The God Who Provides

Morning, church! We’re in a series at the moment called The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If you weren’t here last week, Jared started us off with an amazing message on the God who keeps his promises. Here’s a quick recap.

Jared introduced us to Abraham, called to be the father of many nations. God promised him descendants and said that through his family line blessing would come to many nations. But Abraham’s reality didn’t look like the promise. He had no son. His wife Sarah grew older and older, past the age when it was humanly possible to have a child. She reached ninety, still with no child.

Even though Abraham tried to manufacture the promise in his own strength by sleeping with Sarah’s servant, God was faithful. He provided, and Abraham eventually had a miracle son through Sarah: Isaac. The lesson was that we can keep trusting God even when circumstances seem grim and it feels like God isn’t there. God is always there, and he keeps his promises.

Today we pick up the story with Isaac. It’s a tough story, so I want the text to speak for itself. Let’s sink into it.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

— Genesis 22:1–14

Today’s message is called The God Who Provides.

God, thank you that you are Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. You don’t only keep your promises. You keep providing from the depths of your heart. May we know we can trust you and have faith in you. Speak through your word today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Two kinds of tests

“God tested Abraham.” Few things make us more anxious than a test, because a test is an assessment of your performance.

When I was a kid there were these things called piano exams. If you’ve done them, you’ll agree they should be illegal. They’re the most nerve-wracking thing you can do. For months you drill the same one or two pieces, trying not to make a single mistake. The night before, you don’t sleep. On the day they’re always running late, so you sit in the waiting room trembling until they call, “Jeremy Choo, it’s your time.” You follow a stranger into a room, just the two of you. You sit at the piano, start playing, and your foot is shaking on the pedal so badly you can’t hold it still. Then you make a mistake. It’s all down to your performance: do well and you pass, do badly and you fail.

I think there are two ways a test can be given.

Some teachers use tests to show you what’s wrong with you and get you out of the class. In schools and universities, tests often sort the “bad” students from the “good” ones.

But tests can also be given to grow you, to help you get where you need to be. When I was doing VCE, one of the most helpful things was drilling practice exams. Doing well isn’t only about absorbing content. It’s about getting it back out. I’d do a practice exam, mark it myself, see what I got wrong, and know exactly which areas to work on.

The devil tends to test us the first way: to show us how bad we are, bring us down and kick us out. God tests us the second way: to show us where we’re at and grow us to where we need to be. That’s what’s happening with Abraham.

The promotion before the performance

There’s something else unique about Abraham’s test. God gave Abraham the promotion and the package before the performance.

We’re used to tests where you’re promoted if you perform well. God works the other way round. Abraham had already been brought into the land, already stepped into God’s blessing, already received the son of promise. Only then was he tested.

God’s promises don’t depend on human performance. They depend on divine providence. Let me say that again: God’s promises don’t depend on human performance. They depend on divine providence.

That’s hard for us to grasp, because our world treats output and performance as the condition for promotion. But while Abraham was still scheming, still lying and deceiving, God still gave the promised gift. Abraham failed again and again. Abraham laughed at the promise. Sarah laughed, doubted and complained. And God still provided, again and again.

God’s heart isn’t “Do more, be better, and then I’ll bless you.” God says, “I bless you because I love you, because you’re my child, because you have favour in my eyes.” God’s blessings don’t depend on what you do. They depend on who he sees you as. God provides for you before he tests you. He is the God who keeps providing when human performance fails.

Not getting the script

So the question is: what will we do with the gift?

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced 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 even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

— Hebrews 11:17–19

Notice that Abraham didn’t get the script before he played his part. He simply said, “Here I am. I trust you.” Even when the promise didn’t match his reality, he stood firm and kept listening to God every step of the way.

There’s power in not knowing the details of the script, in stepping into the journey and going where God leads.

Let me illustrate. I met a mutual friend named Elvis and found out he was an actor. A few months later my friend Ashley messaged me: “Would you be keen to join Matt and me, and maybe Dylan, at a screening of the film Elvis starred in on the 23rd of February?” I said, “I’d love to! Thanks for the invite, Ash. Shall I buy a ticket?”

In my head I thought it was an Elvis Presley documentary. I know nothing about Elvis Presley. He’s before my time. But I get to hang out with friends, so why not? If you know me, I’m not fussy. As long as I’m with you, life is good. I’ll go with the flow without needing the details.

The cinema was in Yarraville. Who goes to Yarraville? It’s on the other side of the world! I figured it must be a special screening. I was running late, listening to Elvis Presley songs in the car to get up to speed, and made it just before the film started. Ashley said, “By the way, Elvis is down the front.” I said, “Back from the dead, eh?” She must have thought, “What is he on about?”

The film starts, the opening credits roll, and I see Elvis’s full name and say, “Ashley, I know that guy!” She says, “Yes, of course you do.” And I still didn’t get it. I can be so vague. The film is in Vietnamese, and I’m sitting there wondering how Elvis Presley is going to fit in. Eventually it clicked: this isn’t a documentary about Elvis Presley. It’s a Vietnamese film starring the Elvis I know.

I kept quiet for the whole film, and afterwards I confessed: “The truth is, I thought this was an Elvis Presley documentary.” Everyone cracked up. We had a great time, and I had a great time without knowing the script. That’s what made it fun.

Sometimes in our relationship with God we need every detail laid out before we’ll say yes. God doesn’t work like that. If God gave us the full plan, we’d trust the plan rather than the God who gave it. Sometimes you have to go through the mountain and the test to find clarity. With God, it’s not that things make sense and then you obey. You obey, and then things make sense.

Giving the gift back to the Giver

Abraham had been through enough to know he could trust God in any circumstance. He’d failed many times by trying to make things happen in his own strength. Now he’d reached a point where he was no longer protective of what he had, because he saw that everything he had was a gift from God anyway. Isaac was God’s gift, so he could trust God with that gift.

When we realise God is the provider, we become willing to give the gift back to the Giver. Faith isn’t about getting gifts from the Giver. It’s about giving the Giver the gifts he’s given us. We can’t love the gifts more than the Giver.

Often it’s the good things, God’s blessings, that become stumbling blocks. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. It can replace God in our lives. You see people blessed by God who become rich and successful, and that success makes them depend on themselves. They become more attached to the gift than to the God who gave it.

That’s what God is testing in Abraham: “your son, your only son, whom you love.” Some scholars suggest Abraham had become enslaved to his love for Isaac. That’s how sin often works. It turns the dial up too high on good things, so that we become over-attached to them. It’s often not the bad things that take us away from God. Sometimes it’s the good things.

So God asks Abraham, “Will you give the gift back to me?”

Let me ask you: what are the top three blessings in your life? A relationship? Your job or career? Your house? Now the follow-up: would you be willing to give that up to God as a sacrifice?

Worship is surrender

That’s what worship is: giving the gifts God has provided back to him, the Giver.

Genesis 22 is the first time the word “worship” appears in our English Bibles. Verse 5: “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

The first mention of worship has nothing to do with music, coming to a church building, singing songs or listening to a sermon. It’s a deeply uncomfortable journey.

Many of us see worship as God meeting us in our comfort: a nice environment, good songs, a nice message. But what if worship is stepping into discomfort, wrestling with God on a journey that’s deeply uncomfortable? In this first picture of worship there’s a bleak desert. No comforting songs, no encouraging message. Just sacrifice and surrender.

Church, if they’re not singing your favourite songs up here, are you still willing to surrender? If the message isn’t one you enjoy hearing, will you still take a posture of surrender and sacrifice?

Provided before required

Here’s the key thing about sacrifice: as believers we don’t sacrifice for God’s approval. We sacrifice from God’s approval.

Just as Abraham lifts the knife, God stops him and provides a ram. “Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns” (v. 13). Some scholars say rams wouldn’t normally be found at that elevation. But God will do whatever it takes to make a sacrifice available so you can worship him. God provides a sacrifice for us before he requires one of us.

Why did God send Abraham all the way to Mount Moriah? Many years later David offered a sacrifice for the nation there, saying, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). Worship is costly. Later Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1). And Jesus offered his sacrifice in that same region.

God is a great storyteller. Three significant figures in Israel’s history offer sacrifices in the same place, and it all points to the final, greater sacrifice: Jesus, who didn’t offer just any sacrifice but gave himself. God knew we could never provide a sacrifice that would be enough, so he said, “Let me do it. Let me provide the sacrifice for you.”

Two sons of promise

There are striking parallels between Isaac and Jesus. Both were sons of promise who went willingly to be sacrificed in obedience to their father. Both carried wood on their backs up a hill to the place of sacrifice, confident in the promise of resurrection.

Here’s the difference. For Isaac, the knife stopped. He was spared, and a substitute was provided. For Jesus, the knife kept going. He gave his life as the perfect sacrifice.

That’s the God we serve: the God who provides again and again, even when circumstances don’t look like it and the promise doesn’t match our reality. He is Jehovah Jireh. He provides because you’re his child and he loves to bless you, regardless of your performance. Even when you were still addicted, still gossiping, lying and deceiving, still so bad at your relationships, God saw you and blessed you. It doesn’t always make sense, but God’s favour rests on you because you are his child.

When God asked Abraham for the ultimate demonstration of love and commitment, he asked for his son, his only son. Abraham did it, and God said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

And when God the Father wanted to give us the ultimate demonstration of his love and commitment, he sent his Son too. So now we can say back to him: “Now I know that you love me, God, because you have not withheld from me your Son, your only Son.”