God Sees To It - Genesis 22

I want you to think for a moment about a phrase that people often use when they want something done a certain way, and when they want to be sure that things are done according to their own specifications, according to their own expectations. Maybe you’ve used this phrase when you want to be sure something is “done right.”

This is the phrase: “I’ll see to it myself.” Do you know this phrase? Do you know the spirit of it? “I’ll see to it myself that the boss gets your application.” “I’ll see to it myself that everything arrives on time.” “I’ll see to it myself that he or she does what they are supposed to do.” When we say this, we reveal that the thing is very important to us.

This phrase comes to mind as we read Genesis 22, especially the verses that scholars consider to be the pivotal point in the passage. And we learn that there are things that God sees to Himself, things that He wants done according to His specifications, according to His expectations.

In the NT, Ephesians 1 says that God “works all things according to the counsel of His will.” All things according to His divine plan. And the OT speaks to this also. Proverbs 16, for instance, says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” That sounds as if while we’re seeing to our plan, God is seeing to His plan, and His plan is the final authority in all matters.

We often think that we have the final say in any situation where we make a choice. If we have a choice to make, then the future must be in our hands, right? But the Scriptures teach that God has the final say. His plan supersedes our plans. And even as we make our own decisions, God is working out what He always planned to do.

We shouldn’t think that His plan might be fulfilled. No - it will be fulfilled. This is God’s world; He has a plan and will He see to its completion Himself. And as He sees to the completion of His plan, He will see to a couple things made clear in Genesis 22: You can see them summarized for you on pages 6 and 7 in the WG: God sees to the proving of all who are called according to His purpose, and God sees to the provision of all that is needed to fulfill His plan.

Now notice verse [1] again. After these things God tested Abraham. God is not enticing Abraham to sin; He is not tempting him. The meaning here is that God “tried” Abraham; He was proving what was in Abraham.

These circumstances will reveal the condition of Abraham’s heart. God’s testing demonstrates the existence of character and faithfulness within a person. God does this repeatedly with His people. He later does this with the Israelites.

In Deuteronomy 8 in the OT, Moses tells the people, “the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” In Psalm 26, King David says to God, “Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind.”

And then in the NT, James the brother of Jesus tells the churches, “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” In other words, trials “prove” our faith and this “proving” results in endurance; it results in this perseverance that glorifies God.

There must be evidence of true faith.

You should understand this: every believer must be tested in his or her life. God does not tempt His people. James clarifies that. We are vulnerable to temptation, and we will be tempted to disobey God, or to give up or give in to sinful desire in difficult times, but God is not tempting us.

He does, however, submit us to testing over the course of our lives.

And for Abraham, there was no greater test than this one concerning his dear son Isaac. God calls to Abraham and says, verse 2, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” Abraham does have another son, Ishmael. However, Ishmael was disinherited. Isaac is now his only son because Ishmael and his mother have left, never to return. Isaac is the son of the promise.

And God tells Abraham, “go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Simply put, he is instructed to kill Isaac and burn his body in an act of worship.

The people of God were instructed to sacrifice animals in worship but never humans; in fact, the law of God would later expressly forbid that. God could demand that if He chose to. But what we’ve heard over and over since Genesis 12 is that God would supernaturally provide a child to Abraham and Sarah to begin this great nation of people.

They waited 25 years for the birth of this child, and now he must be put to death? What about God’s promises? What about all those years of trying, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing to walk by faith?

Now, interestingly, God tells him to go to Moriah. We understand that to be the location where Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. It was the future site of Israelite worship, the site of future sacrifice.

And then we see that Abraham obeys and sets out with Isaac and two servants on a three-day journey to the place. Abraham had three days to stew on this. He had three days to turn back and resist, three days to agonize and analyze and rationalize what God demanded of him.

What’s more difficult: doing the thing, or all the time leading up doing the thing? It’s all tough! You must remember that the journey is obedience also. The journey to the place proves faith. We have to be encouraged by that.

This is one reason why every moment and day is an opportunity to glorify God. Faith is demonstrated by action, but also, faith is a state of mind. It is a battle that goes on within us. And the whole thing is God’s proving. All of it reveals our condition of our trust in God. As we are tested, sometimes what we see in ourselves will cause us to rejoice; other times, it will cause us to repent and renew our trust in Him.

Now, Abraham and company arrive at Moriah, and he and Isaac go to the place alone, Verse [5]: Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Did Abraham believe that Isaac would yet survive this ordeal? Hebrews 11 in the NT says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac…He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.” Abraham trusts that some way, somehow, God will fulfill His promise through Isaac.

Now, verse 6 tells us that Isaac carried the wood; His father had the fire and the knife. And in verses 7 and 8, Isaac asks his dad, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Notice Abraham’s reply: “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

In the telling of something that happens, there’s always a high point in the action. In a story, the tension builds to a point - and then it falls. In this account on Mt. Moriah, you might think that point would be the raising of the knife by Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. You might think that is the critical moment in the story.

But when Moses wrote this, he structured it grammatically in a way that was common in Hebrew writing to show that the high point in the action was not the raising of the knife, but instead, it was in this exchange between the father and the son.

These words spoken between Abraham and Isaac compose the critical moment, because here Abraham verbalizes a core tenet of His faith. This is central to who He understands Yahweh to be. Yahweh is the one who “provides;” and this word in Hebrew is fascinating. This statement by Abraham could also be translated, “God will see for himself the lamb,” or “God Himself will see to the lamb.” God will see to it that what is needed is received because His purpose and His plans must come to fruition.

And then in verses 9 and 10 we see what all of this has been leading to. Step by step, the suspense builds: [And] they came to the place of which God had told him, [and] Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. [and] Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

We don’t see any evidence that Isaac resisted. Apparently, he trusted as well. And this is important, because you see, Abraham would not be around forever. Isaac would carry forth God’s promises. Yahweh is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. Isaac must believe that if God promises it, then God will see to it. Isaac is observing first-hand the proving of his earthly father’s faith.

And just as an aside here: parents, and grandparents, when you walk by faith, in addition to honoring God, and in addition to proving your faithfulness before God, you also teach these children how to walk by faith. It’s never too early or too late to begin. Steps of faith, both great and small.

Abraham surrenders what he loves most to the will of God. Nevermind the mistakes of the past; nevermind the errors in walking by sight. That doesn’t matter now. That’s over. Here Abraham testifies to what he believes with both word and deed before God and his child, and whatever happens next is in the hands of the One who made the heavens, and the earth, and the promise.

In Romans 8 in the NT, the apostle Paul writes, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” How can this be true if God does not have the final say in all matters, even as we make our own decisions? How can we believe this unless God has a plan that cannot fail? How can we trust this unless the purpose of God in the world He made cannot be defeated?

For those who are born again, who trust in Jesus Christ, everything that happens in life works toward our good, everything works toward the blessings of knowing God more and being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” And God sees to the proving of all who are called according to His purpose.

How is God proving you right now? What test are you enduring? It will all work together for your good, if Jesus is your Savior and Lord. As you endure, nothing will be able to separate you from the love of Christ.

And just as God sees to our proving as He accomplishes His purpose, He sees to the provision of all that is needed to fulfill His plan. Abraham raises the knife in obedience, and just then, verse [11] the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” [12] He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Though he had previously failed on occasion to demonstrate absolute trust in God during trials and had likely questioned his own faith, God proves Abraham’s faith and reassures the man of God. Of course, God knows all that is in Abraham. God knows all things, from the beginning to the end.

But Abraham did not know. He did not know the strength of his faith. Now he does. And then we see God’s provision - a ram that apparently was always there. Abraham sacrifices the ram instead, and notice verse [14] So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide,” or, “the LORD will see” or “see to it.” This confirms what Abraham told Isaac in verse 8, and the saying was born that you see there.

And then God restates His promises to Abraham and reaffirms that He will do these things, verse [17] “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” This is the promise of a people. “And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.”

This means that Abraham will have an heir that will completely consume his enemies. It brings to mind the first glimpse of the gospel in Genesis 3, that the seed of the woman will crush the seed of the serpent. We understand that this was fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection, and in His ascension and eventual return to renew the earth.

So God’s promise of a place is in view as well. Also, notice verse [18], God says, “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” We understand this to mean that people of every nation would know God through Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ.

The lamb that was needed was provided, but that isn’t all that we see God providing in this chapter. Verse 19 says they go back to Beersheba, where they live, but then we get this small insert about Abraham’s family far away, where he is from. Something very important is briefly mentioned here.

Abraham learns that his brother Nahor and sister-in-law Milcah have had many children, including a son named Bethuel (you see there at the end of verse 22) and in verse 23, “Bethuel fathered Rebekah.” Rebekah is the future wife of Isaac. Far away, in Mesopotamia, in the providence of God, another important part of God’s plan was born - literally!

Rebekah was born to what one Bible scholar calls “the legitimate, fully-fledged wife of Nahor.” Like Abraham, Nahor had children with another woman. This was a sinful result of the times in which they lived. Clearly Moses recognizes a man can have only one wife.

For Isaac to carry forth God’s plan of a people, for the seed of the woman to continue, Isaac needs a wife, and it is Rebekah, born, like Isaac, from her father’s true wife. God sees to the provision of all that is needed to fulfill His plan.

Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China in the 1800s. He began the China Inland Mission. One of Taylor’s core values in his gospel ministry was to rely entirely on God to provide. Over the years, he and those with whom he served saw God provide in amazing ways. And in one of his journal entries, Taylor famously wrote, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.”

As we join God in what He has planned to do, and as we surrender to His will and His plans, we will see Him provide what is needed when it is needed. Moses hints at things to come. Rebekah would come into the picture at just the right time.

You see, God is not only Lord of “what” but also of “when.” The ram for the sacrifice, the wife for the son of the promise. What has God promised to His people today which we must wait for by faith? Well, He has promised the completion of our salvation at the return of Jesus Christ.

He has promised to be with us, to never leave or forsake us.

He has promised to “supply every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

He has promised the help of His Spirit, and to work all things together for our good.

And our hope in these things is built on nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness. God’s covenant promises to Abraham are available to us only through Jesus Christ. It’s hard to endure God’s proving and wait for God’s provision.

But as we repeatedly say around here, Jesus has gone before us in our place. He perfectly endured God’s testing. Jesus was proven worthy to be our Savior. And He not only waited on God’s provision, He was God’s provision.

Jesus is the perfect lamb of God who was slain for the sins of His people. Do you trust in Jesus Christ?

Maybe you noticed the parallels between Isaac and Jesus, between the ram and Jesus. Of course, these are not coincidences. In God’s providence, these things teach us about the work of Jesus Christ. The only son who carried the wood up the hill to be sacrificed by his father. The ram provided by God for a sacrificial offering in the place of a sinner.

So many parallels, although the NT doesn’t point back to any of those details. However, there is one parallel that the NT does point out. Hebrews 11 says that Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise [Isaac] from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” The sparing of Isaac’s life, the saving of Isaac, was a type of resurrection.

This points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of all those “in Christ” by faith. The great meaning of the Old and New Testament, and the great result of redemptive history, and the great purpose and plan that God sees to Himself is this: that Jesus has sufficiently and will finally overcome sin and death for us.

He is everything to us.

Let’s bow in prayer.