Abraham:
Man with a Promise
Hebrews 11 has earned the
reputation as the “Faith Chapter” of scripture. There is no
disputing that distinction. But often overlooked is the inseparable
connection Hebrews 11 makes between the faith of the believer and the
promises of God. In addition to the twenty-one mentions of faith are
seven mentions of promise. If faith is the rope a ship utilizes to
tether itself to a dock, the promise of God is the dock to which a ship
moors itself. The stability of the ship depends upon the immovability
of the dock. The purpose of this document is to examine the dynamic and
inseparable relationship between faith and promises as disclosed in
Hebrews 11, especially as it pertains to Abraham and Isaac.
Our text is Hebrews 11:17-19:
“By faith Abraham, when he was
tried,
offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his
only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be
called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
Several observations are in order.
The first is what scripture says about Abraham having received the
promises. This may seem like a contradiction with other
verses stating
OT saints had not received the promises (11:13,39). In the context, the
overriding promise is the coming of Christ. We know this because (1)
“seed” is singular, and (2) Galatians 3:16 explains the singular form:
“Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made. He saith not, And
to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
Abraham was among those OT saints who had not received the promise of
Christ. But he did receive the promise of Isaac, a promise God made to
him and no one else.
The second is the phrase he [Abraham] received him
[Isaac] in a figure
(11:19). We should understand this in the same sense expressed in
11:35: "Women
received their dead raised to life again." In the
mind of
Abraham, he had already received Isaac back from the dead BEFORE he
ever set out for Mount Moriah. In Genesis 22:1-8, scripture states five
times God required Abraham to offer Isaac as a “burnt offering”
(22:2,3,6,7,8). Abraham was expecting God to raise the BURNT body of
Isaac, not just his DEAD body. In The Terminator
(1984), one of its
final scenes shows the cyborg walking out of a fiery truck explosion.
The cyborg, however, walked out without its external flesh. The
resurrection of Isaac, with every body part restored, would have been
far more dramatic.
The third is the word figure. It's παραβολή (parabolē),
“a placing of
one thing alongside another, a juxtaposition, for the purpose of
comparison; an example by which a doctrine or precept is illustrated.”
The English “parable” comes from this root. A parable is often
described as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. In retrospect,
the offering up of Isaac by Abraham was a parable, a side-by-side
comparison, of what God would do with his own Son at the same location
2,000 years later. The heavenly meaning behind this earthly story
prefigured what God the Father was going to do with his only begotten
Son, the Lord Jesus, in making him a sin offering for us!
The fourth is the phrase God was able. It's
instructive for us to
consider this phrase in light of two other relevant passages. In John
11, Jesus reasoned with Mary and Martha concerning their dead brother
Lazarus. He sought to make this point: “If you fully understood who it
is that now stands in your midst (i.e., the RESURRECTION and the LIFE),
you'd know—yea, believe—that LIFE is not out of reach for your DEAD
brother!” No such reasoning was required with Abraham. He reckoned
Isaac offered up and resurrected before he began his three-day trek to
Mount Moriah. In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, facing a
fiery furnace and willing to die for their faith, believed God was able
to deliver (3:17), but had no assurance of deliverance. With Abraham,
however, the belief in God's ability coupled with a promise guaranteed
the resurrection of Isaac. When Abraham and Isaac got within eyeshot of
Moriah, Abraham spoke thusly to his young men: “Abide ye here with the
ass; and I and the lad [WE] will go yonder and worship, and [WE will]
come again to you.” There was never a doubt in Abraham's
mind about the
outcome of offering up Isaac.
The fifth is perhaps the most
important. We're told twice Abraham
“offered up” Isaac, his only begotten son. The dual mention is
instructive in that scripture uses two different verb tenses. In the
first instance, the writer uses the perfect
tense. In the second, he
employs the imperfect
tense. The perfect tense signifies past action
with abiding results. The imperfect signifies durative action in time
past. The use of two different verb tenses to describe the same act
teaches a great truth about the will of God as to the knowing of it and
the doing of it.
Let me try to illustrate. A technical
writer is often tasked with
composing both policy and process documents. In a policy document, he
sets forth WHAT the company will do in terms of conducting its
business. In a process document, he sets forth HOW the company will
carry out its policy in terms of the actors and actions
they take
during policy implementation. In Genesis 22:2, God commanded Abraham to
offer up Isaac as a burnt offering. That command, which constituted the
will of God, became policy for Abraham, which is reflected in the
perfect tense. In 22:3-10, scripture describes the actions Abraham took
over the next three days to implement the policy, which is reflected in
the imperfect tense. Those actions included saddling of an ass,
recruiting two of his young men, gathering fire wood, traveling by foot
forty-five miles to Moriah, preparing a fire, building an altar,
binding his son Isaac and laying him on the altar. The perfect and
imperfect tenses in Hebrews 11:17-19 convey perfectly the unfolding of
events in Genesis 22:1-10. The carrying out of the will of God in
offering up Isaac consisted of both policy and process.
Why is it so important to understand
this dynamic? It's absolutely
fundamental to the concept of discipleship! In a nutshell, discipleship
for the child of God is studying the scriptures to discover what the
will of God is (policy) and then relying upon the indwelling Spirit to
guide him into those activities whereby the policy becomes part of his
everyday living (process). In John 13:17, after delivering to his
disciples a benchmark lesson in servanthood, Jesus said: “If ye KNOW
these things [policy], happy are ye if ye DO them [process].” The
overwhelming need for revival in our churches today is evidenced by so
many who have mastered the policy without engaging in
the process. They have come to KNOW a lot of stuff, but have
failed to DO
much of it.
In closing, we'll quote two passages
related to promises. In 2
Corinthians 1:20, we read: “For
all the PROMISES of God in him are yea,
and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Unlike the
Mosaic Law,
which is largely prohibitive, all the promises of God in Christ are
affirmative. One of the sad realities in many churches today is the
imposition of prohibitions upon new converts and calling it
discipleship. You can do no greater harm to one newly saved by GRACE
than to teach him to live under LAW. In 2 Peter 1:4a, we read: “Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious PROMISES: that by these
ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” The walk of
faith anchored
in God's promises enables one to partake of the nature of God himself
as he grows in grace and becomes more like the Lord Jesus. The
Christian life is an affirmative life. It's a life of power rooted in
promises, not prohibitions.
Hebrews 11 is without doubt the Faith
Chapter of scripture. But it is
every bit the Promise Chapter as well. Faith is never a standalone
commodity. Faith has the God of promise as its object. God has vested
his very character in his promises, which is why a promise of God can
never fail for one who believes it! It's why exercising faith that
rests upon a promise of God can never disappoint. Abraham was such a
man, a man with a promise. Hebrews 11 teaches us the believer with a
promise is the richest man on the planet, capable of seeing with
spiritual eyes what the world can never see. To express it another way,
a man like Bill Gates would be RICHER with just one of our promises
than we would be with one of his millions!
Top
|