Text:
Genesis 22:2-19
Theme:
Obedience Always Bring Blessing
by
Za Biak Cung Nawl
BD Final year
by
Za Biak Cung Nawl
BD Final year
Brief
Overview of the Book: the book has been written by Moses
and date of writing according to biblical scholars is between 1450 and 1410 BC,
and place of writing was presumed to be in the wilderness during Israelite
wanderings, somewhere in Sinai Peninsula, which is presently known as the
Middle East and the purpose of the book is to record God’s creation of the
world and his desire to have people set apart to worship him.
Introduction
to the Text: the main theme of the text that which
we have chosen today is “the test of Abraham” in here the question why God test
Abraham is the most important part that we have to look carefully. The reason
why God test Abraham is to see his obedience and faith. In this verses faith
and obedience is related because we could say that God test Abraham to see his
obedience as well as faith, therefore I am not going to present about faith but
will focus on obedience.
First I would like to
define meaning of the word obedience and blessing that we have here in the
theme today, because they important term that we should always research and
find meaning to apply in our life.
the
meaning and the root word of Obedience: In Hebrew is shama - "to hear, listen, and obey”
and in Greek hupakouo - "to
listen under, to obey; but the English word obey come from Latin word,
Etymology - Latin oboedire - ob =
towards; oedire = "to hear" Meaning: "to hear or listen
towards" in the Popular English usage: "to follow, heed, comply with
commands or injunctions within a sphere of jurisdiction." Therefore
Obedience is to pay attention, heed and doing what is asked or put into
practice what we hear and know. In here when i say obedience I mean to obey God
and not about negative obedience, negative obedience mean obedience to bad
suggestions or we can said it as bad obedience.
Explanation
of Blessing Every word in the Ancient Hebrew
language was related to an image of action, something that could be sensed (as
observed by the five senses - seen, heard, smelled, touched or felt) and in
motion. The word bless, found
numerous times in English translations of the Bible, is a purely abstract word
that cannot be sensed, nor is it in motion. In order to interpret this word
correctly we must find its original concrete meaning. In Genesis 24:11 we read,
"And he made the camels “kneel down” outside the city." The phrase
"kneel down" is the Hebrew verb ברך (B.R.K), the very same word
translated as “bless.” The concrete meaning of ברך is to kneel down. The
extended meaning of this word is to do or give something of value to another.
God "blesses" us by providing for our needs and we in turn
"bless" God by giving him of ourselves as his servants. And the greek
word for bless is Makarios, which means bless, happy and to be envied.
Therefore, we can define blessing as any expression of God’s goodness, mercy
and love toward us. Such as Answered prayer, miraculous provision, and unexpected
favour are some examples. We easily recognize these as God’s gifts. But
sometimes He chooses to bless us in different ways. For instance, He grants us
strength and joy in the midst of hardship, and He uses our suffering to help us
mature spiritually. Let’s us go to the main sermon
Vs
1-11 Obedience Story of Abraham
In this Genesis 22 chapter,
we can see the greatest acts of obedience in the life of human history through
Abraham.
During the time when
God test Abraham they stayed or settle in the place call Beersheba, according
to archaeological research, from Beersheba to Mount Moriah is about 50-60
kilometre or mile journey, Mount Moriah is located near to Jerusalem, the
question here is why God told Abraham to go that much far to sacrifice his own
son, why don’t he told him to sacrifice near to their house in Beersheba, if we
see the biblical timeline and history, Abraham and his son spend three day in
their trip to Mount Moriah to sacrifice along with their servants and donkey, so
why that much far, because God want him to imagine how He had done many miracle
things in his life and what will be his plan in the future for Abraham, but it
is still hard to do for Abraham to sacrifice his only son and long waited son,
but he Obeyed God in heart and know that God will provide what he need in his
life. In here a question for us is that why God test Abraham, in such severe
and painful manner, because God only see the heart of Abraham, God want Abraham
to sacrifice his heart to Him, and obey Him in his Heart only, likewise in the
life of Xn Our God is always looking our heart, not our physical appearance and
wealth. He always looks our heart in every circumstances.
The second things that
we should look in this chapter is, why God ask Abraham to perform human
sacrifice, which pagan nation practices, and God even condemned this human
sacrifice as terrible sin in Leviticus 20:1-5, but what we have to understand
is God did not want Isaac to die, but he want to see the Obedience of Abraham,
he wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son in his heart, so that it would be clear
how Abraham love God more than he love his long waited son. This is one of the
reasons why God test Abraham, God want Abraham to grow his obedience by
testing, the purpose of testing in the life of Xn is to strengthen our
character and deepen our commitment to God. As through this difficult
experience, Abraham strengthens his commitment to obey God.
If we see again in
verses 9-12, Abraham was in the greatest painful events, he have to face the
most difficult things in his life, that he had to kill his beloved son Isaac
for the sake of Obeying God, let us try to imagine the life of Abraham as
ourselves in such events, it is really difficult to let go of what we deeply
love, even our properties and not son, we clearly know that how it is to let go
off what we really love, therefore in here it is too difficult for Abraham to
kill his only son too, but for the sake of the lord he don’t withheld even his
beloved son and long waited son, then when God saw the fear and heart full
obedience of Abraham, Isaac have been replace by the ram, therefore when we do
give to God what he asks us something in our life, He returns us far more than
what we could dream, in the life of Xn,
Isaac
as the Symbol of Christ Crucifixion and His Obedience
And one of the
significant things in this genesis 22 is that, the ram (ram mean male sheep)that
offered on the altar as a substitute for Isaac and Christ as offered on the
cross as a substituted for us, Isaac carry the wood for burn offering of
himself indicated that Christ himself carry his cross to save the sin of the
world, God love Isaac, and spare his life, replace by the ram, likewise God
love us and he want us not to die and sent his only begotten son to save us
from our sin, we can see in John 3:16, and also we can see not only the
obedience of Abraham but also Isaac, he never argue with his father, he obey
every things that his father spoke to, and when God see the two obedience,
Isaac have been saved. Isaac has been spare and goes back with his father to their
home Beersheba with happily. Therefore, we can say that there are time that we
have been free from danger even death through our obedience in our life that
example had been display by Isaac for us.
God Reward Obedience
In verses 15-18 we can
see the promise of God blessing abundantly to Abraham for his obedience, he
promise Abraham that he will surely bless Abraham, and give him many
descendents and offspring, the most precious blessing of God to human being is
blessing of descendents, offspring which we can see in the letter of Paul to
Ephesians, through the obedience of Abraham, even God bless all nation on
earth, also when we see the story of Job in the bible he has been test by the
lord and all his property, children, his animals has taken, but he never
forsake the lord and God blessed again in his life more than he blessed before
and his daughter were known as the most beautiful girls ever in the world, he
received abundant blessing from the lord in his life,
If we go to Luke 5 in
the New Testament we can see about how an ordinary fisherman became one of the
chief builders of the early church because of his obedient who is called peter
beloved disciple of Jesus Christ our LORD. Simon Peter made a lifelong
commitment to follow Jesus Christ and received many blessings as a result.
Here Luke 5 tells us
that after an unsuccessful night at sea, Simon Peter was weary and discouraged
because of their hard work to catch the fishes but they got nothings. Yet when
Jesus asked to borrow his boat, he agreed. And when the Jesus suggested the
fisherman Peter to put out nets for a catch, Peter did so against his better
judgment. His obedience led to huge financial gain, and even better, he saw
Jesus for who He was-the Lord.
Just as his nets
expanded with the overflowing catch, Peter's faith also grew large that day. He
was so confident of Jesus' sovereignty that he laid down the tools of his trade
and became a "fisher of men".
And rewards continued to come his way:
as Christ's disciple, Peter spent time with the Lord and performed miracles in
His name (Acts 9:33-42).
Obedience was Peter's
lifestyle-when the Lord told him to do something, he didn't delay (Matt. 16).
He understood who Jesus was and helped establish the church on the rock-solid
foundation of Christ's Messiah ship. Peter preached at Pentecost (Acts 2),
opened Christianity to Gentiles, and wrote two biblical epistles-all of which
are additional rewards for his faithfulness.
We Believers sometimes
shy away from following Jesus wholeheartedly, wondering, how can He use someone
so average? Peter's life proves that the Lord equips those He calls. As we all
are called to be His disciple as Peter when we faithfully obey God and our
leader, parent, God rewards us in every aspect of our life.
Outcome
of Obedience in the Bible
If we see some of the
Biblical Examples about obedience as way to get blessing,
A. when we see the
great flood account in Genesis God command Noah to build an ark and then Noah’s
obey God and build the great ark that saved his family from the universal
flood, therefore we can say that Noah and his family were save by Noah
obedience to God. Not only that but also Moses led the Israelites people out of
Egyptian bondage through his obedience to God and doing what is asked him to do
by God, not only that but also Joshua won the battle of Jericho by following
God’s supernatural strategy that is also his obedience.
And also David obey God
word and refused to harm Saul, the anointed king, even though Saul try to kill
him and God bless David and became the Greatest king of Israel likewise if we
see the new Testament Peter obeyed Jesus’ command and throw his net to the
deeper side of the lake and catch a very large number of fishes. when we look
back in to the life of the apostle Paul, he obey and followed God’s will and took
the gospel to the Gentile nation and many of the world nations received and
accepted the gospel of Jesus. Therefore, when we look some of the biblical
examples, we can see that obedience always bring blessing in the life of
Christians. As we have also seen in 1 Samuel 15:22 that to obey is better than
sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of ram.
Outcome
of Disobedience with Illustration
When we look at Genesis
19, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their disobedience. If we see
the root causes of problem in the world society, disobedience always brings
problem, such as war, punishment, torture, example if we don’t obey our parent
in the family life there is always problem between and parent and children not
only that but also in our students life if we don’t obey our teachers and
faculties there cannot be good relationship between students and faculty
because disobedience always brings problem in the society while obedience
always brings blessing. If we look the present war between the NATO countries
and terrorist groups namely ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), the root
cause is ISIS disobedience of international law, if the ISIS obey the
international law then there won’t be no war, therefore we can said that disobedience
of the law can also lead the war, we have to obey and follow the rule and
regulation that we have to keep peace in our life as obedience always brings
blessing in Christian life which we can see in the life of Abraham.
Conclusion
Dear friend sometime we
may also test difference way by God in our context today to see how far our
obedience is work, such as financial problem, sickness, depression, and etc, in
our life today, but let never cease to put our faith into God and obey his
command, and let pay attention to him for what he say to us, let seek his will
and follow his way to reach our goal, today I would like to humbly ask you to
obey your parent and teachers, so that you and i might also taste the fruit of
blessing, therefore I concluded my message by saying the frui or outcome of
obedience is blessing!! God bless u all and be with you wherever you do and
guide you with the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit help you to practice
obedience life in our campus and also let obey each other when we get a short
time to live together so that we may received grace and many blessing together.
Amen.
