Abraham

February 5, 2023 · Ben Hoyer · 30:01

Continuing the Genesis series, this message takes up the difficult story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac, framed by a personal account of a coworker who stumbled over how God could test Abraham that way, and traces Abraham's journey from Haran.

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So we're moving through this book of Genesis. And I don't know, like, when we laid out these weeks, I was thinking, let's go through the major stories of Genesis. I really like them. But I hadn't really, like, announced these stories, maybe ever. Like, I hadn't really proclaimed these stories. And they're kind of tough.

Like, we're talking about how brutal the flood is, how interesting Paul's battle is. In this story, it was like, we were trying to figure out what to do with the kids Kendall and I as of the beginning of the year. So I had said this week, we'll talk about Abraham. And Kendall was like, cool, cool. Which story about Abraham? So I can come up with the left for the kids. I was like, oh, yeah, we should pick one. Let's see, Abraham, I think, sacrifice the choice. That's great.

And then I got into it and that's tough story. When I was right at the tail end of college, and then one year ago, Megan got a master's degree, I worked as a maintenance man at a partner complex for a while. And Gainesville is right close to a state person. And so my supervisor had ended up in Gainesville

because he got out of prison for zero. And he said he didn't do it, Danny, so I crushed him. But so he was an interesting guy, his name was Paul. But when I saw this during this morning, I saw another guy saying, Jay, I really liked Jay, Jay was a little bit taller than me and way less than I do right now. He was probably six foot, one shoulder, you can imagine.

And he had long, blonde hair and always wore a ball cap and was missing most of his teeth. He had done enough LFC that it had come through and worn out most of his teeth. And Jay was super nice guy. He was past yellow teeth because he had a kid. It kind of sobered him up. And almost every day, Jay would drink a whole pot of coffee,

but he would mix in with milk into it. And he said it was his mocha. He would drink at least one pot of coffee. And he said it filled the sun that goes through that he had from the heart of my people. The reason I liked Jay is because the other guys there were not really common. Like Jay was really common. And so he and I would have conversations and I thought it was so interesting because of Toy City

Navy. He kept several, remember the late 80s, Iraq and he, the La Paniac, he would teach three of them so that he had one of them working all the time. He thought it was always like a primer gray. You know, you never knew which one he was driving. And he was really proud of it. And we got talking about space one time. You guys were always interested that I would be at school and be a religion major and be 22 years old and married.

You know, they didn't ever really understand that. So once we got known to a little bit there, we'd always be conversations about what the heck are you doing, what the heck are you thinking. And when I got into conversation with Jay, it was so interesting. He thought, I can't believe in God who would play with Abraham and like that. That was his hang-up. It wasn't creation. It was a holiness. It was that was a real jerk move to do to Abraham.

Right? And when you look at the stories, Abraham, it totally feels that way. When Abraham is 75 years old, he leaves Hurrah. And if you read back in the story, when Abraham was a kid, his dad gets on the movement, head towards Canaan. So Abraham and his siblings are walking with their family, coming from further south, up over around the fertile crisis.

It's a stay where it's before he gets to desert, you know? He moves up and then over and they're going to head to Canaan. Abraham, that's his family. And his dad gets to burn. And he starts paying into the long way of life. This seems pretty nice. Let's stay here. And as when Abraham gets old enough, God calls him. And Abraham does this crazy thing where God calls him. And we don't really know God's relationship to Abraham's dad.

Did Abraham grow up knowing about the God of creation in life? Like, obviously, Abraham's the first of our patriarchs. So in the system, the God that calls Abraham is known simply as the God of creation and life. And so we don't know if he'd ever heard from God before. But God calls Abraham, he's the Abraham at the time, calls Abraham to leave her and go to Canaan. And it's compelling that Abraham does. And also, I don't know that Abraham had many other options, actually.

He's 75 and his wife is a couple of years younger and they haven't had any kids. And so he may have gotten a little bit of inheritance divided amongst the siblings from his dad, but not enough to really build some wealth on him. If he doesn't have kids, he can't take any care of more livestock. And his options are a little limited. And so the God is offering him something. And so the unique characteristic of Abraham over and over again is when God says, hey, I'd like to give you something, Abraham says, cool, I'll take it.

That's about Abraham's redeeming quality. That's a bad guy. I don't know if he was a good guy or a bad guy. But but Abraham's critical, he becomes a hero of the faith, a patriarch with whom God identifies. Because I will forever be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Abraham, Abraham becoming Abraham's defining characteristic is God says, I'd like to give you things. And Abraham says, cool, I'll take it.

And this shouldn't surprise us when we look at the story of creation and the indication to Adam and Eve. When we look at the story of Noah and the impetus of Babel, God is forever trying to just get evil. This is just what may be the God instead of you. Forever, that's what God wants. He's like, I had created humanity and earth. It all works well together. God, people, earth. The system works well when we all play our part.

We have a realistic expectation and understanding of who we are in the world. But humanity continues to say, I can see you to offer me something. I can find better on my own. The fruit, the tower, whatever, the desires of my heart, whatever. Abram, in here, and God says, I'd like to give you land, offspring, blessing, anything. And for two men, that sounds good. Take that. Abram's defying quality. Leads at 70 times.

If you were to follow the story from Genesis 12 through the 23 years where the story of Isaac and the mountain and the sacrifice come, a lot happens. He's on the movement, 25 years between leaving parents and having Isaac, 25 years. He walks through Canaan. Build the Temple of Alters has a couple more common things to us guys. So you remember, it's got someone who takes this land. Cool, build the Alte here.

Thank you. Got someone who takes this land in between Bethel and A. I will build the Alte here. Thank you. Goes to a famine. One of the cool things, one time and another time, you can look at the story of Scripture. How many times Israel goes down into Egypt for protection? The attack is over and over again. Abram and Sarah go down. And as evidence of Abram limited the deenying qualities, when he goes into Egypt, he's like, Sarah, I know you're 70, but you are so beautiful.

The Egyptians will kill me to be able to marry you. Let's pretend you're my sister. He does that twice before Isaac. Before Isaac. Once was the Egyptians, once was Abin-Yah. Both times Pharaoh and the Bibles act. Both times the guys that take her as a wife then come back and go, wait, you've got to call me. You were married to her. Take her back and leave. Both of them, they send to Abram with more stuff.

So when he leaves Egypt, he has more hers, more money. Pharaoh's like, just go, take this stuff with you. And go, I don't need God coming down on me. Sounds like protecting Abraham. Providing for him. Why? Because Abram said, take it. Like, the compelling thing about Abram and God

is how one side of the relationship is. I told you last is about that Hebrew professor I had that talks me about the power of Babel and talks about the ridiculous piece of God coming down. And yet another one, he was Abraham that famous time when God was making this covenant with Abraham and they cut all the animals and they walked through. And he makes Abraham fall into a deep sleep. And he blew a tardam. I don't remember what tard or daima means.

Other than you put them together and it means deep sleep. Because I can remember professors left him yelling at us, tardam. Abraham was in a tardam. We do nothing. God does everything. God says, I'll give you everything. Here, you say on this side of the animals, he puts Abraham in a deep sleep on this fire representing the presence of God, walked between the two animals on his own. Classic ancient Near Eastern covenant system where they're forced to both walk through the animals.

And so you make a covenant to each other. But when God comes with Abraham, Abraham stares on one side. He keeps Abraham, does nothing. God does everything. And the unique quality of Abraham is he's ready to roll with it. He's like, look, I don't have to be the God in there. I hope it's take what you have to give me. All right, find me. So when they leave, he gets all that stuff from Egypt. Now they're moving out. Now they've got to stuff men.

Abraham and Sarah are like probably late 80s, early 90s as they leave Egypt. It's a long time to have lived right on the edge. They've been moving for the last 20 years, like nomads, or living on the edge of subsistence. Now they leave Egypt, she spends time with Pharaoh's house, and they leave with a bunch of Pharaoh's wealth. Now they're in this land. They walk by the altars that they built the first time

they came through. They've got the month. Pharaoh thought this is going good. Everything is coming except for no children. Let's just, I've got a servant. Let's just get a kid in line. Because now we've got enough to pass on. We should pay attention to this. The responsible move is to keep our basis covered. I know God said he'd give us one, but look, we've got some money. We've got some service. We've got some things.

We can take care of it ourselves. God is slow. We can be quick. Right? That's when they have, that's when Hagar, and what's going to be good Hagar to Abraham, and they have Islam. Because everything is looking up, and they have some agency, so they take the deal into their own hands. That's what happens. And so then, like, of course, that was a mistake. Because whatever God is able to give,

it's better than we can make on our own. I mean, it's just it. And this is tricky because we're not no mad on the desert. You know what I mean? The first trip I made to the guys we buy coffee from

in Guatemala, I mean, maybe probably a lot of you have been to developing countries. Then when your day is spent growing the foods you will eat, your outlook on life is different. It just is. When you're like raising the animals that will sustain you and the people around you, your outlook on life is different.

Money doesn't make us any safer. It just makes us feel better. So, Abraham and Sarah got some money under their belt, and now, all of a sudden, they thought they can solve things that before they figured out how to solve. And that's why tricky for us, I think, is tricky for us. Because we can just fight. Make stuff and build stuff.

We can take care of it. Now, we will let you know, but we figured out the kids thing. Don't worry about it. That's like, did you really? I mean, Hagar is wonderful, and I will take care of her, right? He said he didn't take care of her. And he'd block you there and still be Israel the father of a whole nation. He's like, but I would include something different. If I had to missal or disregard, I'll take care of them. But I had made a promise of you.

And I take care of my promises. I did not make the promise of Hagar. I made the promise of Sarah. Free name for Sarah. A little breath of God in there. Put the breath of God in Abraham as well. So when Isaac finally comes on the scene, it is, oh, it's special. What I didn't even write is it right, because he means laughter. They couldn't believe it. I don't know if you've had situations like that.

I've had situations like that. I was working now with this friend, Nathan, who's taken over a management of the coffee shop. And he rode up to condo where he rode the coffee on his bike the other day. And I was like, how's it going, man? It's going great. Nathan is managing both the coffee shop working as a way to illustrate his growth thing.

He's changing all of our origins. It's like, I just, I mean, this sort of version of what he said is, I just am on my bike riding the team from coffee shop that I own coming to the grocery coffee that we imported from people that we know. Life is pretty good. And for me, I can't remember being an exact same spot. Riding my bike with me, coffee shop that I own, coming to the grocery coffee from some people that I bought from some people that I know.

I can't believe this is my life. And now, what was so cool for me was that I can't believe I'm in a position to help just be his life, too. I'm a viewer of, as you've ever paused to consider the spot that you found yourself in, go, look, I would not have ever known to be in this spot right here. I mean, I can think of several. I remember when we got into our house. I couldn't believe I would ever have a house like that.

I remember when I got married. I could not believe I would ever have a wife, or I think. Several times standing here, I thought, I could not ever believe that you would get to have a church like this. I was just telling our officials the other day, like going through losing my dad and having a church to the place I wanted to be. I can never imagine that God would be so generous. Can you imagine when Abraham and Sarah, 199,

through Heron and Canaan and Egypt and Heron and Bessel and Aya, like through it all, through law and through Abimalek and through it all and then Isaac? Holy smoke. Now, here's the trick for them, the kids of church. Incredible. Can't believe it.

Yeah? They figured out Isaac. Right after we opened the first coffee shop, which I had no business openings, been open for a year, the Orlando Technolight, the Winter World War, and I had made some friends at Rollins, and all of a sudden, these NBA students from Cramer were coming to write, they had to write a paper on a business model, asking me about my business model. My business model looked like, is there enough money in the bank to buy some milk for today to put on the counter?

Like, people who have led her in the drawer would be tough at the end of the day. To spend less money than you're making, that's your goal. And the NBA's were coming. And do you know, for a minute, I was like, you guys could go right on somebody else, but they kept coming off me and said, you know, I just started making stuff up. Like here's what you got to do, you know? You got to understand the customer. And you got to pay attention. And you got to design the space for your demographic.

And you got to understand, I just started making stuff up. And pretty soon, it would be easy for me to have made the case and believe to myself that I made a class of the Cramer Shop that made it happen. So I knew nothing. The truth is, God just gave me a Cramer Shop. I said, OK, I'll take it. You know how easy it would be for Abraham and Sarah to go? Wow, you finally did something right here.

We had been waiting and waiting, lost the practice, lost the idea. But you know what? On 100, 299, we nailed it. We'll take the kid and go from here. That's what the story is about. How knows what he's doing? Kids were sacrificed to God's all the place in the internet. Terrible and curved.

And there's always those clues, if you look at the story, that Abraham had some idea that maybe something would be different if he'd read it one way or another. You know, you're walking with servants. There was a three-day journey with carrying the firewood and all the stuff. And he said that he carried the fire. I noticed that. I was thinking about how hard it must have been to start a fire in like the arid environment. There's only so much lumber. No wonder they cut the wood for the fire and bring it with them for three days, because you never know if you're going to see it.

There's enough wood to build a fire to burn a sacrifice. That would be a lot of wood. And they started firing somewhere and you'd keep it going. Like, don't let that fire die out. So they bring all this firewood and the firewood for the sacrifice, how he forgets three days. And then he tells the servants to stay here. Me and the boy will go. We'll work with God and he says, and we'll come back and see her a little bit. Now maybe he just didn't want to tell them that he was going to kill a son, sacrifice this son.

Or maybe he thought some way God will make it so that we come back because God's already made the promise through Isaac. But the point is, not always knew what he was doing. Abraham, I don't think he. What he knew is God gives me good things. And I'd rather go with God than the solutions I can create for Abraham's ! That's what happened there. That's what happened there. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships.

We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about, you know, for different relationships. We can talk about Abraham's notion that maybe Isaac would be raised to something. Some people say that. But like the point is, God is pushing Abraham to go, do you count on me or the stuff?

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