son that you have, and it’s important that he says only son because it is a reminder that the promises are only secured in Isaac, that son that you love. Can you imagine waiting until you are into your early 100s before you have a child and how much you would love that child? Take your son, your only son, the son who I said was all the promises would come through, the son that you love, and sacrifice him to me.
And then not only that, you have a three day journey to get to the place where God is going to have you sacrifice that son. Is it any wonder that the author of Genesis and the author of Hebrews calls this a test for Abraham?
How do you bear up under the weight of such a test, such a task, a test and a task magnified by the fact that it seems to be a contradictory command to all the promises that God has given to you? God has said that Isaac is the child of promise. Now go kill him, go sacrifice him to me.
That is the trial that Abraham bore up under. That was the severe test that God gave to Abraham. Put yourself in his shoes, how would you react? Honestly, I’d probably crawl up in a ball underneath the sofa and hope that the mountains would fall upon me before I had to undertake such a task.
Abraham bore up under this test by faith. Faith in the promises of God. We’ll see in a few moments that not only did he bear up under this test, but he also obeyed in this test.
And he did so, he bore up by faith in the God who had done two things. Number one, he had kept multiple promises to Abraham throughout his life. God told Abraham, go and I’ll show you a new land where you can live. And Abraham found a new place where he could live.
Abraham got himself into troublesome situations because of his own sin and his own fear and his own lack of faith. And yet Abraham saw God still rescue him even in those moments.
God had provided after promising to provide for Ishmael, who came about through sinful practices. And yet God promised to provide for him and he did so. God had protected Abraham from hostile kings around him as he grew in influence, as he grew in prosperity, as he sought to rescue his cousin who had aligned himself with these sinful cities.
And ultimately, God brought Isaac through two bodies that the scriptures tell us were as good as dead. And so Abraham knew that God was a promise-keeping God. And because Abraham knew that God was a promise-keeping God, he also knew that God was a God who could not lie.
God was a promise-keeping God who could not lie. And he had said that the blessings and the, excuse me, the blessings and the promises would come through Isaac and nobody else. And his faith was so strong in those promises and those blessings that he bore up under this severe trial, this severe testing from God.
There are times in our lives, brothers and sisters, where the things God calls us to do seem contradictory to the promises that he has made. They only seem so because he works out through them. Now, he’s never going to ask us to violate his law, but he does oftentimes put us in positions that seem contradictory to his promises.
Lord, you promised if I trusted you with all my heart and leaned not upon my own understanding that you would make all my steps smooth, that you would make my life easy, dare I say. Well, number one, it doesn’t promise that our life will be easy, but it does say that obstacles will be removed, but oftentimes it seems like the obstacles are right there. And yet God leads us through them when we rely upon him, when we trust him in faith.
Where we get into trouble is where those seemingly contradictory events come. And we try to take matters into our own hands, basically telling God, look, look, this is kind of messed up. I got it.
I’ll take care of it. Don’t you worry about it. I’ll make things right.
Rather than walking and bearing up by faith, knowing that he will keep his promise, knowing that he’s a God who does not lie. And so we see that by his faith, a faith that grew over time, seeing God to be a faithful God, Abraham bore up under severe trial.
A DIFFICULT OBEDIENCE
Part of that bearing up under severe trial was a difficult obedience.
If you think about Hebrew narrative, Hebrew historical books, you’ll actually see almost a shift in the speed of the narrative. “Some time later,” we’re covering 10 to 15 years in three words. Some time later, God tested Abraham and he said to him, Abraham.
And at this point, the account goes in almost slow motion. 10 to 13 years covered in three words. And then all of a sudden we see in slow motion every action that Abraham takes.
We’re told that after hearing God, he got up and packed everything he needed for the journey. We are told that he gathered his servants and his son. Did we need to know that his servants were going along with him? No, but it slows us down into the action to show the depth of Abraham’s obedience.
He did absolutely everything that was necessary to take this trip and to sacrifice Isaac. He gathers his servants, he cuts the wood for the sacrifice. We can almost assume that the wood was available when we talk about the altar later on.
But we’re told that he cuts the wood. We’re even told that he places it on Isaac’s back at some point. Do we need to know how the wood got there? No, but it’s slowing us down to show us the depth of Abraham’s obedience.
He very deliberately and very accurately did everything that was necessary to obey God. He leaves the servants behind. He goes up the mountain.
He builds the altar and places the sacrifice upon it. He even goes so far as to begin the downward killing stroke of that knife. Abraham obeyed God in heart and in action.
A little bit later on. We’ll talk about how Abraham believed that God could give Isaac back to him. In Abraham’s heart, the deed was done.
In Abraham’s heart, he had given Isaac over to God. But he also believed that God could raise the dead. It’s what the author of Hebrews tells us.
It’s what Moses tells us in Genesis five. When Abraham says, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there, we will worship and then we will come back to you.” Not I will come back to you.
We will come back to you. Abraham had such faith in God that he believed the promises were coming through Isaac, just as God has promised. And so if God was going to have him take Isaac’s life, then God was going to give that life back to him through a resurrection.
Because God is a God who keeps his promises and God is a God who does not lie. Abraham undertook a difficult obedience, both in his heart and in his actions.
Faith does not merely strengthen you and I to, quote unquote, survive the hard times, the trials of life. Faith empowers our obedience to God in the middle of those trials and those temptations. Knowing that the creator God delights to be called your God, knowing that God is a promise keeping God and knowing that God could not lie should strengthen your faith for obedience. Obedience flows out of saving faith.
It does not secure saving faith, but it flows out and shows to the watching world that we have saving faith. And in James chapter two, he talks about brothers and sisters who claim to have faith and yet do not have faith, do not have deeds to follow that faith. He says in verse 18 of James chapter two, he says,
“But someone will say you have faith. I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God good. Even the demons believe that and shudder.”
And he goes on. He says, “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete.”
By what he did, if your faith does not lead to obedience in all areas of life, if your faith does not lead to obedience, you need to ask yourself an important question. Is it really faith? I’m not talking perfect obedience. None of us can none of us can attain that until Christ comes back.
But the striving to be obedient when God calls us to do hard things in hard times. Your faith is shown in your obedience. Abraham’s faith was shown in his obedience.
Abraham bore up under severe trial. Abraham pursued difficult obedience.
IMPORTANT BLESSING
And by faith, Abraham received important blessing.
We’ve already touched on this briefly, but Abraham received Isaac back from the dead. Yes, it says there in Hebrews that this is figuratively or some of your translations may say it was symbolically. But it literally, it means he received him back as a parable.
As a lesson. Now, that’s not why God had Abraham do this. Other than the testing of Abraham, we are not given an explanation in Scripture as to why this seemingly contradictory command was given to Abraham.
There are some things that we can reason out. We do know that every human being because of their sin deserves death, not just eternal death and punishment, but physical death as well. That comes after a time.
But, you know, we do know that because of sin, we deserve death. We also know that the firstborn is set apart as special and consecrated to God through the law. We learn in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy that the firstborn of every animal is given to God as a sacrifice.
The firstborn of the human family is redeemed by a price that is paid in the temple and also by the lifelong service of the Levites for God. The firstborn son of every family is redeemed in that. But God does demand the firstborn of every family in the Old Testament system.
And so we can begin to point and to look at things. Ultimately, Scripture doesn’t tell us how God can reconcile this promise and this command beyond the fact that he was there to test Abraham and he is God and we are not. And the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to help us understand that that’s OK, that we may not understand fully what is there.
And when people wrestle with this, we pray that the Holy Spirit would enlighten their heart as well.
But Abraham, in having faith, did not merely receive Isaac as one who came back from the dead. The blessing that that Abraham received was not merely the fact that he did not lose a child.
In receiving Isaac back from the dead, he also received all the blessings that God had promised to him. The end of the passage we read earlier, “The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies. And through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me.”
While he received all of those blessings through Isaac, I want to focus on the last one, the blessing to all the nations on the earth. As Abraham was poised to deliver the stroke from the knife that would take the life of Isaac, Abraham stopped, commended for his faith, and he is given a substitute for Isaac.
The ram in the thicket takes Isaac’s place upon the altar. And because Isaac’s life was spared, the perfect sacrifice that the author of Hebrews has spent the previous 10 chapters teaching us about that perfect sacrifice comes through the line of Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah and on through David. He comes and is born in a manger and becomes that substitutionary ram, not just for Isaac, not just for Abraham, but for you and for me.
Placing himself upon the altar of God’s judgment so that you and I will not have to be placed upon that altar ourselves. By faith, Abraham received the blessing of salvation, a salvation that he looked forward to. He received the blessing of righteousness for his faith because of Christ’s righteousness, a righteousness that would come in the future.
By faith, you and I receive that same blessing, that same righteousness, that same abundant life that comes through Jesus and Jesus alone. That blessing is the blessing for the nations. That blessing is the blessing that God preserved in preserving his promises to Abraham by providing a temporary sacrifice until such time as the perfect sacrifice could come, meaning that blood no longer had to be shed for consecration, blood no longer had to be shed for the redeeming of sins, blood no longer had to be given so that man could be reconciled to God because the perfect blood had been given once and for all.
Yea and amen. By faith, Abraham and you received important blessing.
CONCLUSION
Some promises of God are easier to have faith in than others, but we are all called in difficult times to have faith, to bear up under the trial by faith, to obey by faith, and to know that we receive blessing by faith as well.
By faith, brothers and sisters, you have the strength to bear up under severe trial. By faith, brothers and sisters, God will lead you through difficult obedience. And by faith, God will give you the blessings he has promised in his word.
Let’s pray.
“To the great God and Father above, we thank you for the faith of Abraham and we thank you for the faith that you have gifted to us. Lord, help us to see your goodness, help us to see your glory, and help us to follow you above all things. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.”
BENEDICTION
We live, leave here as God’s people and we leave here as God, with God’s blessing to take upon us as we go about our work, about our play, about our life. So take this blessing upon you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
He who testifies to these things says, Yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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This transcript of A Sermon on Hebrews 11:17-19 “Trial, Obedience, & Blessing” has been lightly edited.