WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:08.200 The account of The Binding of Isaac in Genesis is is oddly silent on a 2 00:00:08.200 --> 00:00:10.100 lot of the details that draw our attention. 3 00:00:10.100 --> 00:00:15.200 We have a lot of questions that we want answered. Like how 4 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:23.700 did Abraham react when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Did 5 00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:28.000 he struggle over whether to trust God in this moment or not? 6 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:29.800 And what about Isaac? 7 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:34.600 What did he make of his father's cryptic response the Lord will 8 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:36.500 provide for himself an offering. 9 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:40.400 At what point did Isaac realize what was really going on? 10 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:45.400 Did he object when his father tied him up and laid him on the altar? 11 00:00:45.400 --> 00:00:47.900 Did he think his father had gone crazy? 12 00:00:49.400 --> 00:00:55.600 And yet the text is silent about all these questions. We can try to 13 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:00.000 infer some insights from an oblique comment here and there from a 14 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.400 subtle turn of phrase but the text seems to be uninterested in 15 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:05.800 answering these sorts of questions. 16 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:11.900 So perhaps instead of wondering what Abraham was thinking or what 17 00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:15.700 Isaac was thinking we might consider what in the world 18 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:16.700 God was thinking. 19 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.200 After all if you've been following along in Genesis so far, you know 20 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:25.900 that God has promised that Abraham will be the father of many nations 21 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:31.100 and that through his offspring all the nations of the earth will be 22 00:01:31.100 --> 00:01:31.700 blessed. 23 00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:36.200 This is God's promise to Abraham believes and this is counted to him 24 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:37.000 as righteousness. 25 00:01:38.600 --> 00:01:42.600 But the fulfillment of the promise runs into a bit of a hurdle rather quickly. 26 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:47.600 Abraham and Sarah are old and without children, but of course by 27 00:01:47.600 --> 00:01:48.000 itself 28 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.900 this isn't a problem for the God who created the heavens and the Earth. 29 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:55.700 And yet Abraham still had to wait a whole twenty-five years after first 30 00:01:55.700 --> 00:02:00.100 hearing the promise for God to actually fulfill his promise and give 31 00:02:00.100 --> 00:02:01.500 him a son, Isaac. 32 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:07.400 So after 25 years of waiting for God to just begin to fulfill his 33 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:07.900 promise. 34 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:13.500 God is now a few years later asking Abraham to kill that very same 35 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:14.100 son. 36 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.800 As if it weren't tragic enough that Abraham is asked to kill his own 37 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:20.400 child. 38 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.900 God is also asking him to throw away 39 00:02:22.900 --> 00:02:26.500 the fulfillment of God's own promise that he had given him. 40 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:30.400 Abraham has waited and trusted God for so long 41 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:34.600 and now that same God seems to be going back on his promises. 42 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:42.300 God's command here is not merely hard or extreme or even potentially 43 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:46.300 cruel no God's command is absurd. 44 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:48.900 It doesn't make any sense. 45 00:02:48.900 --> 00:02:54.000 God is commanding Abraham to reverse the fulfillment of God's promises. 46 00:02:55.100 --> 00:03:00.400 And so at this point in the story we can't help but ask what in the world was 47 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:00.900 God thinking. 48 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:03.300 How could he be so absurd? 49 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:11.500 Of course this is also how things looked to the disciples on Good Friday. 50 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:17.100 They had all been convinced that God's promises to Israel were finally 51 00:03:17.100 --> 00:03:22.200 being fulfilled by Jesus the Messiah in their midst. After centuries 52 00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:26.400 and Millennia of Israel waiting after invasions and Exile and 53 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:27.200 occupations. 54 00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:32.100 Finally guy had begun to come through on his promises. Jesus was 55 00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:36.600 calling Israel to repent and turn back to her God. The disciples 56 00:03:36.600 --> 00:03:39.800 watched Jesus give sight to the Blind and hearing to the deaf. 57 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:43.000 They saw him cast out demons and cleanse lepers. 58 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.400 They knew that the Messianic age was just around the corner and they 59 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:51.600 could see the the first light of this new day beginning to peek over 60 00:03:51.600 --> 00:03:51.900 the horizon. 61 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:59.300 But now God has allowed as Messiah to be arrested by the chief priests 62 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:02.000 and shamefully killed by the Romans. 63 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:08.300 The door to the kingdom of God seemed to slam shut in their faces. And 64 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:12.300 they must have wondered how can God go back on his promises when he's 65 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:14.300 already done so much to fulfill them. 66 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:19.100 What in the world is God thinking and forsaking his Messiah like this. 67 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:20.300 How can he be 68 00:04:20.300 --> 00:04:21.600 so absurd? 69 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:29.100 But we human beings have never been terribly good at understanding the 70 00:04:29.100 --> 00:04:29.700 mind of God. 71 00:04:29.700 --> 00:04:34.400 We've never had much of a chance when it comes to understanding what 72 00:04:34.400 --> 00:04:36.700 God is thinking no matter how hard we try. 73 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:42.200 Of course, this is why Abraham is so commendable. Despite 74 00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:46.900 the absurdity of God's command Abraham does not hem and haw about 75 00:04:46.900 --> 00:04:49.500 whether he should trust God In this moment. 76 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:54.200 He doesn't break down and have an existential crisis. He trust the 77 00:04:54.200 --> 00:04:58.800 promise that God has given knowing that somehow, someway 78 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.400 God will still fulfill it. 79 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:06.200 And Abraham was right. You wouldn't have been able to predict exactly 80 00:05:06.200 --> 00:05:11.400 how in advance but far from reversing the fulfillment of God's Promise 81 00:05:11.400 --> 00:05:17.400 this moment served as a test that confirms Abraham's resolute faith in 82 00:05:17.400 --> 00:05:22.200 the sure and certain promises of God, which can never be broken. And 83 00:05:22.200 --> 00:05:27.600 with Jesus his arrest, trial and crucifixion were not his defeat they 84 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:31.800 were not a setback to be overcome as they might have looked. Instead 85 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:35.600 they were the very means through which he fulfilled everything that 86 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:37.800 God had promised about the coming Messiah. 87 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.600 It was even the means through which the promises originally given to 88 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:47.300 Abraham were ultimately fulfilled. As Jesus himself says in John's 89 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:47.600 gospel. 90 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:49.900 When I am lifted up from the earth. 91 00:05:49.900 --> 00:05:52.800 I will draw all people to myself. 92 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:57.300 So when our Lord was lifted up to be killed on a cross he as the 93 00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:01.000 offspring of Abraham drew to himself all the peoples of the earth to 94 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:05.000 be blessed by his blood which was poured out for our salvation. 95 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:12.100 God accomplishes his purposes through what looks to us to be absurd. 96 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:14.100 This is how he works. 97 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:16.400 This is how he saves us. 98 00:06:17.700 --> 00:06:22.700 But what might this mean for us that God works through it looks 99 00:06:22.700 --> 00:06:23.100 absurd. 100 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:28.300 Perhaps we should be absurd as our heavenly Father is absurd. 101 00:06:29.100 --> 00:06:34.000 Or maybe not there is of course nothing wrong with some good 102 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.300 old-fashioned sagely wisdom, but not at all. 103 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:43.400 But we do need to remember that the foolish absurdity of God is 104 00:06:43.400 --> 00:06:47.400 infinitely wiser than the sagelyest human wisdom. 105 00:06:47.400 --> 00:06:52.500 God is not afraid to accomplish is to accomplish his purposes through 106 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:54.400 what looks to you to be absurd. 107 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:57.500 In fact, that's often how he does it. 108 00:06:58.400 --> 00:07:02.600 And so maybe you're a professor and you have a class where you have 109 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:06.400 no idea how a few of your students or maybe all of them are going to 110 00:07:06.400 --> 00:07:06.700 learn anything. 111 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:11.200 Or maybe you're a student and you feel like you have no idea how you 112 00:07:11.200 --> 00:07:13.800 going to learn anything helpful or valuable from your professor. 113 00:07:14.900 --> 00:07:19.400 Or maybe you arrive at your vicarage or internship or first call and 114 00:07:19.400 --> 00:07:22.200 you're wondering to yourself how in the world got going to do anything 115 00:07:22.200 --> 00:07:23.700 with these people right in front of you? 116 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:30.100 And maybe, maybe your assessment is right, but we also know how God 117 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:30.500 works. 118 00:07:30.500 --> 00:07:35.900 We know that God fulfills his promises by his own strength and by his 119 00:07:35.900 --> 00:07:41.400 own reason and not according to what works within our own frame of 120 00:07:41.400 --> 00:07:46.900 experience. After all starting a giant family from an infertile couple 121 00:07:46.900 --> 00:07:51.000 over a hundred years old was not a recipe for success. 122 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:55.400 Now there was inaugurating an eternal global kingdom through the 123 00:07:55.400 --> 00:07:58.600 execution of its king, good political strategy. 124 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:04.600 But then again for claiming a life-giving gospel through such a 125 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:09.600 strange bunch of people like the church including her pastors and 126 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:13.300 future pastors might not be the most sensible strategy either. 127 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:16.800 But it is God's strategy. 128 00:08:17.900 --> 00:08:23.100 And therefore should never be discounted, no matter how things look to 129 00:08:23.100 --> 00:08:23.300 you. 130 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:29.700 And so if God often fulfills his purposes and promises through what looks 131 00:08:29.700 --> 00:08:30.900 to us to be absurd. 132 00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:35.700 Well, then that means there's a good chance that he can work through 133 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:36.799 you too. Amen. 134 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:41.299 We continue with our hymn.