GOD'S VINDICATION OF THE INNOCENT SUFFERER: The Innocent Blood of Isaac
22:24-46; Genesis
22:1-14
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord Jesus teaces you to pray,
“lead us not into temptation.” You confess in the Small Catechism, “God tempts
no one. [But] we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that
the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into
false belief, despair, and to other great shame and vice.” “God tempts no one.”
Therefore, what does the Scripture mean when it says “God tested Abraham?” Are
not “testing” and “tempting” the same thing? Well, yes, and no.
Testing does not necessarily have a
negative connotation. After all, you test your children in school with the
intention of proving, or making certain what they have learned. The Scriptures
use testing in the sense of proving the refinement and purity of precious
metals like gold and silver. Gold and silver ore, when mined from the earth,
are impure, containing bits of copper, iron, platinum, cadmium, and other
metals and minerals. Impurities are removed from the precious metals by
subjecting them to extreme heat. The gold and silver will melt without being
destroyed so that the impurities, the dross, may be separated and filtered out.
Similarly, God tests you with the extreme heat of trials and tribulations, not
to punish you, but to prove you (to yourself!) and to improve you. Few of God’s
children were tested more fiercely and consistently than St. Paul to whom the
Lord famously said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.”
However, temptation is also a form of
testing, but it is the type of testing that Satan brings, not God, though the
LORD does permit it to befall you. Satan tests you by manipulating
circumstances, within the limits that God allows him, in an attempt to make you
abandon God’s will. Therefore, you must constantly be watchful and active
against the devil, for he is always at work trying to make you fall. Satan’s
desire is not to prove you and to improve you, but to destroy you. Thus, it is
true that both God and the devil test you, but only one of these means the
testing for your good and for the good of others that they might believe and be
saved.
“God tempts no one,” but He does test
you. When you pray, “lead us not into temptation,” you are asking that the LORD
would guard, keep, and protect you from the temptations and testing of the
devil through the means of the world and your own sinful flesh. Nevertheless,
when temptation comes, the LORD promises that He will always provide a way of
escape that you may be able to endure and persevere. As I said in my homily for
the First Sunday In Lent, the way of escape, at times, may be death, for you
are called to be faithful unto death with the promise that you will receive the
crown of life.
Thus it was that the LORD tested
Abraham. As with the Canaanite woman this past Sunday, the LORD already knew
Abraham’s faith. This was the man who believed God at His Word and the LORD
credited his faith to him as righteousness. The LORD already knew Abraham’s
faith. But, Abraham didn’t know his faith. The devil, the world, and your own
sinful flesh conspire against you, tempting you to place your faith, your fear,
love, and trust, in things other than in God, most often in yourselves. The
LORD tested Abraham so that his faith would be strengthened, so that Abraham would
know all the more that his faith was in the LORD and in His Word alone, and not
in himself, or even in his faith.
The test was whether or not Abraham
would trust the LORD and His Word, His promise, despite what his God-given
eyes, ears, and reason told him. The LORD had promised Abraham a son from his
own flesh – meaning, of his union with his wife Sarah, not with her handmaiden
Hagar. Abraham had already doubted the LORD’s promise once and conceived a
child with Hagar. But, then, the LORD kept His Word of promise and gave Abraham
and Sarah a son, Isaac. But, then, to drive Abraham’s faith back to the Word
and promise of the LORD, the LORD commanded Abraham to sacrifice His son Isaac.
Granted, this is a pretty extreme test, but Abraham had already experience the
LORD’s miraculous faithfulness. He knew that the LORD was both faithful and
capable of keeping His Word, even if that required raising the dead.
This time, Abraham does not falter.
Abraham’s faith is so incredibly strong that we are scandalized by it. He was
actually going to kill his son and offer him as a sacrifice! He was going to do
it. Don’t think for a moment that he wasn’t! He bound his son, laid him upon
the wood, took the knife, and he was ready to plunge it into his son’s heart!
But, why? Because he believed the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul,
with all his strength, and with all his mind.
But, what did Abraham believe the LORD
was going to do? How would the LORD keep His promise if Abraham killed his son?
Well, we are given a couple clues to what Abraham was thinking, what Abraham
believed. First, Abraham left his servants at the base of Mount Moriah and told
them, “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
Here Abraham indicates that, one way or another, he would return with his son.
Either the LORD would spare him and provide a substitute or, if he had to go
through with it, Abraham believed that the LORD would raise his son up again
from death. One way or another, Abraham believed that Isaac would live, even if
he had to die.
The second clue is Abraham’s answer to
Isaac when he asked where the lamb was for a sacrifice. Abraham replied, “God
will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Likely this is
what Abraham truly believed all along – that God would provide a substitute, a
sacrificial lamb, and spare his son Isaac. And, that is precisely what the LORD
did. Abraham turned around and, behold, there was a ram caught in the thicket
by its horns. Abraham released Isaac and took the ram and sacrificed it as a
burnt offering to the LORD in his place. Then Abraham named that place, “The
LORD will provide.” And, yet, that substitutionary ram was but a foreshadowing
of what the LORD would ultimately do. Abraham’s only son was spared, a ram
substituted in his place, in foreshadowing of the sacrifice God would make of
His only Son, Jesus. There was no substitutionary lamb for Jesus, but Jesus was
the Lamb of God’s self-offering, sacrificed for the sins of all people.
The LORD tested Abraham, and Abraham’s
faith was strengthened. Abraham’s faith in the Word and promise of God was
strengthened. But, that does little good for you. Abraham believed for himself.
Likewise, you must believe for yourself. Is your faith as strong as Abraham’s?
I know that mine is not. That is why I am thankful and grateful that the LORD
also tested Jesus. The LORD permitted Jesus to be tempted by Satan in the
wilderness as we heard in the Gospel for the First Sunday In Lent. And the LORD
Himself tested Jesus in the garden in this evening’s reading from the Passion.
In both cases, Jesus resisted and overcame testing and temptation by faith in
the Word of God and in prayer. Jesus prayed three times that the Father might
release Him from being the substitutionary Lamb for the sins of the world, but
He submitted to His Father’s will and Word and was strengthened in prayer.
Likewise, Jesus exhorted Peter and the
disciples to pray that they may not enter into temptation. And, this is what
Jesus has taught you to pray saying, “Lead us not into temptation.” “God tempts
no one. [But] we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that
the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us
into false belief, despair, and to other great shame and vice.” May the God who
has vindicated the innocent blood of Isaac in the innocent blood of His Son
Jesus Christ preserve, guard, and protect you in faith through all testing and
temptation.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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