Abraham, Tested for Growth
God used Abraham to teach and to illustrate key
doctrines. One of the important things that we as believers need to understand
as we read our Bibles is that God gave these examples, these stories, these
episodes to us in order to be examples. 1 Corinthians 10:1-3, all these things
happened as a type, an example for us. Our ultimate goal is to think
biblically. We are to renovate our
thinking, not to think as the world thinks but to think according to Scripture.
When we look at people like Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, we think
about these as real flesh and blood individuals who are facing the same kind of
problems and difficulties—marriage problems, parental problems, children
problems--that we face. And we ask how they handled those problems. How did
they succeed and in what ways did they fail, in what ways were they an example
to us? By being familiar with these people, the episodes, the events gives us
the framework to be able to analyze what they did, what they didn’t do, how
they used the promises, so that that then becomes a pattern for us. So then
when we come to similar situations and events in our life we can say, Wait a
minute, this fits that situation that David had over here, that Abraham over
here, and how did they do it? That is why these narratives from the Old
Testament really carry such weight. When we come to the New Testament it has
didactic literature that teaches specific doctrines and principles in one form,
but the examples, the flesh and blood, the outworking in the lives of people is
what we find in the Old Testament.
And this is the way we teach
doctrine to kids. With children you don’t just teach rote doctrine of theology,
the abstract, but you take the lives of these people and use these to teach
more abstract doctrine or theological principles that we find in the New
Testament.
So we come to Abraham and ask the
question: How is the life of Abraham utilized in the New Testament to
illustrate and teach certain key doctrines. In Hebrews 11:8 we see that it is
by faith, i.e. by trusting in certain doctrines. When we look at the words “by
faith” in Hebrews 11 it is not simply by the act of trusting. Trusting what? It
is not this faith in faith concept that so many people think about, that you
just believe and everything will be okay. No, it is not just believe; it is
believe in doctrine, trusting doctrine. So it is the active sense of trusting
something but it also has to do with that which is trusted, that body of
doctrine that is applied. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into
a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went
out, not knowing where he went.” That is the start of his spiritual advance. It
was his first test. Then in verse 9 we read, “By faith he sojourned in the land
of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” So he is able to live in his
present reality without having a permanent home, without having ownership of
the land, and he lived in light of a promise that he never saw fulfilled in his
lifetime. It was so real to him that it defined his day-to-day existence. But
he had to get there, and that is the process of his spiritual growth.
James 2:21, “Was not Abraham our
father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”
That is that vindication that came at the end of his life.
James 2:22, “Then, do you see that
faith is working together with his works [application], and by works was faith
made perfect [mature]?” The hearer of the Word, i.e. the person who is
listening to the teaching of the Word, needs to be a doer, i.e. an applier of
the Word. He believes it and that leads to works or application. So it is by
application that one’s faith is matured. The word “perfect” is the word TELEIOO [teleiow], a key word.
“And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was
imputed unto him for righteousness.” That is phase one when he first trusts
Christ. The vindication of his faith occurs at the end with his obedience to
God and the willingness to sacrifice Isaac. That concept of TELEIOO, of maturity, is crucial and it is rooted in James. The reason we have
this illustration of Abraham at the end of James chapter two is that it is a
development of the theme that is laid out in the first four verses of James
chapter one. He says, “My brethren, count it [add it all up] all joy”—
when you reach the summation of all the events in your life the conclusion is
joy—“when you fall into various trials [tests, difficulties,
adversities].” Why? Because you know something. It is really an adverbial
participle in the Greek that has a causal sense. You are able to count it joy
because you know certain doctrines in your soul. So it is on the basis of
knowledge that you are able to apply doctrine to these tests that you fall
into. James 2:3, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith [Doctrine in the
soul] produces endurance [HUPOMONE, u(pomonh].” This is a
process, a procedure that we go through. James 2:4, “But let endurance have its
maturing [TELEIOO=faith is perfected/matured by works] work, that ye may
be mature and complete [in the spiritual life], lacking nothing.” The
application of doctrine is because of what you know when you have a test. As
you endure, that produces maturity.
So how did Abraham get from point A
to point Z? Test, test, test, test, test. That is done by walking by faith, as
illustrated in those verses Hebrews 11:8-12. That is the mechanics, trusting in
God. So he is the illustration of the faith-rest drill as he moves from point A
to point Z, and that comes through application of doctrine.
The first test was to go to a new
land and to leave the family behind. To understand the tests we have to go back
and understand the framework, the Abrahamic covenant. The positional promises
that God gave Abraham are reduced to three: land, seed, and blessing. The tests
all relate to one of those three promises. In terms of our position in Christ,
how many aspects are there to that positional grace provision? We have all
learned that God gave us forty things. That is our positional reality—all
those things that God did for us, that we are blessed with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies, which is a lot more than forty. So the tests that
we encounter are going to be tests related to understanding what God gave us at
the instant of salvation, because those are our eternal possessions that can
never be taken away from us. So just as God tested Abraham with regard to the
three components of that promise—land, seed, and blessing—we are
going to get testing in relationship to understanding all of the dynamics of
the Christian life in terms of what God has done for us in adopting us into the
royal family, and all the aspects related to salvation—redemption,
propitiation, reconciliation, aspects related to the Holy Spirit, His indwelling,
baptism, sealing, filling, plus the fact that we are also indwelled by Jesus
Christ, all these things. That is what we are going to be tested on. So that
means that before we have the test we are supposed to acquire the knowledge. We
learn in first and then apply it.
So the first test is to go to a new
land. Is he really going to trust God to provide for him in the geographical
place that God has provided for him? We know that he was a little hesitant in
trusting God at first, so he goes to Haran first and is there for probably
fifteen years or more, and then he moves on to the land finally.
Then he gets tested in relation to
the land. Genesis 12:7, “And the LORD appeared unto
Abram, and said, Unto your seed will I give this land: and there built he an
altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.” This is after he arrives in
the land, and this is the second statement of the land promise. Is he going to
trust God and stay in the land when the famine comes, or is he going to try to
solve the problem on his own? He tried to solve the problem on his own, which
is what you and I do. Abraham is down in Egypt and out of fellowship, and God
is just multiplying his wealth! When he finally leaves Egypt he is wealthy,
even though he has failed in his spiritual test, but he has picked up certain
things that will be the basis for further tests. That is just what happens with
us. But Abraham and Lot become so wealthy that when they get back to the land,
which has a famine problem, the land which God has promised him can’t support
them. So now there is going to be this family rivalry.
We often have all kinds of tests in
life. We have tests of things that are just inconvenient, we have to deal with
people who are just not doing the job the way they should, we have to deal with
bureaucracies and systems, we have health testing, financial testing, testing
in the area of grief or loss, weather disasters—all of these things that
can happen, and we have to decide how we are going to respond to each one. The
issue there is always how we are going to choose to handle the situation. We
can either handle it through human viewpoint or we trust the Lord, so that the
foundation of all of our problem solving is really the faith-rest drill, and
that leads to the use of one of the ten problem-solving devices. That is divine
viewpoint. If we go to human viewpoint we just forget trust, forget faith-rest
drill, and we operate on human viewpoint. We work out really good
rationalizations for what we are doing. It sounds good, and it may have a lot
of truth in it. In Job, if you look at the statements made by Eliphaz and by
Bildad and by Zophar there are a lot of things that they say that are right,
but their structure is wrong, their framework is wrong. That is why it is so
important to have a framework of biblical doctrine because even though you have
components within your framework that are true if they are not put together in
the right structure the structure is not going to hold weight. There are verses
in Job that can be pulled out and we say it is a great statement; it is true.
But of you look at the context he has positioned it within a faulty argument.
In a case like that a person is mixing truth with error. And that is what we
all do. We rationalize, we justify. For example, Abraham when he told Abimelech
Sarah was his sister: “My life is going to be threatened here, I have to
protect myself, don’t I?” That was his rationale. It is just human viewpoint
trying to solve life’s problems without really trusting God. So we develop the
strategies that get very complex to protect ourselves from perceived danger,
loss, whatever we think that the threat is; and they all just come out of our
sin nature. We see that Abraham has to go through this process because in the
early stages here he is half obeying and half failing. But in that incremental
stage he learns a little bit more each time about the trustworthiness of
God.
This is really illustrated in Lot
because Lot is so arrogant that all he can focus on is the temporal reality.
Abraham, when he comes to the third test when Lot’s servants and his servants
are fighting against each other and he says that the land is too small to
support both of them, Abraham has learned from the previous test. The previous
test he flunked. He didn’t respond by trusting God (no faith-rest drill); he
didn’t respond by grace orientation. He didn’t recognize that God had
graciously given him the land therefore God would graciously provide for him in
the land even though there was a famine. Now he is back in the land and he
still has a famine problem, and now he has a people-testing problem because Lot
and his servants are causing problems, but Lot is totally self-absorbed and he
is focusing on temporal reality. Abraham has learned to be gracious, so he says
take your pick of the land. Lot is willing to sacrifice his whole spiritual
life so that he can live in the right place, and he wanted to be there because
that’s where the entertainment was, where the action was, and where the city life
of his day was. So he is going to justify it in his mind and that leads to
self-deception where he is completely divorced from reality. We really saw that
picture when judgment eventually came on Sodom because his wife just doesn’t
want to leave. She looks back; she just can’t pull herself back from all the
carnality and all the attractions of the cosmic system. So God judges her for
that.
We learned about the arrogance
skills and the whole cycle from self-absorption, self-indulgence,
self-justification, self-deception to self-deification where we become our own
god. That is the same process that is illustrated in Romans chapter one, and if
we don’t break this cycle through confession of sin and humility, realizing
what God has done for us and humbling ourselves through the mighty hand of
God—1 Peter 5:5-7—then we are just going to continue to deteriorate
until our lives just fragment, and then we get the natural consequences
intensified by divine discipline.
So the third test was the test to
treat Lot with grace and generosity, and again it is related to the land. And
when it is over with he passes the test God takes him aside and, at the end of
chapter thirteen, and says, Walk in the land in its length and width for I give
it to you. So God praises him for passing the test.
Then we come to the fourth test,
which is related to blessing. Abraham is mandated to be a blessing to those
around him. We see the invasion of the four kings. So the test is going to be
related blessing and to grace orientation. Is he going to deal with his pagan
neighbors and with stupid Lot on the basis of grace and on the basis of God’s
character rather than his character? He passed that test and demonstrated that
he can be a blessing to his pagan neighbors. And that is an interesting example
to us, that we can be good and kind to the pagans in our environment who are
completely hostile to everything that we stand for.
Then the fifth test which was the
test to express his gratitude to God. That is when he returned to Salem and he
meets Melchizedek, the king of Salem. Melchizedek represents a royal priest,
and he is going to be the type of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
in this event Abraham has had a victory and so gets to express his gratitude to
God and does so by giving the tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek as an offering
of gratitude to God for what He has done. He also refuses to take anything from
the king of Sodom because he wants to make it very clear that his victory and
his involvement in the battle was related to his obedience to God and he didn’t
have anything to do with the perverts in Sodom.
The sixth test in chapter fifteen is again related to
the seed. It has been some time now since God
promised Abraham descendants, and it hasn’t happened
yet. Abraham was apparently beginning
to worry about this a little bit, so God comes along
in chapter fifteen and He gives him a
command. That is how we know it was a
Test. When there is a command then there is a test
related to obedience to the command. Genesis
15:1, “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great
reward.” It is in his chapter that He makes it
clear that the descendant will come from his own body;
it won’t be through his servant. The
covenant is cut at this point.
The next test is related to the seed again, in chapter
sixteen. This time it is, Are we going to trust
God to provide the seed through Abraham and Sarah or
are we going to try to make another
human viewpoint end run? This was the incident with
Hagar resulting in the birth of Ishmael who
becomes the father of a certain segment of Arab
tribes, and this is where the whole Arab-Israeli
conflict had its beginning. So he fails that test.
Rather than sticking with it, persevering, and
trusting in God no matter how impossible it seemed
that Sarah could have a child, he gave in to
human viewpoint rationalization.
Then we have another test related to the seed in
chapter seventeen. Here the covenant is
reconfirmed, but now a sign is going to be given of
the covenant, the sign of circumcision. This is
going to be a picture of sanctification, the removal
of the influence of the flesh, the sin nature. He
trusts God and he and all those in his household are
circumcised. Again, God reconfirms the
covenant with him and He states in addition that it is
going to be with Sarah and that He will
establish the covenant with his son, Isaac. So the
contract is expanded even further.
A ninth test comes in chapter eighteen and again this
relates to blessing. Three visitors show up.
One is the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ and the
other two are angels. He is very hospitable to
his visitors and so he passes the grace orientation
test. Another test in the chapter follows and this
is again a test of grace orientation. God is going to
take Abraham into His confidence and tell him
that He is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the
cities of the plain. That is where
Lot lives and so it is a test to see if Abraham is
going to exercise impersonal love towards Lot.
But Abraham passed the test, he has functioned
honorably, he has passed the test of being a
blessing to his undeserving neighbors and relatives,
and he has dealt with them in grace.
The eleventh test occurs in Genesis chapter twenty,
and again it relates to the seed. How is he
going to protect the seed? Is he going to continue to
trust God? Sarah still isn’t pregnant, so now
they go to live in Philistia,
in Gerar, and Abraham lies about Sarah being his wife again. Why?
Because he is afraid for his life. Rather than trusting
God he is afraid somebody is going to kill
him and take Sarah for his wife. So he fails the test,
but he is learning. He is learning that God is
the one who is going to protect him, and no matter
what that seed is coming, the child is going to
be born through Sarah, and in chapter 21 Isaac is
born. And again there is a test to protect the
seed. Now there would be the threat of rivalry between
Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael and Hagar are
sent away to protect the inheritance and the seed.
Abraham’s final exam is in chapter twenty-two where
God tells him to take Isaac the promised
son to Mount Moriah
and to sacrifice him. So again it is a test related to the seed, it is a test
related to the faith-rest drill, and it is a test
related to his personal love for God. Is the promise of
God more real to him than his circumstances? Does he
love God so much that he will do anything
that God
asks him to do, even it means to take the life of his cherished son he had
waited for for
so long? He reasons though, based on Hebrews eleven,
that because God had promised that he
was going to have a multitude of descendants through
Isaac, therefore God, who has always
been true to His Word, must be true to this word. Even
if he killed Isaac God could bring him
back to life, so that was what he thought God was
going to do. So he never gives it a second
thought, he takes Isaac to Moriah, lays him out on the
altar, comes to the point where he is going
to kill Isaac. God stops him, and he has demonstrated
that he is trusting God no matter what. And
God provided a substitute, a perfect picture of
salvation, that Jesus Christ is our substitute.
Abraham passes these tests, according to Hebrews 11:10,
because he had a future focus. The
reality of God’s plan for him in the future was
greater than his present circumstances. And that is
the challenge to us, to grow to that point where no
matter what is going on in our life this is only
temporary; it is only this world. It is a future world
that He has prepared for us that He is
preparing us for, and we have to go through these
tests just as Abraham did and every other
believer does in order to have the capacity to
properly function in terms of the responsibility and
the privileges that God is going to give us to reign
as kings and priests in the millennial kingdom.
Abraham pictures that.