"I received a letter from a single mother who had raised a son who was about to become a dad. Since he had no recollection of his own father, her question to me was "What do I tell him a father does?"
When my dad died in my ninth year, I, too, was raised by my mother, giving rise to the same question, "What do fathers do?" As far as I could observe, they brought around the car when it rained so everyone else could stay dry.
They always took the family pictures, which is why they were never in them. They carved turkeys on Thanksgiving, kept the car gassed up, weren't afraid to go into the basement, mowed the lawn, and tightened the clothesline to keep it from sagging.
It wasn't until my husband and I had children that I was able to observe firsthand what a father contributed to a child's life. What did he do to deserve his children's respect? He rarely fed them, did anything about their sagging diapers, wiped their noses or fannies, played ball, or bonded with them under the hoods of their cars.
What did he do?
He threw them higher than his head until they were weak from laughter. He cast the deciding vote on the puppy debate. He listened more than he talked. He let them make mistakes. He allowed them to fall from their first two-wheeler without having a heart attack. He read a newspaper while they were trying to parallel park a car for the first time in preparation for their driving test.
If I had to tell someone's son what a father really does that is important, it would be that he shows up for the job in good times and bad times. He's a man who is constantly being observed by his children. They learn from him how to handle adversity, anger, disappointment and success.
He won't laugh at their dreams no matter how impossible they might seem. He will dig out at 1 a.m. when one of his children runs out of gas. He will make unpopular decisions and stand by them. When he is wrong and makes a mistake, he will admit it. He sets the tone for how family members treat one another, members of the opposite sex and people who are different than they are. By example, he can instill a desire to give something back to the community when its needs are greater than theirs.
But mostly, a good father involves himself in his kids' lives. The more responsibility he has for a child, the harder it is to walk out of his life.
A father has the potential to be a powerful force in the life of a child. Grab it! Maybe you'll get a greeting card for your efforts. Maybe not. But it's steady work." -Erma Bombeck, Field Enterprises.
A man long ago was called by God to a very special destiny; To take up everything and leave the land of his ancestors, to go to a place he did not know.
God even changed his name, from Abram, to Abraham.
Abraham was childless for most his life, he and his wife Sarah were unable to have children.
God promised one day Abraham would have a child. Then Abraham waited, and waited, and waited, and soon his wife was beyond the years of being able to bear a child. And then… a miracle happened.
Abraham and Sarah received the gift of a child.
A gift from God, and a great responsibility.
But waiting would not be the last time Abraham was tested. Today, we examine the test Abraham endured, to be worthy of the great calling before him. The test of a father.
We will be in Genesis 22:1-14.
Genesis 22:1 says, “Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.”
Fathers are so important in a family. They are called to be the spiritual leader of the family, called to be an example to their children. Called to show their children who Jesus is.
With great authority comes great responsibility. So God will test Abraham. But Abraham's test is much more than simply the test of a father, though every father is tested, Abraham’s test is far greater. It is a greater test than any of us would go through, because Abraham was being tested to see if he was worthy to become the father of an entire nation; A nation chosen by God.
But I think today we can learn from Abraham’s test, for the tests we all go through, and in particularly the test of a dad with his children.
God plans to test him with the gift he’s given. He calls out to him, and Abraham answers.
Next, verse 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
What I wonder, was Abraham thinking at this moment? He gives no reply, but simply begins to obey God.
Why would God do this? Why would God say this? Or did he think to himself… God can do anything, he can even raise the dead.
One and only son. Whom you love... Remind you of anything?
Next verses 3-4: Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Abraham cuts the wood. So off they go, Abraham and Isaac, on a journey together. This would be a 3 day journey. God gives Abraham time to think about. What is the right decision? Should I obey God? Or do something else?
But they set out for the place God told him about. Notice that.
For our dads, they took us on a journey with them. They raised us, and we were born into a family we knew nothing about. But we became part of that family, because of our blood connection to it. Or because we had become part of it by adoption, or by choice.
It really is quite an amazing thing, when you think about it. Two people meet, from separate families, they fall in love, get married, they make love, and they have children. And a new family unit is formed. And those children are sheltered by that family unit, if it’s done right. Though no one does it exactly right.
But it’s a journey together. Mom and dad raise the children, and the children are swept along with the adventure of the parents, until one day the children grow up, and go off on their own adventures.
It’s the gift of life, that God gave us, the generations that go forward, blessed if they honor God, cursed if they do not.
Abraham of course, is on a different kind of journey, for three days, a journey of faith, and trust, and surrender. This is a painful journey.
Verse 5: He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Next point today, a father teaches his son or daughter to worship the living God. Abraham tells his servants, wait here, while I and Isaac go and worship God.
What does it mean to worship? It means to know God in a way that goes into our heart. Our heart knows God. Our heart longs for God. Our heart adores God. That is what worship is. This is not an easy thing to teach a child. It’s not an easy thing for us to know or understand. But if we seek it, we find it, in God.
Notice verse 6, “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.
Isaac, carried the wood, much like Jesus carried his own cross, theologians have noted. Abraham, symbolizing God the Father, carries the fire and the knife, the tools of justice and judgment.
Can you imagine what Abraham is feeling? He’s been asked to offer up his one and only son to God as a sacrifice. He knows God must come first, even before his beloved son.
Next point today, a dad, a father, a man, this is what I’ve found, after years of acting like a boy in my old life, here is the main difference between a boy and a man: A man makes repeated hard choices for the betterment of his family and his society and himself. A boy does what feels good in the moment.
Always hanging before us is the option to do something easy. To cheat. To fudge the numbers. To take something that isn’t ours. To be lazy. The biggest difference between a boy and a man, is a man, when an easy sinful choice is one option, and a harder option that hurts in the moment, but we know is right, is before us, the boy chooses the easy thing, and the man chooses the hard choice that is right.
That’s not just for men either. For anyone, often life is day by day making the right choice instead of the easy choice.
This is when you’re ready to meet a godly woman, when you’ve trained yourself to make the hard choices. My wife saw that in me. Someone who honestly tried to do the right things. But often, it takes God breaking us, before we become that person.
Next, verses 7-8: As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
God himself will provide. Such a simple concept. But it’s something a father teaches his children. God will provide.
We must teach our children that God is their provider. Or the world will teach them to rely on themselves and their own ability to climb the ladder of life.
Verse 9: “When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.”
One day, any good dad knows, he must surrender his son or daughter to God. When their child was young, they directed them, gave discipline, instruction, had a certain level of control, but one day, that child grows up, and they have to surrender them.
They’ve been taught to make the right choices, to rely on God, but, ultimately it is their choice now. Out of the nest they go, and they begin to fly on their own. And one day, they meet someone, get married, and the couple becomes pregnant, and the process continues, through the generations, it’s quite beautiful actually.
But Abraham had to surrender Isaac into God’s hands. For most parents this means letting their children make mistakes as they navigate in the world, and suffer the consequences, as they watch, and offer help, but they don’t keep swooping in to rescue, they know the child must feel some of the effects of bad choices.
For Abraham, this meant something far more intense, a great test from God, to offer his own son as a sacrifice. This is not a common test. It was meant to point us toward Jesus Christ, God the Father offering his one and only son.
Next, verses 10-11: Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
The great test of Abraham, father of a nation, is if he would allow his faith to guide him through the test. Is God trustworthy? The answer Abraham decided on was "yes."
We know from Hebrews, that Abraham reasoned in his mind that God could even raise his son again from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). So Abraham felt even if God asked him to do this, he would raise him up again.
Abraham lifts his knife, and God calls out to him. The test of a father: Can you trust your child completely into the hands of God? Completely give them over. Abraham made that choice. God comes first, not my family. Not my children. Not my friends. God is first.
Abraham trusted God so completely, he was willing to put his only beloved son into his hands. The action proved Abraham’s trust, it came from trust and fulfilled Abraham’s trust in God in the real world. As the word says, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:17).
Verse 12: “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
It was never God’s plan for Abraham to harm his son Isaac in any way. It wasn’t random or capricious either, it was something God does in our lives all the time. He says to us, OK, you say you believe this, or you’ve forgiven this person, or you’re committed to this truth, now let’s have you practice it. Somehow by doing it, the faith behind it is put into practice, and becomes complete.
Notice God says to him: Now I know that you fear God.
Next point, a godly father fears God. We’ve lost touch with this reality in the modern church, we make everything about love, which love is great, but a godly man fears God. He knows there’s a heaven and a hell, and he regards God as holy, and trembles at the holy God over him, and this motivates him in moments of temptation to resist evil and hold on to good.
Godly men, fear the Lord!
Notice this really touched God’s heart, Isaac was Abraham’s son, his only son. And this wording keeps pointing forward to Jesus, God’s only son, that God would offer as a sacrifice for our sins. And the blade would not stop, but would pierce the side of Jesus and blood would flow, for us.
The Father’s son, His only son, for us.
Next, verse 13: Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Abraham looked up. And just as he told Isaac, God will provide a sacrifice, God provides a ram, for the burnt offering. Abraham takes the ram, and offers it before the Lord. The Lord provided. After the test concludes, Abraham dared to believe, God will do what is right, even though I don’t understand this, I’m going to obey. God is proved to be true and worthy. Abraham’s faith is proven too.
Verse 14: So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Or in the Hebrew, YHWH-Jireh; literally: the Lord will see.
We know that this place where Abraham built the altar was the same place that David bought the threshing floor, and later where Solomon would build the temple of the Lord. And nearby, on a mount near Moriah, called calvary, The Lord would provide on the mountain, His son, His one and only son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for all of our sins. The knife did not stop. An angel did not call out to the executioners telling them to cease. Instead, Jesus was left alone, and died, His father in heaven, grieved terribly for his son, his only son.
Being a father is perhaps one of the greatest gifts in the universe. There is something very special about it. God invented fatherhood, and he uses it as one of the closest comparisons to what is means for God to love us and be our God, we are to call him “Father.”
And we are His children. So a dad must get a small picture of how God views us, when he views his own son or daughter. Wayward, or loyal, close or distant.
The result of all this, is that Abraham is blessed for his obedience. He trusted His Father, and His Father proved himself faithful as always. And now God declares that he will indeed make a great nation of Abraham, and he will be the father of a vast multitude, untold millions, and through his descendants the whole world would be blessed, that's speaking of Jesus. The descendants of Abraham, one in particular, named Mary, would one day give birth to the son of God... All thanks to Abraham’s faithfulness.
So in conclusion, how can we today, mimic Abraham’s actions?
Practical Application:
-Keep God first
-Train your children in the way they should go
-Be brave, be bold
-Dare to believe
-Make and bear hard choices – a man makes hard choices
-Let go of control – dad can’t control his kids – train, not control
-Your words matter, actions must match, or they prove a lack of faith.
-Fear God
-Surrender our children to God, their future is in God’s hands
-Jesus is the sacrifice we need and they need. But they must choose it on their own terms.
