THROUGH THE BIBLE : Genesis..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Good evening everyone and welcome to church. Would you please open up your Bibles to Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis chapter 22. Now, by the grace of God, we arrived to a very important chapter in the book of Genesis, and we're going to be reading cooperatively and seeing how Christ is pictured or portrayed or foreshadowed in this chapter. Genesis chapter 22. I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible and with much reverence and paying attention to each one of the words. Let's read the words of God.

Genesis 22. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am, my son.

He said, behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the land for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the land for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. When they came to the place at which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, or Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day. On the mount of the Lord you shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring.

as the starts of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice so Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham lived at Beersheba. Verse 20 Now, after these things, it was told to Abraham, Behold, Milcah also has born children to your brother Nahor, Ash, his firstborn, Baz, his brother, Chemuel, the father of Aram, Kesed, Hazel, Bildash, Jithlaf, and Bethuel, Bethuel, father Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reuma, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tehash, and Meaca." Amen.

This is the words of God. Beloved, what an important passage we have here in front of us in this book of Genesis, perhaps one of the most Christological chapters that is found in the Old Testament, not only here, but also in the Psalms. He's referred to this to this passage here that we have the testing of the faith of Abraham. And here we have the Lord God himself coming to Abraham. And the Bible says to test his faith.

And the Lord says to Abraham, take your son to this place that is called Moriah and take your son. And you're going to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. what a test was given to Abraham. Beloved, and there is a sense in which I could spend much time here is speaking of the testing of the faith of Abraham and all the tension that that brings. Because, beloved, remember that this Isaac is the son that was promised to Abraham.

Now he's very old, over 100 years. He's very old. If he kills his son or if he offers Isaac as a burnt offering, he will not have another son. We know that he had a son through Hagar, Ishmael, but God calls this one the only son, the son of the promise. And there's a sense, and as I said, I could spend much time in the tension of this testing, in the tension of the difficulty of offering your son as a burnt offering.

Not only in the request of God, of going and offering your son as a burnt offering, but the time. It says that it took him three days. He rose early in the morning and he walked for three days, knowing that he was going to offer his son as a burnt offering. He promised this young man that went with him Just stay here. We're going to Moriah, to the mount, and then we will return.

He promised that. There's a lot of tension in that. And then on the mountain, his son says, where is the lamp for the burnt offering? There is a sense, beloved, in which we could spend a lot of time referring to this difficult trial and the testing of the fate of Abraham. But the question that we need to ask ourselves, beloved, is this.

What was the intention of Moses, who is the author of this book? What was the intention of Moses when he was writing this chapter 22, or this section of Scripture, for the first audience? For the first audience that this book was given? Because the first audience that received Genesis is not necessarily the church, or the people of Israel under the Old Covenant, but rather, is the people who were freed from Egypt. The first generation that saw freedom after they were taken from Egypt are the ones that receive the Book of Genesis, are the ones that receive the testimony that is here.

Now, beloved, pay attention to this because this is very important. As I said, there is a sense in which we could spend much time speaking of the testing of the faith of Abraham. But this is not necessarily what Moses was intending for the people of Israel. When the people of Israel were seeing, or were reading, or were going through this section of Scripture, they would have related themselves, not to Abraham, but rather to Isaac. Because it's through Isaac that the promise of the offspring was given.

Beloved, if there was no Isaac, there was no Israel. Imagine an Israelite, that is, he's reading and going through this whole thing, and the tension that is presented here, that the offspring could have disappeared at this particular time. Of course, the person is reading and knows what the end of the story is, but there was a lot of tension here, of knowing that the offspring could have come to an end. The most important aspect of this passage that we have in chapter 22 is not necessarily the testing of the fate of Abraham, but rather what is found in verses 13 and 14. And I want to direct your attention to those two verses, because there, beloved, we have two glorious words that brought hope to the people of Israel.

In verse 13 it says, And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, cutting a thicket by his horns. This is the ram or this is the lamb that was provided to Abraham instead of Isaac. But he's going to say something very important. And Abraham went and looked at the ram and offered up a burnt offering, glorious words, instead of his son. He offered the ram instead of Isaac.

The ram was a replacement of the death that Isaac was going to receive. And after this replacement, or after this substitute of the death of Isaac, the author says something very important. So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, or Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. Speaking of the provision of the substitute ram that stopped Abraham from offering Isaac as a burnt offering.

Beloved, when the people of Israel was reading this for the very first time, as they were taken from the land of Egypt, and after they have celebrated the first Passover, the first thing that came into their mind was precisely that. The lamb in the Passover. The lamb that was offered, instead of the firstborn of the people of Israel. the Lamb that represented the keeping and the protection of the people of Israel, of taking them from Egypt into the Promised Land, or into the wilderness, walking towards the Promised Land. The people of Israel knew not that only Abraham was a father of the faith, that went through a difficult test of his faith, a trial of the faith, but rather that God was a God that provides The substitute that the people of Israel needed.

Beloved, the death of Isaac is a shadow of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the substitute that God himself has offered instead of the people. And this was everything that the people of Israel had in their minds. The prophets prophesied of the servant or the person who was going to be offered as a substitute for the sins of the people. This is what Isaiah says in Isaiah 53.

That there is a man of sorrows who is laying as a lamb or as a sheep. This is the man that was promised from Genesis 3.15, promised to Abraham. And in this man, we find the substitute of the people of God. That's why, beloved, the last prophet of the Old Testament, when he sees Jesus of Nazareth, he says, Behold the Lamb of God.

who takes away the sin of the world. It was not about the faith of Abraham in offering his son, but rather in God himself offering a substitute for those who belong to him, beloved, and apart from Jesus Christ. We are Isaac on the fire, and we are that burnt offering that deserves to be offered entirely. Now, there are different types of offerings under the Old Testament, but a burnt offering was the one that was killed, but not only killed, it was also destroyed. It was burned entirely.

And Jesus Christ, it is the perfect substitute, beloved. The one that receives entirely the righteous judgment of God on our behalf. He is the one that has been provided by God as a substitute for our sins. And by grace, through faith, we do not go, we do not undergo the judgment that we deserve. But rather, Christ receives all of this judgment.

And by grace, through faith, we are recipients of the righteousness that He accomplished. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us, received in fullness the wrath of God. Nobody could have done that. Nobody could have been the substitute for our sins. Not only for the sins of one person, but for the sins of the Church in fullness.

He paid for that. And in Christ, beloved, we have access, free access, to the Triune God of Heaven. I don't know about you, but if we go and see into our heart and into our minds and the things that we have inside of us, there's nothing worthy to be accepted before the holy God of this universe. Yet, through Jesus Christ, the one who entered into the Holy of Holies, the forerunner of the Church, the one who gave himself for us, we are accepted fully before that God. And we are not object of the wrath and the judgment of God, but rather we are deserved or we deserve the love and the kindness and the blessings of God.

Not because of us but rather because Jesus Christ who came to this world lived a perfect life and by being perfect went upon the cross and offering himself as a burnt offering receiving the wrath that we deserve so that we can say beloved that we are united to the triune God of heaven and that just as Isaac survived or his life was kept and protected our lives is also We also survive and we are kept by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.