Knowing God (Gen 22:1-19)

Knowing God (Gen 22:1-19) 

Tony Tan. 1 July 2016



1. His “Perfecting of Abraham”

Tearing Down:
• Surrender (relinquish control)
• Obedience (give in to God’s will)
• Sacrifice
• Ruthless Trust and Faith

Building Up:
• Destiny & Calling (deep wounds to make possible a great destiny)
• Liberation (freedom from entanglements of the world)
• Blessing (blessedness of possessing nothing & being God God’s precious possession)
• Transformation
• Character (depth, spirituality)

2. His Maturing of Isaac
• Obedience
• Submission
• Suffering
• Worship
• Sacrifice

3. Lessons on Parenting
• Lead by example
• Transparency & vulnerability
• Sharing pain & uncertainty
• Mentoring
• Modelling Faith
• Releasing children to God
• “Cleansed” affection – children cannot take place of God in our hearts

4. The Heart of God

• He Provides extravagantly (Jehovah Jireh)
o Sacrificial giving of His only Son
o Unconditional love (AGAPE)
o Object lesion on sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, in terms we can understand

• Prophetic Word
o Patience & perseverance of God our loving Father
o Wounded God (Father) & Suffering Christ (Son)

 
We can draw out many lessons from Abraham’s testing by fire on Mount Moriah and see how “he did not fail in the crucible” (AW Tozer). However, a very key take away is that there are many “treasures” in the world that captures our heart. These treasures are mainly people we love (spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends) or things we value and feel we cannot do without (money, house, car, security, comforts, conveniences). Whatever we obsessed over actually possesses us and becomes our idol, turning into a curse in God eyes.

God sees how these “fatal attractions” can harm us (e.g. insecurities & arguments over money and assets can break up loving relationships between man-woman, child-parent, siblings, friends etc etc) and also harden our hearts towards God (we obsess over them, makes us selfish & possessive, and they take the place of God as lord over our lives). This study shows us how severely God sometimes deal with the issue …. cutting into the root sharply, painfully, surgically but lovingly. Our deep wounding is our great healing - like a cancer cut out of the body or rotten teeth pulled out of the gum (read AW Tozer – Blessedness of Possessing Nothing”).

Let’s us let go of our “Fatal Attractions” and make God our “Magnificent Obsession” … in the words of Ps Edmund Chan.


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