[AI translation] After a break for the holidays, let's return to our Abraham series, which is now coming to an end. We have come to a point in the story of Abraham's life which theologians have long since generally referred to as Abraham's greatest experience of faith, the climax of his life of faith. And it is characteristic that Abraham's faith reached this highest peak precisely through a terrible trial. His faith did not blossom in its most brilliant splendour when he was living in undisturbed tranquillity, in the joy of the fulfilment of the long-awaited promise. It was not when God's blessings were in abundance around him, when all was going well, that this man's faith was strongest, but when God was asking him to make the greatest sacrifice, when his heart was in doubt of the greatest pain imaginable! Indeed, to such a dizzying height or depth of the life of faith did Abraham attain in this journey that I dare not speak of it - as I have never dared to speak of it in my life - only now because this is the next in our series. I have never had such an experience, and I do not know if the Lord will ever make me worthy of such an experience, and so I would like to be with you now, listening to the Word and listening very humbly to what God is saying through it about the test of faith."And it came to pass after these things, that God tempted Abraham" (Genesis 22:1). After what? We already know what Abraham has gone through so far, because we have followed the story of his life. It cannot be said to have been a quiet, untroubled, smooth and sunny road! It has been a life full of terrible struggles, external and internal difficulties and trials. Especially since coming under the guidance of the Lord. How many troubles and difficulties this man has already gone through! He had to break away from his old country - do you remember? He had to leave his home, his relatives, and set out for a totally unknown future, not knowing where he would end up. Anyone who did not know that God had led him by faith would have been justified in thinking that this man drifted like fluff when the wind picked him up. Finally arriving in a totally alien, pagan environment, no sooner does he settle down than he flees a terrible famine and flees on to Egypt. There he gets into trouble. His wife is torn from him, and he returns to the promised land, ashamed and blushing, a moral castaway. There, more struggles, battles with his own heart and pagan princes, his own wife and his son by Hagar. Never stopping, never resting, always new obstacles to face, with which his faith must contend. And never once do we read of him complaining, of losing heart, of regretting that he had given God control of his destiny. God promises him a child, but he is 80 years old, his wife is barren, indeed it all looks as if the precious promise that holds his soul is a hoax. At the age of 100, the long-awaited promise is finally fulfilled, Isaac is born, but now he must chase his first-born son, Ishmael, from the house. Nor can his joy in Isaac be undisturbed. It is truly a miracle that after all this he still holds so firmly to his faith.
And after all these hardships, there comes at last, not a serene old age, not a time when the weary warrior can at last rest a little, when a soldier who has valiantly fought the many battles of a long life can be given a liberty or an obscenity - no! "And it came to pass after these things, that God tempted Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham! And he said, "Here I am. And he said, Take thy son Isaac, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of Moriah, and offer there a burnt offering of the mountains, which I shall command thee." (Genesis 22:1-2) So after all this, there is a great trial to come! But all this is not written to make us marvel at the enormous burden Abraham's faith can bear, but to make us understand that such, such is the narrow way that Jesus says leads to life! Behold, here before us is a long human life, a life of faith truly under God's guidance, the life of God's chosen one, God's friend, and yet how much suffering and trial! In spite of this? No! But because of it! It is precisely these many troubles and struggles that are a testimony to how much God has taken him in hand, how much he is shaping him, how much he is forming him, how much he cares for him, how much he is taking special care of him!
"Is this how God treats His dearest children?" asks the credulous man. I say with fear and trembling, "So! Yes, so! And the dearest, the very ones He has called to greatness! Those whom he wants to expel with his grace! The Lord is warning us not to be too sensitive, not to be too much of a burden, and if he sees fit to try us again and again, let us try to say to him in silent humility what Abraham said to him: 'Here I am, Lord! Let's not think it is something unheard of, an unimaginable monstrosity, that God should try again after we have fought a battle! Let us not demand that He should give us a little leave of absence from His service, that He should leave us alone, because we are tired of fighting, that He should loosen the reins that have been tightly held for so long, that He should let us come back to ourselves, because it is precisely in this way that He wants to bring us back to Himself, to strengthen us, to test our faith even more!
I would almost dare to say that the further one advances on the path of faith, the more severe the tests one is subjected to! After all, even an old soldier has to endure more than a new recruit who does not yet know what service entails! So when God wants to lead us on to greater heights of faith, when he wants to put us to greater trials than ever before, when he wants us to make a sacrifice that makes us feel like Abraham, that breaks our hearts, let us not say, let us not even think with a sense of disapproval, "Well, it has not been enough, what more does God want of me? For He knows what He wants, even if He says something so monstrous that it seems unheard of, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go... and sacrifice... " (verse 2)
Abraham, when he set out, didn't know what God's purpose could be in this terrible wish, but in the end he did! And we have the answer in advance to the agonizing question that gnaws at man during his ordeal: the why, the purpose of suffering. When the father of the faithful went through this terrible three-day journey, at the very end of the journey all the secrets of God's revelation were revealed in this statement of his: 'Now I know that thou art godly, and hast not favoured thy son, thine only begotten for my sake' (v.12). The Lord tested his heart.
Someone once said that the most honorable situation a soul can be put in is to be tested by the Lord Himself. For there are other kinds of trials: Satan can test a man, external circumstances can bring trials, the many consequences of our sins and disobedience can bring hard trials, but the highest test is the one that comes directly from God's hand when He puts His child into the furnace to test the genuineness of His faith. God is not content to be told: Lord, Lord - but wants to test what that means in practice. Not that He has any need to do so, for He is the tester of hearts and kidneys, but He wants to put before our eyes what is otherwise hidden and secret in the depths of our hearts. Such tests reveal how much mistrust, selfishness, small-mindedness, fear, hypocrisy, are in the bottom of our hearts.
In the book of Proverbs, God says, "Give me your heart, my son" (Pro 23:26) So He doesn't say give me your head, your emotions, your talents, your money - but your heart. Total surrender is when one gives his heart to the Lord. And sure, it's easy to say, here it all is, I give it to you Lord - but the Lord also tests the sincerity of this giving by putting His hand on something that is closest to our heart! "Take... thou only one whom thou lovest... and sacrifice..." (Genesis 22:2) God asks for a testimony of the truth of our love for Him. Can we love Him when He asks, when He sacrifices, and not only when He gives? It's easy to show our love for God when it costs nothing - but when God says to someone, "Place on my altar the only one you love, from the very center of your heart: your home, or your child, or your happiness, your cherished hope, your whole heart! Cling not to my blessings, not to my gifts, but to me! Cast not your hope in what or whom I have already given you, but in me! It is one thing to rest in the blessings of God, and another to rest in God himself.
Can you trust in Him even when everything else that could support that trust becomes nothing, when all that really remains is God, the invisible, the intangible Reality? Is He Himself a solid enough point for you, will He remain for you the supreme Reality, even if He takes away everything He has given? Yes: this is what the trials show us! Yes: do we really love Him, as Jesus said: with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind? So, is not our confession of faith a lie, is not our faith an illusion, is not the self-deception that we so often say, "I trust in God"?
Now Abraham obeyed. Certainly not with a light heart and a smile. I don't think that ever mortal man had a more painful, more heart-breaking journey than he had to Mount Moriah. For here it was not that God should take from him the son whom he loved, nor that he should leave the one whom he loved so dearly, but that he himself should bless his own son as a burnt-offering, that he himself should lay the knife with his own hand upon the neck of his sweet son, that he himself should slay the one whom he loved best, the only one, the child of promise. It's so terrible that it's even bad to talk about it. How can God wish such a thing of a father? Let us imagine ourselves in this terrible situation. Spilling the blood of the one we love with our own hands! Here we could have protested, complained, cried, begged: but Lord, why?!
And Abraham left without a word. But imagine with what a heavy heart! How many tears he must have shed, what a terrible struggle he must have had with himself. There, unsuspecting, the dear little boy was passing by, with his straw tied to his back, which was about to become his bonfire, and in his own hand the knife that was about to spill the most precious life! And the little child cries, "Father! How is not the father's heart broken with grief at that voice? And then the two go together again. Abraham still does not turn back, nor even stop! He goes on! One almost shudders to see how far God can go in testing a man's heart, and behold: yet there is no fear. It is true that God never tries any man beyond his strength. He always gives the necessary strength, step by step. And it was only when he had gone through it that he saw, at the very end, that he was met by a radiance of God's love and care that he had never seen or known before. So it is at the end of every dark and painful journey undertaken in faith. By obeying, by faithfully accepting the ordeal, he will suddenly experience the radiance of God's glory breaking through the darkness! So we need not fear such a journey, for we have a glorious, merciful, loving Lord who exercises the greatest mercy on us just when we seem most merciless! He is most merciful where He shows Himself to be most merciless. Was it not always the trials that brought us really close to His fatherly heart? The Word is right when it says, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptations." (Jas 1:12), who does not shrink back, who walks the way in faith!
And how much easier it is for us, like Abraham, to go through such a bitter journey! For we already know that the pain from which Abraham spared his father's heart was not spared his own! We already know that there was another mountain, Calvary, where Father and Son went together, to offer a great, painful, bloody sacrifice for sin! There, too, the Son bore the tree on which he was nailed! How did the Father feel? Even the Son, who was in the torments of hell, sighed and said, "Father! And the Father let him! He did not untie Him, He gave His own Son to death! "He did not give favour to His own Son, but gave Him up for us all" (Rom 8:32). All the way! For us! So that we may have the strength to walk our way on Mount Moriah! That we may dare to believe that at the end of the journey His love and glory, which surpasses all understanding, will truly shine forth!
That our lips may be true in witnessing:
My soul, full salvation is yours,
Leave off the evil and the care;
Be merry, if you feel it:
There is still work to be done, and endure.
Think: who lives by his Spirit,
What a Father's smile;
Your Savior died for you:
Why should you grieve, heavenly son?
(Canticle 426, verse 3)
Amen
Date: 11 January 1953.