Feb 11, 2019 - Suggested Reading Genesis 22 for Feb 17ths message on Matthew 10:32-42 in our worship service at 10:45am

“Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.””

Genesis 22:2 (NIV) 

As we prepare to receive our Lord’s warning recorded in Matthew 10:37 that a requirement of a true follower of Christ is that we love Him more than we love our children, the test of Abraham recorded in Genesis 22 comes to mind. 

This account is a wonderful picture of God’s provision for our sin, and a wonderful foreshadowing of God’s willingness to send His Son whom He loved to the cross for our sins. 

This account is also a wonderful example of faith, for Hebrews 11:17-19 teaches us that Abraham’s actions in this account were grounded in his faith in his God. 

However, in the midst of those wonderful lessons, I would like us not to miss the fact that this account plainly teaches God used the love of a father for his son,
to test the father’s heart towards his God. 

Specifically, the test involved the death of a child loved dearly by his father. 

It is very similar to the test of Job, as God permitted Satan to kill Job’s children, in order to reveal to the cosmic powers that Job’s heart was truly for God.

Not the children we say! Spare the children! Yet God requires that we give them up to Him.

I think of the story of Samuel, which is the story of a woman who would give her son up contrasted to a priest who honoured his sons more than he honoured God.

I have seen the great tragedy of Christian parents who turn from the Word of God, following the priest Eli’s folly, for they cannot bear to think that their children are running into destruction.

 So they begin to question plain Scripture and then deny the truth of Scripture and turn from following their Lord.

May we as Christian parents love our children dearly, and may we love our Lord more dearly than even our children! 

May we follow Him, obeying Him and Him only, mourning over sin and trusting Him with the fate of our dearly loved children.