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#Post#: 2636--------------------------------------------------
Does God tempt ?
By: James Date: December 15, 2012, 12:44 pm
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[color=black]Gen 22:1 after these things, that God did tempt
Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I
am. 2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom
thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him
there for a burnt offering.
I was thinking about how many times I have heard from a
Christian that things are hard; health problems, family
relationships gone wrong, work looking as if you are the next to
be fired. Inevitable the old chestnut comes out by some well
meaning individual ‘this is just a test’. Well what is being
tested? Christian’s faith or his love or is it his capacity to
feel and endure pain, when he falls short of Gods test is he
then excluded for ever.
I have heard it preached that God tested Abraham; I don’t think
it’s the same type of test since Christian's test is accompanied
with winging and muttering about it not being fair, it is also
noticeable that Christian has a great reluctance for the test.
Not so our hero Abraham who being told to offer up his son rose
up early the next morning not willing to miss a second of the
opportunity to do as God asked. He cut the wood in advance
for the altar he took fire with him, a knife to kill his son and
two young men to guard them on the way to make sure they were
not hindered in coming to Gods Mountain in good time.
Abraham was prepared to kill his son even though he knew it was
through his son that the world would be blessed. Abraham
convincingly showed the Lord that he believed in God to bless
the nations via Isaac. Abraham could have so easily transferred
his faith in God to faith in his physical son for now he had the
promise of God standing in front of him; he could have taken his
vision of the Lord and placed it on Isaac as the fulfilment of
the promise. By fearing God he showed his faith in God and by
works faith was perfected, so says the scripture.
Nothing in the story of Abraham bares any resemblance to
Christians talk of ‘going through a test’, indeed does God test
us to elimination if not then why a test in the first place.
Job was not tested, Job was given an experience in God that
would enhance his ability to see by the spirit and thus know the
one he thought he knew so well.
Daniel, Abraham, Job and other great men of God would not talk
about a test, no!
They would express the experience as an opportunity to shine for
God.
That is the truth, now the day to day walk to bring it into
reality in this life and hour!
[/color]
#Post#: 2641--------------------------------------------------
Re: Does God tempt ?
By: Kerry Date: December 15, 2012, 1:40 pm
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[quote author=James link=topic=285.msg2636#msg2636
date=1355597052]
I have heard it preached that God tested Abraham; I don’t think
it’s the same type of test since Christian's test is accompanied
with winging and muttering about it not being fair, it is also
noticeable that Christian has a great reluctance for the test.
Not so our hero Abraham who being told to offer up his son rose
up early the next morning not willing to miss a second of the
opportunity to do as God asked. He cut the wood in advance
for the altar he took fire with him, a knife to kill his son and
two young men to guard them on the way to make sure they were
not hindered in coming to Gods Mountain in good time.[/quote]
I believe Abraham had been perfected by this time. He was told
to make himself perfect earlier. So I think you're right,
there's very little to compare between this test of Abraham and
our tests. I think we should also remember that Abraham was
so old he probably valued Isaac's life more than he valued his
own.
I wish the translators had used the word "test" or "assay" in
that verse. God was not tempting Abraham to sin. I think too
there is also a concealed lesson in the passage as often there
is in the Bible. Solomon said it is the glory of God to conceal
a thing and the honor of kings to search out a matter. I say
more importantly Isaac was being tested. Isaac was not much
given to visions or dreams if at all. I think this experience
was necessary to show Isaac that he was the child of promise and
not to doubt it. Further it also showed him why it was correct
he be the ancestor of Messiah. By his faith in both God and in
his earthly father, Isaac shows us the caliber of his character.
We may wonder sometimes ourselves about how strong our faith
is; and a test can sometimes put our own minds at ease. What
need would God have to test either of them? God doesn't need
anything proved to him. So we must believe the test was to show
them something about themselves.
"Offer him there as a burnt sacrifice " is also not necessarily
the right translation. 'Alah can at times be translated as
"offer" as in offer "up" a sacrifice; but here it means take
Isaac "up" to one of the mountains of Moriah. So it doesn't
really say "slaughter" him. 'Olah can mean a set of stairs
going up or any ascent. Thus what God said can be read two
ways. He could be saying prepare him as a burnt offering, or he
could be saying to take up the mountain.
Still Abraham seems worried since the text says he saddled his
own animal. Ordinarily a man of his importance would not do
this but have a servant do it.
We also learn that it was only on the third day, God revealed
the location to him...from afar. It was not something God had
Abraham rush into lest people think he was deranged; and we know
that today some people do strange things on the whim of the
moment thinking they are hearing from God when they're not.
Verse 5 is a key here, I think.
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass;
and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to
you.
Now either Abraham was lying to these two men, or he was
confident Isaac would be returning with him. I think he was
confident that God would never want a human sacrifice; or if
Isaac did die that he would be resurrected. Some people however
say he prophesied truthfully not knowing what he was saying.
Was Abraham lying to Isaac when he said God would choose His
lamb? I say God did choose His lamb that day, both in physical
terms and in spiritual terms. By Isaac's willingness to die, he
showed his own peaceful and sacrificial nature. I also agree
with those Rabbis who say the Ram in the bushes was one of those
things which had existed before Day One in Genesis. God had
already provided the Ram, the means for forgiveness, before
Adam and his offspring could sin. If you think of it, it would
be poor planning to give mankind free will and the ability to
sin without God having planned ahead of time how to correct the
matter. So i think the Rabbis are correct to say the Lamb of
God existed before Eden; and we find John saying the same thing
in Revelation.
Did Abraham draw blood before God told him to stop? I think he
did. It is said that Isaac had been bound so tightly that his
wrists and ankles showed the marks the rest of his life; and I
say he had a fifth mark also, just as Jesus later did.
Then we see God saying Abraham's seed would be blessed because
he had not withheld Isaac; and by inference, I think we can see
that God was also talking about Isaac who had not struggled or
resisted. There is another parallel between the two as well:
We read that Jesus preached to spirits in chains after his
crucifixion. It is said by the Jews that Isaac obtained the
privilege of being able to get his children out of Gehinnom by
his willingness to suffer in their stead.
#Post#: 2643--------------------------------------------------
Re: Does God tempt ?
By: George Date: December 15, 2012, 1:50 pm
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I've always wondered what kind of relationship Issac could have
with his dad, after knowing he was willing to kill him??? Issac
himself didn't hear from God, so how would he know it was Gods
Will, that he be sacrificed???
#Post#: 2658--------------------------------------------------
Re: Does God tempt ?
By: Rita Date: December 15, 2012, 11:51 pm
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I tend to look at the whole story of Abraham- at this point God
had brought about the promise, but earlier in his journey both
Abraham and Sarah had faltered and not trusted in what God had
promised - they chose to try and bring about the promise in
their own way. Abraham, like most of us, had learnt the hard way
that we have to be patient with what God has promised us through
his insights ( blimey that speaks to me in a big way as I have
been losing hope with something God relayed to me ten years ago
, Like Abraham I have started to doubt becasue there is no
evidence of anything happening ) They also had to face the
consequences of those choices- but despite all their wrong
choices, God was still true to his word
So the Abraham that went into this ' trial / test of faith ' was
different to the one that had heard the promise years before.
His trust in God had grown, he knew God was true to his word.
I have always gained much from the first chapter of Job, even
before everything unfolded with Job, God knew his heart - God
knew he would not fail and believed in him - despite all his
questions, reactions ect, In many respects it taught me that
what is going on is not actually the bigger picture and falls in
line with Ephesians chapter six- when we grasp that the true
battle is not what we are facing, but what lay behind it all ,
and that we are already on the winning side - kind of encourages
me- its when we look at only what we see that we can get lost (
so easy to do though ) Abraham knew the bigger picture, Knew
what God had already promised in the future through Isaac- he
didn't know how God would resolve the situation, all he knew was
what he had to do. He knew what God was asking of him in that
moment.
Sometimes we just know we are where God needs us to be - it may
not always make sense, but just knowing is enough to sustain. xx
Rita
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