What do you do when God asks you for all? Even the very promise that He gave you? 

<p>What do you do when God asks you for all? Even the very promise that He gave you? </p>

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Fontana SDA Church

Dee Casper

Your Son, Your Only Son

Sweet Jesus, I thank You for this privilege to come into Your presence.

I thank You that though this message has been a challenge to write and I'm sure will be a challenge to preach, I know it's for my good.

And I believe that you want to bless the people here.

And so I just pray, oh God, that you would do for these people what I cannot.

I feel wholly inadequate to do what needs to be done.

And so I just pray, as Moses prayed, that you would show us your glory and that you would do something in this place, in this moment, that none of us would soon forget for your glory.

This morning's message is entitled, Your Son, Your Only Son.

We're going to be spending basically the entire time this morning in the book of Genesis, chapter 22, and we're going to be addressing what I believe is 1 of the most challenging calls that God can give anyone.

The Spirit of Prophecy actually confirms that, and this was a call that was not just reserved for Abraham, as we're going to see.

But we start in Genesis chapter 22 and beginning in verse 1.

Says, now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am.

And then he said, take now your son, your only son, Isaac.

And go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on 1 of the mountains of which I shall tell you." For God to come up to Abraham and tell him, hey I need you to take Isaac would be challenging.

But even the language that God uses makes this even more challenging.

He's not really making it any easier, is he, at this stage?

But he's asking him to take this prized and precious possession, which, by the way, heaven has promised to him, and he's asking him to lay it on the altar.

This call comes with a cost, an unthinkable cost.

And even the mystery at the end of this where it says of a mountain which I shall tell you even reminds me of the initial call that God gave Abraham.

We sing songs about Father Abraham and he was a champion of faith, but we forget the fact that it was an uphill grind for this guy from the get-go.

Right, the very call he's given is to leave his land, to leave his family, to leave the faith that he's known, to follow a God to...

I'm actually not going to tell you, but you'll find out.

He gets to the land, there's famine in the land.

This guy's experience was very, very challenging.

But the Andrews Study Bible comments on verse 2 and says something I had never heard before.

It says, the divine command is softened by a rare particle of entreaty, please, that is not reflected in the New King James Version.

The closest version I could find to this nuance is found in the Young's literal translation.

Listen to this, And he saith, Take, I pray thee, take, please, thy son, thine only Son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and go for thyself unto the land of Moriah, and cause him to ascend there for a burnt offering, on 1 of the mountains of which I will speak unto thee." At least God has the common courtesy to say please, but it's still not easy.

Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and he took 2 of his young men with him and Isaac his son.

He split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him." And then listen to how the Spirit of Prophecy comments on this agonizing journey.

God had called Abraham to be the father of the faithful, and his life was to stand as an example of faith to succeeding generations.

Can you imagine being the standard, the ruler of faith?

He had shown distrust of God in concealing the fact that Sarah was his wife, and again in his marriage with Hagar.

That he might reach the highest standard, God subjected him to another test, the closest which man was ever called to endure.

In a vision of the night, he was directed to repair to the land of Moriah, and there offer up his son as a burnt offering upon a mountain that should be shown him." And at the time of receiving this command, Abraham had reached the age of 120 years.

So Isaac at this stage is most likely about 20 years old.

He was regarded as an old man even in his generation, and in his earlier years he had been strong to endure hardship and to brave danger, but now the arduous youth had passed away.

1 in the vigor of manhood may with courage meet difficulties and afflictions that would cause his heart to fail later in life when his feet are faltering toward the grave.

But God had reserved his last, most trying test for Abraham until the burden of years was heavy upon him and he longed for rest from anxiety and toil." It's been a grind for this guy for years and he just wants a break.

God's made promises to you, God's brought things to you and it's been grind after grind after grind.

And you're just praying, can we have a break now?

That's when God shows up and asks for the biggest sacrifice.

And I can so relate to this, going through years of battles to trust God in the face of impossible promises that He's made to me, and yet I've failed along the way.

And yet God says no, and He keeps going, and He shows mercy.

But now when I'm exhausted from the ups and downs, the highs and lows, he asks for everything.

Everything, including the promise that he's given.

When I feel that the previous battles have removed any strength to go further, that's when he shows up and says, I need that.

The patriarch was dwelling at Beersheba, surrounded by prosperity and honor.

He was very rich and was honored as a mighty prince by the rulers of the land.

Thousands of sheep and cattle covered the plains that spread out beyond His encampment.

On every side were the tents of His retainers, the homes of hundreds of faithful servants.

The Son, have promised, had grown up to manhood by His side.

Heaven seemed to have crowned with its blessing a life of sacrifice, inpatient endurance of hope deferred.

This is a direct quote from Proverbs 13, verse 12, that hope deferred makes the heart sick.

But it doesn't stop there says but when the desire comes it is a tree of life But can you imagine being told to go from that tree of life that season of respite and rejuvenation?

Back to the thing that's made your heart sick.

In the obedience of faith, Abraham had forsaken his native country, that hurt, and had turned away from the graves of his fathers and the home of his kindred.

He had wandered as a stranger in the land of inheritance.

God promised him a land that he didn't fully own yet.

He'd waited long for the birth of the promised heir.

At the command of God, he had sent away his son Ishmael, which was heartbreaking.

He assumed that would be who the promise would come from, and God said, that wasn't what I said, and he has to go.

But now, when the child so long desired was entering upon manhood in the prime of his life, and the patriarch seemed able to discern the fruition of his hopes and what all this pain was for, A trial greater than all others was before him." Can you see the increasing trials and tears of difficulty that Abraham went through to even get to this point?

Many of these things by themselves would be enough to wreck us.

Having to leave your family could ruin someone.

Pulling up stakes and moving to a land where you don't actually fully get to possess it at this stage, and you don't even know where you're going, and then when you get there, the land is filled with famine and you have to go to Egypt for a while, that would be devastating to someone's faith.

But yet it goes a step further and says, the whole thing that you've been waiting for, I need it.

The command was expressed in words that must have wrung with anguish the Father's heart.

"'Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, again, whom thou lovest, and offer him there for a burnt offering.

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Your Son, Your Only Son

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