JANUARY 9

Abraham's Ultimate Test of Faith

Even as Ishmael has grown into manhood, his younger half-brother, Isaac has also developed into a healthy young lad who is surely a source of great joy for Abraham and Sarah. But, like many men and women of great faith who must face difficult trials, Abraham is about to face the severest test of all—and it will be Isaac's life which is on the line. Is it possible that, since Isaac's birth, Abraham's confidence now rests in Isaac rather than in God's promises? God poses the challenge by calling upon Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice!

Although human sacrifice is not unusual among the surrounding Ca-naanites and Chaldeans, this request of God's must strike Abraham at the very foundation of his faith. It not only causes Abraham to wonder about God's righteousness, but, more importantly, it threatens the fulfillment of God's prom­ise to bring about an entire nation through the descendants of Isaac. In such a dilemma, how can Abraham reconcile his faith? How should he respond?

 

ABRAHAM TO SACRIFICE ISAAC Gen. 22:1,2. 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, 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."

 

ABRAHAM RESPONDS. Gen.22:3-8.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 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.

 

GOD SUBSTITUTES RAM Gen22:9-14. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound hi? 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." 

                                                                                                                 

PROMISE OF BLESSINGS. Gen22:15-19 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, 1 will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand 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." 'Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.

 

Abraham's feelings throughout this encounter must have been beyond adequate description. Yet he evidently believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead, if necessary, in order to fulfill his promise. In the midst of his own personal struggle to obey God's extraordinary request,  little could Abraham know that God was asking no more of him than at a future time God would ask of himself. When Abraham's ultimate heir (Jesus) eventually appears on the canvas of history, the prophetic nature of Isaac's sacrifice will be repeated with much similarity and with strikingly parallel significance.

 

News Regarding Nahor's Family

Sometime after Abraham's return to Beersheba from his brief trip with  Isaac to the land of Moriah, Abraham receives word regarding his brother Nahor, whom Abraham has not seen since he left Ur of the Chaldeans some 40 years ago. The good news is that Nahor now has eight children by his wife and four by his concubine. The historical significance of Nahor's family record is found in Nahor's youngest son, Bethuel, and more importantly in Bethuel's daughter, Rebekah, who will soon become an important figure in Abraham's own lineage.

 

NEWS FROM NAHOR. Gen22:20-24 Some time later Abraham was told, "Milcah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel." Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Abraham's brother Nahor. His concubine, whose name was Remnah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.

 

Sarah's Death and Burial_________________

The years have passed and Abraham is now 137 years old. Isaac, a century behind his father, is a relatively young 37. Sarah, who has the distinction of being the only woman in all of Scripture whose age is mentioned, has reached 127. The Genesis account now abruptly records Sarah's death, in the region of Hebron in the land of Canaan, to which Abraham has returned sometime during the last 40 years.

That Scripture would pause to take note of Abraham's mourning over the loss of his beloved companion is a touching memorial to this woman of faith who would become the mother of a great nation. Of some curiosity, however, is the attention which the text gives to a transaction between Abraham and a man named Ephron who owns a cave which Abraham wishes to purchase as a bur­ial site for Sarah's remains. The transaction itself is an interesting introduction to Oriental bargaining, in which an apparent offer of a gift is nothing more than a subtle way of setting a price. But the true significance of the account may be its further evidence of Abraham's faith that God will one day give this land to Abraham's descendants. It is as if Abraham wants to guarantee that, even in death, he and Sarah will be a part of this promised land.

 

ABRAHAM MOURNS SARAH'S DEATH. Gen 23:1-2   Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.

 

CAVE PURCHASED FOR TOMB. Gen 23:3-18   Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites." He said, "I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead."

The Hittites replied to Abraham, "Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead."

 

Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. He said to them, "If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you."

 

Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. "No, my lord," he said. "Listen to me; I giver you the field, and 1 give'' you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. - Bury your dead."

Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in their hearing, "Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there."

Ephron answered Abraham, "Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels' of silver, but what is that between me and you?  Bury your dead."                                                                                                         

Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of sil­ver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

 

So Ephron's field in Machpelah near Marnre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.

SARAH BURIED Gen 23:19-20     Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave     Gen. in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site. .-