The Heroes of Faith (9)

Our meditation this month brings us to the tent of Abraham and Sarah, his wife. These two people had struggled for many years with the promise of the Lord. More and more the fulfillment of the promise became impossible in their lives. But there had come a time that the promise was fulfilled, because the Lord is faithful unto His people. It was God's time, and therefore there was happiness. A son was born unto them and grew up in their tent.

“By faith Abraham, when he was tried.” After all the joy that Abraham had received, it says here that the Lord was coming unto Abraham. Why was He coming to him? The Lord was coming to try him, to try him in the fire, so all that was of man might be skimmed off. Scripture says, “God did tempt Abraham.” This meant to try him, so that he might know by faith that it was by the grace of God that he might stand strong and follow behind the Lord. That is the Lord's way in the life of His people here below. What He has given He will always bring into the fire.

Abraham received a mandate to offer up his only begotten son. Think of that for a moment. How it must have stormed in his heart; there are storms in the hearts of His people when it seems that the promises are being taken away. Abraham was to offer up his son, the son in whom all the promises were vested. Without that son how could what the Lord had spoken to him ever be established in his life?

The Lord came with a mandate to offer up his only begotten son. An offering meant building an altar and placing the wood upon the altar. He was then to bind his son upon the wood, to slay him with the knife, and burn him before God. That mandate came to the father of the faithful and his son. How dark it must have become in his life at that time. Oh, that commandment must have gone into the very marrow of his bones.

God's ways are incomprehensible and deep in the life of His people. The Lord does not spare flesh and blood. Remember, the Lord never does anything here below without a purpose. What is that purpose? It is that the name of the Lord may be glorified and His kingdom may be built up, and that we may come low before God and accept and follow Him in all His ways.

The Lord's commandment to Abraham was to go unto the land of Moriah, a journey of three days. You can almost see them journeying day by day. The servants, and the donkeys carrying the wood, were with Abraham and Isaac. Day by day they traveled until they came to Moriah, the mountain of which the Lord had spoken and where his son would be offered up as a sacrifice. There Abraham stopped and told his young men that they must wait for them. “Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” He put the wood upon his son Isaac, “and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.”

How could Abraham say that they would worship and come again? He could say that only because he might give it all into God's hand, and he might trust the Lord. He was saying that God, who would take his son, could also give him back again.

Isaac was bowed down under the wood, and his father carried the knife and fire. He heard his father say that they would worship, but he saw no lamb for the sacrifice. “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

No Lamb? Is that something that troubles you, my friend? Are you on the way to meet God without the Lamb? Are you going to meet the Lord with all that wood upon your shoulders, the wood of sin and iniquities? There will be nothing between you and the knife of God's justice if you do not have that Lamb. Are you concerned about that? The world is not concerned about it; they do not feel the wood upon their shoulders. They say, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

The Christian religion of our times rises above all this and says, “You have to have faith and trust that it is well. Do not speak so much about the wood, the fire, and the knife, because you have to trust that there is a Lamb who has died for your sins.” But you see that when a child of God does not see the Lamb, then it awakens a question in his heart: “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” One of our godly forefathers once said, “When I see a faith that is never tried and is always strong, then I tremble for the man. I am afraid that it is not a faith that is resting upon that only foundation which is Jesus Christ.” A faith that is not tried will one day prove to be only of self. There will be a message from the Lord when He looks right through it and sees that it was not a faith that was wrought from heaven. What will that message be? “I never knew you; go ye out into outer darkness.”

There are many souls in our congregations who struggle with the question, “Was it ever true in my life? Did the Lord ever work that true work in my heart?” Do you know something? Those struggles are not found in the life of those people who rise above the trials and who stand strong in their own faith. No, those questions and struggles are not found in the religious world of today. But in the life of the children of the Lord you will find those struggles many times. I do not mean to say that this should be a resting ground. If your fears and struggles become a resting ground, then something is wrong.

“And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” Abraham did not know how it was going to happen, but one thing he did know: “God will provide.” Faith causes the soul to rest in Him, knowing that His promise is ever sure. Abraham was able, by faith, to leave it all in the Lord's hands.

With Isaac, who typifies the church, lying upon the wood, his father took the knife, and looking up towards heaven must have said, “Lord, he is my only begotten son, but if Thou wilt have him sacrificed, then I will sacrifice him.” As that knife descended, there came a voice from above, saying, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.” His son Isaac did not have to die, because a ransom was found.

Are you struggling with fearful doubts and concerns in your heart? Oh, my friend, if you may belong to the living church, then the Lord says, “I have another sacrifice. I have a sacrifice for My church, and in that Lamb I see My church, and no fire is needed anymore to burn them. No knife is needed anymore to slay them. One day they will praise, honor, and glorify My Name for the salvation that has been wrought in their hearts.”

Do you have a burning question in your heart, “Where is the Lamb?” Do you have a desire to know that Lamb, to see that Lamb as a sacrifice before God? In that sacrifice, the Lamb of sacrifice, God gives His people everything they need for their journey to eternity. There is an establishing in the life of the church when the Lord comes with the benefits of that Lamb. We have to be very careful that we do not rest outside of that Lamb.

By faith Abraham walked, by faith he looked, and by faith he was a victor. One day the church of God will be victors, not in themselves, but in Christ. In Christ they will be victors who will sing the praises of Him who obtained the victory. Eternity will not be long enough to sing His praises. Do you know why? Because He looked upon such wretches and saved them.

— to be continued —

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