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details should be fully comprehended. God is testing Abraham for Abraham’s own good and God’s glory. Lot was tested in Sodom and found wanting; Abraham is tested and found ringing true to God. David says, “ Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart” (Psa. 26:2). When God promised Abraham a son he staggered not at the promise, and for twenty five years he has had the joy of possessing his well-beloved Isaac. Will he now lean on the gift, or on the Giver? Abraham’s faith has been developed through varied experiences and trials and testings. Separated from all that men count dear of friends, home, kindred, Lot and the people around him. God’s testings are different from Satan’s temptations. Satan tempts to overthrow. God tests to strengthen. The devil uses a sieve to sift us, but God uses a fan to cast out the worst and save the best. Abraham is to he the head of a great nation, and it is well that his head should set well on his shoulders and he well-balanced, and his heart fixed with firm purpose and dependence upon Almighty God. Some trials of our faith come like the lightning out of a clear sky with suddenness and severity. Abraham may have been sitting in the door of his tent, looking at his son with the tender love of a father when the message came; “ Take thy son, thine only son!” May God spare us, if possible, from such a test. Not every child of God can be trusted for such a trial. Only His chosen children are called on to pass through such crush ing crisis. Abraham is here an exam ple of prompt obedience to the divine call. He arose early. With Isaac, the young men and the wood for the fife he commenced immediately the three days’ journey. One scene is before him.— an altar, a sacrifice and that sacrifice, his own son. So the Father in Heaven through the ages contem
plated the giving of His own Son, and s o , Christ went through His earthly pilgrimage with the cross before Him. In every step Abraham takes we can hear him saying, “Not my will, but thine be done,’ and Jehovah answers “ This is my friend, Abraham, in whom I am well-pleased.” Abraham had been tested and found to love God more than Sodom. Now he is tested and found to love God more than his own life, for it would have been infinitely easier for Abraham to have yielded himself a sacrifice than to take the life of his son. The test is complete; Abraham has yielded to God’s call and has suffered the death of his son. _ He has had the victory of faith. He will follow the Lord to the death. Abraham stands with uplifted knife above the bared bosom of the sacrifice. God speaks “ Lay not thine hand upon the lad.” God’s opportunity had come. He is always in the nick of time. God’s voice stays his hand and the Angel of the Covenant says, “ Thou hast not withheld thy son from me.” God has a substitute. Faith lays hold of it, and father and son sacrifice the ram and worship together. What a picture of the Almighty God the Father is seen in Abraham, and in Isaac, the Son obedient to the Father’ s will. God spared Isaac but He could not spare His own Son. No one could take His place. There could be no substi tute. He must be lifted up. He must die the death. “ The Lord will pro vide.” He has. In His Son there is provision for all the need of men. “ My God shall provide.” PRACTICAL POINTS (1) There was a royal ring to Abra ham’s faith. (2) Abraham did not know how much he trusted God until God tested him. (3) Abraham so loved God that he gave Him his only son. (4) When God orders, obey quickly. (5) The willingness of Abraham to
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