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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. Hi, this is Pastor Tom and we are in
chapter 22 of the book of Genesis today, an incredible chapter of the Bible
about Abraham's greatest test. The Bible says beginning in verse one, "Sometime
later God tested Abraham and he said to him, 'Abraham, here I am,' he replied.

Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to
the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the
mountains I will tell you about. '" This is Abraham's greatest test.

We've talked about how you and I, if we're going to manage life well, we have to
manage our greatest dream, we have to manage our greatest weakness, but we also
have to know how to manage our greatest test, our greatest challenge. And we're
going to walk through this with Abraham together today. But as we prepare to
walk through it, I want to answer a question at the very beginning so it doesn't
bother you in the back of your mind all throughout this.

And the question is, why would God do this? That's the first question I usually
hear about this passage. Why would he ask a father to sacrifice his son?

Why a child sacrifice? You need to understand something. Abraham lived in a day
when child sacrifice was common.

In fact, he lived in a day when it was understood that sacrificing a child was
the ultimate act of devotion. I know how evil that is, I know how wrong that is,
but in the day that Abraham lived, that was the belief. And God is going to
teach Abraham something.

He's going to allow Abraham to express his devotion, but God in the same chapter
is also going to show his opposition to sacrificing children. We're going to see
that as we walk through this chapter. As we ask about why a sacrifice, we should
also ask the question, why a test?

Why did God test Abraham? He wasn't testing Abraham in order to give him a
grade. He was testing Abraham in order to teach him a truth.

That's what all tests of faith are really for. God knew exactly what Abraham was
going to do, so he didn't test him to see what Abraham would do. He tested him
so that Abraham could see what he would do.

Why would God do this? To enable Abraham to express his faith and to teach
Abraham some deep things about his faith. So let's walk through what happened in
this test beginning in verse 3 and then reading down together through verse 18.

"Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled 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 he 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 the 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 had reached the place that God had told them 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 he 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 he took the ram and he 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. ' The angel of the Lord
called to Abraham from heaven a second time and he 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 as the sand on the seashore.

' God tested Abraham. He tested him that day and Abraham passed the test. And
God tests me, he tests you.

He tests us for our sake, not for his sake, for our sake. When God tests us, he
is not grading us, he is growing us. And there are many kinds of tests that I
face, but the greatest test that you and I face is this.

It is the challenge of sacrifice. And when that challenge came, Abraham is our
model. When that challenge came, he did not procrastinate.

That's what I want to do when the challenge comes. He didn't procrastinate, he
acted. Did you notice that?

He acted immediately. He planned his action. He continued his action.

He acted immediately. The Bible says he got up the next morning. He said yes to
God and he immediately acted on it.

The Bible says he planned his action. He brought the wood along with him. He
didn't leave it to chance.

He planned to follow through on what God had asked him to do. And he continued
his action. He traveled for three days to get to this place.

It wasn't as if he immediately reacted and then rethought and thought, well, I
don't know about this. Three days, he kept deciding to do what God had asked him
to do. Now, the foundation of Abraham's actions is one simple thing.

It's what we've seen all through his life. It is faith. It is trust.

What is the faith and the trust that you and I see in the life of Abraham in
these verses? I'd say it this way. Faith is not withholding from God.

Trust is deciding to not withhold from God. When I withhold something from God,
that declares my fear. When I am willing to sacrifice something to God, that
declares my trust.

Now, let me tell you a little secret. The IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, our
tax service, it does not trust you. That is why they withhold money from you so
that they'll be sure that you pay it in your taxes.

They don't trust you. God wants us to learn to trust him so that we don't
withhold from him. And this kind of trust is knowing that God will provide.

It's a pretty funny, tragic thing. When our trust fails, we find ourselves often
withholding from our very provider. You see, God wants us to not withhold from
him not because he needs something from us.

He wants us to not withhold from him because he wants to give something to us.
If I live my life before God with a closed hand withholding, that means that
maybe he can't take anything out. But more importantly, it means he can't put
anything in because my hand is closed.

He wants me to live my life before him with an open hand, not withholding. Not
so much so that he can take things out, but so that he can put things into my
life. Abraham faced this test that day.

And God was asking, in the facing of this test, "Whose promise is this, Abraham?
Is it your promise or is it my promise? " Now that Isaac has come into your
life, he's probably a young teenager by this time, now that he's growing up, are
you beginning to take that promise into your life and say, "It's mine"?

Are you beginning to take that promise, Abraham, into your life and say, "Now I
have to be the one who manages this promise that God has given. It's my
responsibility now, no longer God's"? No, it's God's promise all the way
through.

And so God tests Abraham. And the grade for this test was not going to be an A
or an F. It was going to be a mine or a yours.

That's what it's all about, these tests of sacrifice. Is it mine? Am I holding
on to it?

Or is it yours? The question I've got to face, the question you have to face is
this. What are you withholding?

What are you withholding from God? The Bible tells us that at the end of this
experience that day, Abraham came up with a saying that had come into the Jewish
people, was said many, many times. It's an important saying, "On the mountain of
the Lord it will be provided.

" Trust is knowing that God will provide. And even as I say this, even as I talk
to you about this, about withholding, about God providing, I admit that I have a
sense of fear. What if God takes something from me that is really important to
me?

I mean, we're reading about a child being taken here. What if God takes one of
my children from me? Well, God has shown us in this passage that he does not ask
for child sacrifice as a sign of devotion.

A child who dies, a child who dies, dies because we live in a sinful world. And
we look forward to heaven because of that all the more. So this is not about
children who die early and go on to heaven.

This is really about, do I see the things in my life, the people in my life, the
relationships in my life, do I see them as mine or do they see them as God's? My
marriage, is it mine or is it God's? My relationship with my children, is it
mine or is it God's?

There are things in my life, in your life, that I want to hold onto because I
want to control them because I'm afraid, because I'm anxious, because I don't
want God to do what I think he might do with them. But when I do that, when I
withhold, when I live life with that closed hand, I miss out because on the
mountain of the Lord, not it will be taken away. On the mountain of the Lord, it
will be provided.

I can trust him. On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. Not before
the mountain of the Lord.

God didn't provide the three days that they were heading towards that mountain.
It was on the mountain. It was at the very point of sacrifice that Abraham
discovered God will provide.

God will provide. We read the story and the tension builds, but God really let
Abraham go through with it. And there's a sigh of relief in all of us when God
stops Abraham at the end, when he provides a ram in the thicket and he will not
let him sacrifice his only son.

In the New Testament, this scene is replayed. Once again, it's an only son ready
to be sacrificed. An only son who puts wood on his back and carries it up a
hill.

But this time, it's Jesus, God's son, ready to be sacrificed on a cross. And
this time, there is no voice that calls out. There's no ram in the thicket.

God so loved the world that he gave his only son. What he would not allow
Abraham to do, God himself did for all of us. Why would I withhold from him?

Why would I withhold from him who has given so much for me? Matthew 10 39 says,
"He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will
find it. " You see, this story of Abraham today is the record of every man,
every woman whose life has counted for Christ.

You give up what you see maybe are God's choices blessings, and you recognize
they're holding his hands and not your hands, and then you are made a blessing.
That is the principle of the cross throughout all of our lives. That is what
makes the resurrection life possible.

Crosses are always followed by resurrections. You don't withhold. You give up
and you watch what God does.

Jacob, we're going to see as we walk through these chapters of Genesis, gives up
his schemes and he sees God's promise. Joseph gives up his dreams. Moses later
in the Old Testament gives up the palace of Pharaoh.

David gives up his temple. Job gives up his everything. In the New Testament,
Matthew gives up the collection of his taxes.

Peter gives up his fish nets. Paul gives up his law. Mary, Jesus's mother, gives
up her son.

There are sacrifices in all their lives, but God gave more. On the mountain of
the Lord, it will be provided. Why would God ask for sacrifice, this kind of
sacrifice?

Because in the moment of sacrifice, in the moment of sacrifice, it becomes his,
no longer ours, his. And that is where it can be blessed. There's an exchange of
control.

And then when he gives it back and he does, now it's under his control, which
means it is under his power. There may be a sacrifice in your life right now. It
probably is, that God is asking you to make.

It may seem small. It may be your greatest test. Let's talk to him together.

Jesus, I pray for myself. I pray for each of us. Help us to trust you.

Lord, we think that there's something in our minds that feels like you're trying
to take life away from us when you ask us to sacrifice. Help us to see, help us
to know that even though we feel that way, the truth of faith is you're wanting
to give life, to provide life to us. You're our loving father.

We can trust you. Help us to trust you right now with whatever it is you're
asking us to sacrifice, whether it's an amount of time for ministry, whether
it's a new commitment to a relationship, whether it's a deep desire to grow,
spend time in your word and talking to you, or whatever it might be. I pray
today that you help us to see we can trust you, our loving heavenly father.

In Jesus' name, we ask this. Amen.