It was a moment that seemed to make no sense. His behavior had broken our family, and we had invited him into our home so that we could be agents of repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. It had been three very hard years, and he had suddenly died. There would be no repentance. There would be no restoration. There would be no reconciliation. I'll never forget my elevator trip from the fifth floor of Einstein Hospital down to the ground floor. I was in utter anguish. It seemed like that trip lasted forever.
Weeping in an Elevator
Alone in that elevator, I wept, "Why? Why? Why?" Where do you turn when life has you completely confused? Where do you run when you can't make sense of the plan of God for you? Where do you run when His commands don't seem to be rational to you? Where do you run when your explanations and your understanding and your wisdom will not comfort you? Where do you run? I would like you to turn with me to Hebrews 11, page 1008 in your church Bibles. We want to look at a remarkable story, a story of a call to a radical sacrifice, and it is the radical nature of this story that exposes for us things about the life of faith that wouldn't be exposed other than this kind of striking account.
Follow as I read beginning with verse 17: By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. (ESV) This is a remarkable story. You know the historical story. God had promised Abraham a son, and through that son would become a great family of faith as innumerable as the sands by the seashore. It seemed like that son would never be born. And long after Sarah's womb was dead, God, in a miracle of covenantal provision, had caused Isaac to be born. God had fulfilled His promise; the covenant would live, and now God was asking that same father to offer up that son on an altar of sacrifice.
How could this be? How could this God who had placed the future of this nation on the shoulders of this boy now ask for him? What would happen to the covenant? What would happen to this great nation? You can't stand in human terms and make any sense of this moment at all. What in the world is going on? You have to let yourself feel the power of this moment. Now immediately, there's a principle for us that we're confronted with. It's very, very important for you to understand this: faith is not irrational, but faith will take you beyond the boundaries of your ability to reason.
You need to have both of those. You don't live in a world that's divided in faith and fact. Fact over here; faith over here, no, no, no! Your faith is rooted in the revealed facts of redemption, but the call of faith will take you beyond your ability to figure it out, to reason it out, it will at some moment. There are times, when by God's will, He will have you in a situation that doesn't seem like an expression of His love, that doesn't seem like a revelation of His grace, that doesn't seem wise and good.
There'll be times when His commands to you seem dangerous. If I forgive this person, if I'm gentle and kind and understanding, will they not take further advantage of me? If I give out of my poverty, what will happen to me? Will a soft answer actually turn away wrath in this moment? And there will be moments where you won't be able before hand to figure all of that out. Faith is not irrational, but faith will take you beyond the boundaries of your reason. Hear this: rest is not found in your understanding because there are things you will not understand.
By Faith When He Was Tested
Now, there's something else here we have to face, and we want to be honest with God's Word because God's Word is clearly honest with us. It says, "By faith...when he was tested." This is not life out of control; this is not bad luck; this is not the confusion of life in a fallen world. The word 'tested' brings God on site. What is happening in this moment is happening because of the will of God. And we believe that our God is Lord of all things, unchallenged, don't we? And so we cannot happily back away from these moments as if somehow God were detached from him, because He's not.
He is Lord! And the word 'test' helps you to understand God's intention. 'Test' not in a final exam; 'Test' as in the tempering of a metal, tempering it for the purpose of strength and beauty bringing that metal to what it could not be without the fires of that test. In the same way, God will work in our lives taking us beyond our ability to figure it out because God is completing His work of redemption. He is purifying us; He is refining us. Now think about this; we can be so scarily self-reliant.
We can look at others as being weak and pride ourselves in our strength. We can look at others as being foolish and tell ourselves how wise we are. We can look at others as being unrighteous and swell up our chests at our thoughts of our own righteousness. And so God will do a good thing; He will take you beyond your wisdom, and beyond your strength, and beyond your righteousness because He knows that true righteousness only ever begins when you come to the end of yourself, and you find your rest in Him and Him alone.
He is your wisdom. He's your righteousness. He's your strength and when you're there, you're exactly where your Redeemer wants you to be. As much as the story confounds our wisdom, God is doing a good thing, a loving thing in the heart of this dear saint. Now look with me at verse 19. It says: "He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back." Now when it says, "He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead," you may think that the reason Abraham was able to respond is because he had read the tea leaves of God's future plan and had figured God out.
He had somehow been able to divine God's secret will, and he was at rest. That's not what faith does. Your job is not to figure out the things that God has revealed. That's futility; it won't work; it will get you in trouble. God's secret will is called His secret will because it's His secret will. Faith rests on what God has revealed, and this phrase, this sentence, actually reveals to you the four legs of the faith of Abraham, the four legs of any life of faith. Here's the first one. The first leg is the command of God.
God had clearly come to Abraham and commanded him to go and to offer his son, Isaac. What Abraham is reasoning is that if God has made this command, God will do something good at the end of this command to fulfill His promises. He hasn't read God's mind; He's remembering that he stands on the firm ground of the command of God. Second leg: God's promises. God had made a firm covenantal promise that out of this boy would come a great nation. And so Abraham is embracing the promise and reasoning, that if it's needed, God will raise this boy up because God will be true to His promises.
Third leg: God's power. Remember, this man had experienced already the power of God; because although Sarah was way too old naturally to have a child, and the Bible specifically says, in graphic language, "Her womb was dead," by the power of God, she gave birth to a son. This God has the ability, has the power to give life to what is dead; that's power! And so Abraham's reasoning, "If it's necessary for a resurrection to take place, God has the power to do that." God's commands, God's promises, God's power.
The Fourth Leg: God's Faithfulness
Fourth leg: God's faithfulness. Abraham had already experienced the faithfulness of God. Waiting and waiting and waiting, Abraham and Sarah considered that the One who had made the promise was faithful. And there was a moment when they heard the cries of infant Isaac because God's faithful to what He promises. Now hear this: this passage doesn't sit in this moment in Hebrews 11 as a law to burden you. This passage sits in Hebrews 11 as an invitation and a welcome to beautiful, remarkable rest of heart, because you won't find that in your strength; you won't find that in the force of your personality; you won't find that in your own natural wisdom; you won't find that in the ease of circumstances; you won't find that in the grandeur of your goodness.
And so this passage uses the story of Abraham to welcome us into this rest that only can be found when we stand on God's commands, when we embrace His promises, when we believe in His power, and we lay hold of His faithfulness. I think, and I will say this as your pastor, I mean this with all the love that I can say it - I think one of the dark secrets of the Church of Jesus Christ is the level of our anxiety, our worry, our fear, our doubt. Maybe it reveals to us that we're holding on to other things to make us sure, to make us secure; to find hope in those things will always fail us.
Maybe it's hope in a circumstance; maybe it's hope in another person; maybe it's hope that if you get a certain job and achieve a certain lifestyle or you develop a little more theological understanding, and all those things not bad in themselves, can actually function as God replacements, and they will not serve you well. In this moment in your life, are you a person at rest? Not because circumstances are easy, not because God's command is easy, but because you have self-consciously placed yourself and your heart and everything that's you and yours, in the hands of this God.
You believe His commands are good. You believe that His promises are beautiful and trustworthy. You believe that He has power to do whatever He wills. You go to bed every night laying your head on the pillow of His faithfulness, and you rest. Are you at rest? Oh, I know there are people in this room that are facing hard things; there are those of us this morning that are finding God's commands to be difficult. There are those of us who are reaching for His promises, but they seem distant. There are those of us who have been shaken enough that maybe there have even been moments where you've visited the questions of His faithfulness.
I would say to you as your pastor this morning: receive His welcome; receive His invitation; this rest can be yours. It is what His grace and His grace alone can provide for you. But there's something else I want to just quickly mention in this passage. Look at verses 20 to 22: By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff (an old man). By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
(ESV) This kind of rest of heart, this kind of celebration of the welcome of rest based on God's commands, and promises, and power, and faithfulness, this faith creates a legacy. This rest you want to pass down to the generations that follow you. See what's pictured here; God moves the plans and promises of His covenant through the faithfulness of His people. God accomplishes His sovereign will through the rest of His people who pass that rest down to the generations that follow; who bless their covenant children with the rest that only can be found in the Lord.
What a beautiful picture! Now, I love the thought of Isaac passing that down to Jacob, and Jacob passing it down to Joseph, and Joseph being used of God to rescue Israel from famine, and through that, they're redeemed from Egypt, and the people of God will live. And Messiah will come. What a legacy! The rest of faith creates that kind of legacy. But there's a word that I haven't talked about in this passage. It's there in verse 19. It's the word 'figuratively.' It's clear that the first thing this word means is that this circumstance with Isaac where his father took him out into the wilderness and there was wood, but there was no animal for sacrifice.
A Picture of Resurrection
And his father laid him on that altar ready to take his life. And at that moment, God sends an animal for sacrifice, and Isaac's life is preserved. It's a picture of resurrection - this kid was as good as dead. And by God's grace and provision, he was given his life back again. But that moment is a figure of another moment, when God the father sends His one and only Son to earth. And the life of that Son marches toward an altar of sacrifice. It is the cross, and this Son won't be rescued before death.
He must die; because in His death, we are given a Sabbath of rest. And He is brought back to life again, exiting the grave by the power of God so that sin and death is conquered, so that we might live, and not only live, we might rest. I love the specificity of the words in Genesis 22; you don't have to turn there. It's a picture of the remarkable rest that's in the heart of Abraham. The words are very specific. It says that Abraham built an altar, and the words say that he carefully laid the wood in order.
Now there's rest of heart pictured there. This is not Abraham saying, "I can't believe You would do this to me. I can't believe after all this waiting that You'd take this son from me; how does this make any sense at all?" I would understand that because I've been there, but that's not what's happening. In remarkable rest of faith, this man lays the wood in order because his heart and his son are in the hands of his Lord. I would ask you this morning: do you know that rest? That rest is not for the spiritually elite.
That rest was purchased on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ so your heart would be open to His commands; your heart would embrace His promises; your heart would rest in His power, and your heart would find hope in His faithfulness. Believer, do you have that rest? Or do you take back your life again and again and put it in your hands, trying somehow to find rest in your strength, and your wisdom, your control, your righteousness? I would ask you again, run to the only place where rest can be found.
Maybe you're here this morning, and you would honestly say, "I don't know this God. I don't know this One who can give me this kind of rest. I'm tired of being driven; I'm tired of being afraid; I'm tired of relying on myself. How do I find this rest?" Hear His call: "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and you will find rest for your souls." I would say to you right now--if you have never trusted this God of grace, bow your head right now and trust Him. Pray for His forgiveness, and place your heart in His capable hands, and find the rest for your souls that the sacrifice of His Son has given you.
May we all receive this welcome to rest that can only be found in His commands, His promises, His power, and His faithfulness. Let's Pray: Lord, how we love Your Word. How we are so thankful for the way that it speaks with power into the details of our lives and our struggles. And, Lord, we would confess that sometimes we know this rest, but not always. And we pray that we would find a consistent hope in Your commands, and promises, and power, and faithfulness. And, Lord, we would pray for those in this moment who have never put their lives in Your hands, that they would do that now, and that You would receive them and transform them by Your grace. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for the rest that we have received that is only found in You. In Jesus's name, Amen.
