Genesis 22:1-3

Question: why would God test us?

• Objectively: it's not as if He needs to know what is in us - but we do
• Subjectively: it's the relationship that He's after - what He wants and what we need

Question: why so severe?

• Son - sign of God's promise and the salvation of the world
• Only Son - reminder of the failure with Hagar and the grief and loss (Gen 21)
• Isaac - memories of the miracle
• Whom you love - making sure it gets to the heart level
• "Offer him there" - terrifying, specific, barbaric

Genesis 22:4-13

Question: what is God doing?

• God is working on a deeper level than "Abraham is our model" - not a morality tale
• God is working on a deeper level than "Abraham obeyed or believed" - important to see faith and obedience, but not all we need to see
• God is inviting through showing Himself - He has seen to it (provide)
• God is working on the deepest level of Abraham's heart - to lay claim to all of Abraham and have Abraham lay claim to all of Him - rooting out idols but revealing His love

Genesis 22:14-18

“God saw Abraham’s sacrifice and said, “Now I know that you love me, because you did not withhold your only son from me.” But how much more can we look at his sacrifice on the Cross, and say to God, “Now, we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us.” When the magnitude of what he did dawns on us, it makes it possible finally to rest our hearts in him rather than in anything else.”

― Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters