May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." (Genesis 22:1-14)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: There are several linking thoughts that made the people who set up our readings for today chose this familiar story to go along with the other readings for today. In the Epistle we heard the words He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (Romans 8:32). This reading powerfully challenges us to consider the great love that must flow from the heart of the Heavenly Father who willing gave up his own Son. Then too, the son willingly going to his death gives us food for thought. What love is in God's Son that he accepts this way for us as we see him doing stepping in to do battle against Satan for us! And then too we see a ram provided-a child of Abraham escapes what is coming to him because a substitute gives his life. It reminds us that Jesus is our substitute before the Lord's throne. These are all godly thoughts that come to us as we hear this story.

As we read the words themselves what jumps to the eye of the careful reader is the phrase the Lord provides. It is mentioned three times in these verses. Isaac can see the anxious look in his father's eyes over the three days and two nights. He probably thinks dad has lots on his mind, maybe he forgot the obvious so he asks, Fire and wood we have but where is the lamb? Abraham replies: God himself will provide the lamb. He wasn't lying. His faith was speaking. His faith was saying: I don't know how this is all going to work out, but somehow God will make sure it does work out for our good. And then after the Lord stops Abraham from sacrificing his own son, the patriarch looks behind and there is the ram. He calls the place The Lord provides and to this day people say, as the Lord directs us in life it will always be that "It will be provided by the Lord." So let's use this phrase as our central thought-THE LORD PROVIDES.

The Lord provides a test. It's important to remember that, as always, God is working for the good of his children. And so it is here. This test is not intended as a temptation, a trap. God tempts no one, the Bible tells us in James. The test is sent by God as a purifier as when Jesus said: I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener....every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful (John 15). God had sent other testing to strengthen Abe's faith--the command to leave family and travel to Palestine...the dividing of land between nephew Lot and himself with Lot coming up the apparent winner...the waiting and depending on God for a child...the struggle in prayer as he asked for Sodom to be spared. All these purifying tests came from God, not from Satan, nor even from within Abraham, as if he worried that his faith was not strong enough and he sought to have it strengthened. God was providing the test because the faith he began he would nurture and care for and strengthen. The Lord provides. We too can expect tests. The Bible tells us: the Lord disciplines those he loves (Hebrews 12:6), and he prunes the branches that he has engrafted into Christ (John 15). It may be a special difficulty, sickness, or cross. Whatever the test remember the Lord provides. He controls the test and is working for good as we see in this story.

	The Lord does his good work through the test. In the test God gave Abraham the chance to experience the faith that God had created in him and to take courage from how God had given him that faith. Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. Each word asks Abraham nothing more, and nothing less, than to love God above all things. Nothing is to be more important than God. We cannot serve God and things (Matthew 6:24)...no one who loves father, mother, son, daughter more than me is worthy of me (Matthew 10:37)...you shall have no other Gods (Exodus 20:3). How Abraham's days of travel and restless nights must have been full of confession and pleading for forgiveness and strength! And there is an even deeper struggle. He saw in Isaac the Seed of Woman who was the bloodline of the Messiah Savior. He was being asked to cut off his way to heaven. And God gave strength. Abe could say to his son, the Lord will provide. Let's not think that Abe understood everything perfectly, yet he did trust even if he did not understand. And God provided. God caused Abraham's faith to grow as he saw and experienced that God really does never cancel his promises, even when human eyes see nothing but cancellation. As muscles grow stronger when used, so faith grows stronger as it is forced to take refuge in the safe harbor of "God alone can provide". And in the struggle, God reaffirmed the Gospel truth of a Substitute who would take away the sin of the world and deliver us from death. The ram became the sacrifice that Isaac might live. It is not unimportant trivia that the mountain to which God led Abraham-Mt. Moriah-was among the hills where later Jerusalem was built. In other words, Abraham went though this test at the very place where his Savior would later give his life up as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And so the test brought Abe full circle to the one truth that the Lord provides.

	Let us apply this to ourselves. The Lord provides. The Lord who provided his Son as the sacrifice for our sins provides his Holy Spirit to give us faith. I know that it is easy for us to look at this account and feel woefully inadequate; to feel that you and I could never do what Abe did, to wonder--if I were asked could I do as he did? Such thoughts are good, and God wants us concerned about such things. And God strengthens us by first getting us to see our weakness. Abraham and you and I are of the same stock--we are people of doubt by nature, not people of faith. But for that very reason, the Lord provides the faith and the purifying of that faith. So when tests do come, remember the source--they come from the Lord who wishes to strengthen, purify and focus the faith he has given us.

And let us always face the Lord's tests with that end in mind-the ram is there as substitute-Christ is my Substitute. He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32) If the Lord already paid for us with Jesus' blood, certainly he will make sure that all testing serves our good and will see to it that the testing does not drown us but lifts us ever higher until that day that he takes us to his heaven. Let this give us courage always.   Amen!