Abraham, My Friend

Abraham, My Friend The Making of a Praying Man_57 God is able In the National Gallery of the Heroes of Faith there is just one portrait that appears twice; Abraham’s. Hebrews 11 twice focuses on this extraordinary man as a God-given illustration of faith. First the writer tells us that it was ‘by faith’ that Abraham obeyed, went out, sojourned and looked for a city. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Heb 11:8-10 KJV) Surely Abraham’s was a life of faith, from its commencement and every step of the way. These are the ‘steps of the faith of our father Abraham’. When it comes to the arrival of Isaac, the writer to the Hebrews singles out the faith of Sarah, but then returns to focus on Abraham at the point of the journey to Moriah; By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac: yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; even he to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead; from whence he did also in a figure receive him back. (Heb 11:17-19 ASV) Being tried… in the moment of this greatest trial Abraham believed God. Temptations are a great opportunity for faith. Martin Luther once wrote “Prayer and temptation, the Bible and meditation, make a true minister of the gospel”. It’s an interesting list. The story is graphically retold here; tried, offered, reckoning, received; the intention is regarded as the deed. As the old saying has it; “man sees the mark we make, God sees the aim we take.” This is another important Bible principle, for good or ill. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. (Pro 23:7a) Abraham offered up Isaac. Not by strength of character or willpower, not in reckless fanaticism, but in faith. It is not the costliness of the sacrifice that is the focus but that which made the sacrifice possible; Abraham’s faith. We often think of Abraham’s amazing sacrifice but the Bible concentrates on his amazing faith. The letter to the Hebrews declares that Abraham did what he did in the consciousness that ‘God is able’. The ASV changes the tense. This truth sustained him on the three day journey to Moriah; God is able. Did he question whether or not he would be able to go through with this sacrifice; God is able. Knowing that he was heading for bloodshed and the conflagration of his sacrifice, Hebrews says He did it ‘accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead…’. It was faith in the God who could create life which had made Isaac’s birth possible. (as it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. (Rom 4:17 ASV) This had been Isaac’s beginning; the deadness of Abraham’s body and the deadness of Sarah’s womb and the God who gives life to the dead. Abraham had seen the miracle of resurrection, in a degree, in his own body and it Sarah’s, but this was something different. Isaac’s body was going to be reduced to ashes, but Abraham was ‘accounting that God is able’. The verb is not there in the original but I like the ASV’s choice; God is able. It was not the memory of God’s historic ability, but the assurance of God’s present ability; God is able. This ‘accounted’ is the word that we considered in our meditations on justification by faith. Abraham believed God and it was (ac)counted unto him for righteousness. God measured and credited righteousness to Abraham’s account on the single condition of his faith. Now Abraham credits God with present tense ability; accounting that God is able. The psalmist said Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. (Psa 68:34 KJV) Credit God with strength; credit Him with ability. Many years ago the English bible translator J B Phillips wrote a book entitled; ‘your God is too small’. Abraham is ‘accounting that God is able’. Much of what we do is based on a calculation of risks and resources. Abraham was no different. He knew the risks, but his calculation included the factor that God is able to raise the dead; and he was counting on it. In parable form, says the writer to the Hebrews, Abraham actually received Isaac from the dead. (Heb 11:19) From this moment Isaac is the beloved son who, in parable, has passed through death and resurrection and has been ‘received’ by the Father. All that follows in his story will need to be seen in this light; Isaac is alive from the dead and at his father’s side. Not only Calvary, but the open tomb, and his ascension to glory at His Father’s side are all here, in type. Following Isaac’s ‘death, resurrection and ascension’ God speaks; And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Gen 22:16-18 KJV) Because thou hast done this... Is this a conscious echo of God’s word to the Serpent? And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: (Gen 3:14 KJV) Satan’s temptation which culminated in the man ‘standing up for his rights’ resulted in a curse, but here in the story of the Father and His Son, the yielding up of all his rights results in a blessing. Through the first Adam and his cooperation with the ‘god of this world’ a worldwide curse comes into our world, but through the last Adam and his cooperation with the true and living God comes the promise of a worldwide blessing. There are glimpses of truth here that Paul opens out in Romans; Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (Rom 5:14 NASB) There is surely significance too in that this full blessing for the nations comes into clear view at this point, beyond the sacrifice and the resurrection and the restoration to the father’s side. It is surely significant too that there is no mention of territory in this blessing. This promise and blessing sees far beyond the Promised Land and its destiny. Abraham has revealed the Father’s purpose and the future of the Son and His seed, and all because Abraham ‘obeyed my voice’. (Gen 22:18) The blessing will be unstoppable; thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies Gen 22:17. Abraham and Isaac now return to the ‘well of the seven’ at Beersheba. The sacrifice has been ‘offered’. The son has been raised and the father has received him again. They return, as they had gone out to Moriah, ‘together’… to Beersheba. Isaac, the son of laughter will never leave the land. This was the father’s decree; And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again. (Gen 24:5-6 KJV) The bride must come to the son. That story awaits us, but we can conclude this one with an observation that comes in the closing verses of Genesis 22. It is after the events of Moriah; after the offering and after the resurrection that a key figure appears in the account. After many years a message reaches Abraham from his kin. Nahor, Abraham’s older brother, has prospered too, and the result is a key link in God’s amazing plan. Nahor has fathered eight sons, and one of the sons has had a daughter; Rebekah. As the story unfolds she will become the bride of the Son who passed through death and resurrection and is ‘together’ with His Father. There could be no prospect of a bride without Moriah. Just as there could be no church without Calvary. And the place Moriah too has its later significance; Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. (2Ch 3:1 KJV) In this spot where Abraham offered Isaac and received him from the dead, in a figure, Solomon would build a House for God. How wonderfully all the pictures interlock; ‘thou are the Son of the living God…’ ‘…and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall prevail against it.’ (Matt 16) Is God still able to quicken the dead? Abraham’s faith settled upon the nature and character of God not upon his own inadequacy. Am I able to be what God wants me to be? Am I able to fulfil all He has prepared for me? These questions fatally put the wrong target before our faith; the real question is ‘is God able?’. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (2Co 9:8 KJV) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (Eph 3:20 KJV) Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:25 KJV) Yes, He is still able.