Hebrews 11:19 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 11:19

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Genesis 22 tells us he rose up early in the morning. He took two young men, from his body of servants. He didn't tell them what this was for, and he took Isaac and they set out on the three-day journey. He equipped himself for a sacrificial offering, and he went. ‘Accounting that God was able’ – Abraham thought hard about this, and he thought about it with the aid of faith. Faith ponders things deeply. It looks for a resolution to events which is consistent with all it knows about God. Faith may be placed by God in some very trying circumstances, but instead of collapsing it works hard to understand as much as it can about what he is doing. It always believes he has a purpose, though it is ready to admit that it does not necessarily know what that purpose is. The conclusion that Abraham reached was in fact incorrect – God did things another way – but that did not matter. Faith may have to operate in the dark, but it reasons energetically and weighs the issues.In the case of Abraham, his faith had to take into account various certainties about God and what he had said. He remembered (verse 18) that God had said that the blessing would come through Isaac not Ishmael, and he knew of course that if Isaac was dead that promise must fail. But faith knew that God’s promise can never fail because he never encourages anyone to trust him and then lets them down; his word does not disappoint. The command to offer up Isaac had been so clear that Abraham did not consider the possibility that it would later be revoked, as in fact did happen. So he reasoned in a different direction and concluded that God would do something that he had never heard of before, and after allowing Abraham to complete the test and slay Isaac, God would raise Isaac from the dead. His faith was so strong that it was ready to believe even this.And figuratively speaking, this is exactly what happened, though not in the way he imagined. Somebody may say, ‘Isaac didn't die. How could it be said, even in a figure, that he was raised from the dead?’ Isaac had been as good as dead for three days, as far as Abraham was concerned. For three days on that journey Abraham believed that Isaac would die, because the command seemed so clear, so unambiguous, and he knew that he was going to do what God had commanded. So for Abraham, when the Angel of the Lord called to him by name, and told him not to lay a hand upon the lad, it was just as if he had been raised from the dead. Isaac had been assigned to death in his mind, but he now received him back to life again. It is unreasonable to believe Abraham could have trusted God that he would raise Isaac from the dead if he did not often think of the great resurrection in the future.

Application

We may see some Christian people scared, even petrified of death. Yes, there will always be some fear of death, because God has built it into our constitution. It is an act of mercy on his part. He says, ‘I will make all human beings scared of death; it will help them to turn to me.’ So there will always be some fear of death, but that great fear of death should not be for the Christian. If it is, then maybe it is because you have never reflected very much on the resurrection, on paradise with Christ, and the last day when Christ comes again and raises your body from the dead, when we meet him in the air, and we are forever with the Lord. The resurrected glorified body: think of what lies ahead and that will take away so much of the sting or the fear of death.

Questions

Why did God test him in such a painful, searching way? First of all this trial was a call to think. Abraham was called to exercise his God-given faith. That is what provings are about; you and I are proved. Here is the father of the faithful. What privileges he had. He was proved in an exceptionally difficult way and we are proved also. Proving is first and foremost an opportunity to exercise faith and not go to pieces. I will call upon the Lord for strength and light. I will not let him down. There are people watching; my testimony is at stake, but this is how I am called to please the Lord. If I go to pieces and grumble and complain, the Lord has no pleasure in me.

The second great purpose of a trial is to trust God. Perhaps I am waiting a long time to find a wife, a husband. It may be painful, but it is also a call to trust him. If he has planned for a husband or wife, he will bring it to pass. Obviously there are some things to do, and we don’t shut ourselves in a cupboard, but nevertheless we trust him, then our hearts are at peace. Maybe you love your home or your car too much, love material things too much. God may send a proving. Do you love me more than them, your proving may call you to part with one of two things.

Then a trial is a call to go in the Lord’s strength. Abraham must have thought, I cannot make this journey under these circumstances. How can I do this? I will do it in the strength of the Lord. He seems to be in constant communion with God, because God says go to a place, a location that I will show you. Finally he came to the place that God would lead him and lifted up his eyes and he recognised it. If there is a great trial of faith, your daily walk and daily prayer is vital; stay close to the Lord.

Abraham seems to have been called to prove the Lord by himself. There are some things we have got to resolve by ourselves before the Lord. He could not tell Sarah; he could not tell the two young servants. He seems to have already made up his mind by the time they arrived at Moriah that Isaac would be raised from the dead, because he clearly says to the two young men, ‘Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you’ (Genesis 22:5). He does not tell Isaac till the last minute. Isaac has got to know by that time what is going on. This is something that Abraham has to suffer and bear and see through by faith entirely alone. Some of your trials and my trials are like that. It is a great privilege to be able to cry on the shoulder of your husband or your wife and share a burden, but there are some things you have to resolve by faith in the Lord quite alone.

Then again, the purpose of the trial is for posterity. It shows us something about Abraham, you remember earlier on in the record of Abraham, he had stumbled quite definitely at the time of famine when he lied to Pharaoh about Sarah not being his wife. But now his faith is resolute; if he did stumble before, he will not stumble again now, and it gives us a demonstration and a picture of progress in the Christian life. Are we exercising our faith more than we used to? Are we praying more than we used to? Are we trusting the Lord more as the years go by?

The trial of faith is of course a demonstration to Satan. As with Job, it serves to show that the conversion of God’s children is genuine. Satan says, ‘They are only worshipping and serving you because they think that you will benefit them as the result.’ So a proving of faith is allowed by God to show it is genuine.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Hebrews 11:19 Commentary and Bible Study