READ: Genesis 22:13
CHALLENGE: Believe in God’s Providential Benefits in your Life
God’s Divine Providence is all over this story. This is where God is intersecting with our world for our benefit. He is working out all things for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to His purpose. And His work in this world is something to marvel over.
- WE BELIEVE IN DIVINE HELP
V13 – Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ramcaught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Abraham now sees the ram but he walks daily with God. It’s not really a surprise because He knows that God comes through and he lives in that reality. Let’s daily walk in faith to the point that God’s provision isn’t shocking. We pray and count on him for our daily bread and to be part of our lives. As one person recently remarked, “Jesus is part of my life every day”. That connection and having our lives set apart to him is so important as I’m seeing in my Bible reading.
It says that Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thickets. Either he didn’t notice it before or this had just become a thing. Either way, “looking up” is important. You in trouble? Look up!
Psalm 121:1-2 – I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
In some ways, it’s difficult to put into words what this help is like. The ability to count on God to answer prayers is like a child counting on their parents to be there at times when you needed rescued.
God being with us for me is like being able to call a friend in time of need and you know they will pick up the phone whenever you call. And we all have some of those people in our lives. It’s such a support to us.
God is a support. He’s a scaffolding – reliable – strengthening. Jesus Christ counted on God all the time in order to accomplish what he did. An important take away right here is that you know you’re going to make it. God’s divine help is awesome.
Abraham looks up and in the thicket he sees something. It’s a ram. Now, this ram is a sacrificial animal and it’s exactly what he needed, where he needed, and when he needed it. It’s amazing when God perfectly lines up the what, where, and when! This is God stuff and only God stuff – to line it all up is absolutely pointing to God’s role and value in life.
Providence is God’s orchestration of events so the what we need is in the right place at the right time because God made sure that it was. And we’ll refer to this later on in the sermon too.
No doubt that some things are happenstance and I know that. Sticks falling randomly from trees etc. However, in cases like this, God intervenes in space and time and guides the ram to be there as needed. Orchestration requires advance knowledge and planning. It’s amazing stuff!
Joseph was the victim of great treachery. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused, thrown int0 prison. Later he has an opportunity to interpret Pharaoah’s dream. Now, this took a lot of orchestration. First off, the slave traders show up right ahead of the brothers killing him. He is in jail because he’s falsely accused. The cupbearer had to be in jail, have a dream, Joseph interpret the dream, then be restored back to Pharaoh, for Pharaoh to ever even learn about Joseph. Pharaoh was given a disturbing dream and the cupbearer is right there and he tells Pharaoh about Joseph’s unique ability to accurately interpret dreams. The dream was about a seven year famine and this would lead to Jacob and his family entering Egypt and becoming a nation there. All providence and God helping the world.
Later, the brothers were still grappling with their decision to sell their own flesh and blood. Joseph comforts them by telling them that what they meant for harm, God used for good. In other words, it was part of God’s plan. God used all of it. God orchestrates things.
Jonah runs from God but God appoints a storm and then the lots to point at Jonah and then the fish to swallow him. It’s all as God controls. At the end it’s the vine for shade and the worm that kills it. So, God was working in the storm, the casting of lots, the great fish, the growth of the plant for shade, the worm, and the heat. God was working through all of those things to bring about his plan.
When God tells you not to worry, it’s because he’s got it figured out. The birds are taken care of. The flowers of the field look great. You’re going to make it.
Jim Lovell was a pilot with the US Navy and commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. He lost his instruments and then his radio on a night mission. He had to land his plane on an aircraft carrier in the dark when he had struggled doing that in the day time. The moon wasn’t even up yet so it was really dark.
Lowell recognized this as the phosphorescent glow of planktonic algae that lived in the Pacific. The carrier’s giant propeller had stirred up the flowing organisms, leaving a stream of pale, bioluminescence in its wake. The closer he got, the more brightly the cloud of planktonic algae glowed.
This was all Lowell needed. Using the soft, green light as his guide, Lowell held his plane steady and brought it in for a safe landing on deck of the USS Shangri-La. Little did he know that this miraculous landing would prepare him for what would later become the most challenging mission of his life.
Abraham has an incredible faith experience seeing God help by bringing the what to the where exactly when. Providence. And people of faith experience this. God orchestrates places and times and puts it well beyond blind chance, happenstance, luck, or coincidence.
It may be that you have a conversation with someone at the time they need to hear it. And you have just read the exact set of verses that you need to help with the problem. Wow!!
We believe in divine help and we …
- WE BELIEVE IN DIVINE SALVATION
instead of his son
This is such an important point! This is what sacrifices were all about – the animal took the punishment instead of the sinner. It paid for your sin so you don’t have to. The same as Jesus does. The son would have been sacrificed but instead, God provided a ram. The ram took the place of the son. We call this “substitutionary atonement”.
He sacrificed a ram INSTEAD OF HIS SON. This is precisely how salvation works. Jesus died for sinners. He died in our place. Instead of us. He is our substitute.
In Leviticus 16 we learn about the Day of Atonement. And on the Day of Atonement there were two goats. One was killed to pay for sins and the other had the sins confessed over it. It was then led into the wilderness carrying sins away. This is the origin of the word “scapegoat”.
Even in our language today, we speak of someone being a “scapegoat”. It refers to the person who takes the blame for others or for a group. It’s the fall on your sword person. It’s where the blame and guilt goes. However, as Hebrews 10:4 says, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins”. This is why Jesus had to come to the planet. The blood of bulls and goats was never enough, as that could never completely atone for sin. So God sent Jesus into the world as the ultimate scapegoat! He takes my sins away instead of me.
Isaiah 53:5 – But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Romans 3:23-24 – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith…..
2 Corinthians 5:21 – God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
What’s the big deal about all of this. The big deal is that we’re fallen sinners who have no way to save ourselves without the work of God. Be thankul that Jesus took the penalty of sins.
The wages of sin is death and that mean that we are eternally separated from God in hell. We don’t want to be eternally separated because this means that God is not there. I don’t want to be where God isn’t.
There are certain things in our world that we could not live without. The sun is one. If you took the sun out of our existence, we could not survive. If you took water out of the equation, we would be finished. Imagine a place where God is moved out of the equation. I realize that what I have, I have because of God. He gave me my talents and opportunities. To be apart from him would be pointless. Who is it that you couldn’t be separated from? If they weren’t there it wouldn’t mean a thing?
I love the song Strawberry Swing by Coldplay. Now the sky could be blue I don’t mind Without you, it’s a waste of time Could be blue I don’t mind Without you, it’s a waste of time. I’ve thought about these words over the years because I realize that my family has been a big motivation for living. And when I was separated from them, that hurt more than anything. You wonder what the point of life is without them.
Some of you know that incredible heavy burden of loss – it shakes you to your core. Imagine losing God? No thank you! To die eternally is to be separated from God and we don’t want to live without him. When Jesus was on the cross he was crying out asking why God has forsaken him. He was experiencing in those moments an agonizing separation from the Father. This hurt him more than anything else could have. It hurt more than the nails or the mocking or the crown of thorns or the whipping. He doesn’t cry out about any of that, but the forsaking hurts him so deeply.
This connection with God provides us purpose in life and Jesus died so that my relationship with God could be restored. The Ram died instead of Isaac. In our world, Jesus died instead of us. He truly took the punishment on that cross and bore the penalty. He died in my place.
V14 – And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
He called it, “The LORD will provide”. It was a reminder of all of God’s provision. What about this salvation we’re talking about. Do you provide it, or does God? If you died tonight and God were to say, “Why should I let you into heaven, what would you say”? I’ve heard a lot of answers but mostly it’s in line of “I’m a good person”. “I’m not that bad”. Let me ask you, why do we have to earn what God provides? You don’t have to work for what’s free.
Ephesians 2:8-9 – For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
I spoke with a woman about this years ago and I asked her about what she would say should God pop that question at the pearly gates and she didn’t know. So, then I asked her what Jesus had to do with her getting into heaven and she said, “I haven’t thought about it that far yet”. She had to be 80 years old and I wondered what she was waiting for? One foot is on the grave and the other is on a banana peel and you don’t know the reason you are going to heaven?
But the truth is, many people assume they’re going to heaven. They don’t think about it deeply. They assume it without questioning why they assume it. Evil loves you not asking questions. Meanwhile we’re relying on ourselves and not God. We haven’t accepted this free gift.
God gives you salvation and you go to Him to get it. John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He and not me is the way. You don’t go to yourself and pull out the box of your good deeds. As Isaiah said, all of our righteousness is as filthy rags.
Always keep this in mind, your good works are not an eraser for sin any more than a chalk eraser can remove an ink stain. If you rob a bank, you can’t say, “But I’m an Eagle Scout” and I support a kid through Compassion International. That doesn’t make up for robbing a bank. Me being good does not mean that I didn’t sin and the only eraser for sin is Jesus’ death on the cross.
Salvation is freely given. It’s provided for us by God. We cannot provide it for ourselves. It has to be given to us or it doesn’t work.
We believe in divine help and divine salvation and we ….
- WE BELIEVE IN DIVINE PROVISION
as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
God provides for our spiritual needs but God provides for physical needs as well. God is a provider of all kinds of needs. This is a confidence booster because it says that God WILL provide. There is zero doubt about it.
He provides strength, wisdom and resources. On the mount of the Lord it will be provided. As you think about this becoming a common saying among God’s people. What would that statement mean? It was a reminder of this moment. When there seemed to be no way, God made a way. When you didn’t know how it would work out, God worked it out.
George Mueller had a great ministry of faith. He started orphanages and he started with 50 cents in his pocket. He learned on important truth, God provides. One morning, Mueller awoke to the news that the orphanage, which housed 300 children, had no food. Mueller instructed the housemother to seat all the children in the dining room. He thanked God for food, and they waited for God to provide, as He always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked at the door. “Mr Muller, he confessed, “last night, I could not sleep. Somehow, I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in. The next knock revealed a milkman whose cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the cart was fixed, the milkman explained, so would the children like some free milk”?
George Muller built five orphan houses and cared for 10,024 orphans during his lifetime. When children became old enough to be independent, Muller prayed with each individually, placing a Bible in their right hand in their right hand and money in their left. He explained to children that if they held onto what was in their right hand, God would always make sure something was in their left.
Do we believe that God provides? He has provided manna in the wilderness. Healing for Hezekiah. Salvation for us. We are told that God will answer our prayers and supply our needs.
What are you counting on God to provide? Where are you seeing his great work in your life?