{"id":5000,"date":"2022-04-18T18:19:45","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T18:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=5000"},"modified":"2022-04-18T18:19:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T18:19:45","slug":"abraham-saw-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2022\/04\/18\/abraham-saw-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Abraham Saw Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lent 5 Judica| Genesis 22:1-14; John 8:56-58| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 3, 2022\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"blob:https:\/\/christforus.org\/dfd6fef6-5619-4f13-90ce-c35f114d0b8d\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, \u201cAbraham!\u201d And he said, \u201cHere am I.\u201d He said, \u201cTake your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.\u201d Genesis 22:1-2&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abraham is known as the man of faith. In our Old Testament Lesson, God tests Abraham\u2019s faith by instructing him to sacrifice his own son. This command from God seems to contradict God\u2019s own word. In Genesis 9, God declared, \u201cWhoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.\u201d So, this command of God certainly forbids a man from killing his own son. And with regard to Abraham personally, God promised to him, \u201cthrough Isaac shall your offspring be named.\u201d That means that God would make Abraham into a great nation through Isaac. He would give the descendants of Isaac the land of promise. And he would bless all nations of the earth through Isaac. Every one of these promises depended on Isaac living and having children. If Abraham kills Isaac, that would make God\u2019s promise impossible.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, Abraham continues to believe in God\u2019s promise and to obey God\u2019s command to offer Isaac as a burn offering. How can this be? Did Abraham figure out that God was just testing him? No. Abraham believed that God would fulfill his promise no matter what, even if he needed to raise the dead (Hebrews 11:19). Death cannot undo God\u2019s promise. Abraham believed that God could do the impossible.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the example of faith God wants us to follow. Jesus instituted a meal for us. He took bread and said, \u201cThis is my body.\u201d And he took the cup of wine and said, \u201cThis is my blood.\u201d Now, you don\u2019t have to be a scientist to know that bread is not a body and wine is not blood. And many have been very offended by these words of Jesus. \u201cDoes this mean that our teeth tear Jesus\u2019 body apart? Is Jesus telling us to be cannibals? That is gross and disturbing. How could we eat Jesus\u2019 body without destroying his body?\u201d And so, people have simply refused to believe Jesus\u2019 words and have assumed that Jesus was speaking a parable or some other figure of speech. But God\u2019s Word calls us to believe that he can do the impossible, even more than we can imagine. Jesus certainly can present his body and blood as food and drink without destroying his body, because he is true God. We do his body no harm when we receive the Sacrament, rather, we receive the benefits of his death and resurrection.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, faith does not tell God what is impossible. Faith clings to God\u2019s promise and obeys his word. Abraham exemplifies this for us. And he passed the test. God did not let Abraham kill Isaac. It was only a test. And through the test, Abraham showed himself to trust in God and to love him even more than his own son. And Abraham learned that God will indeed provide.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God indeed would not let Abraham sacrifice his own son. In fact, throughout the Old Testament God adamantly forbids anyone from sacrificing his own son or daughter (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 18:10; Jeremiah 7:31). Yet, this is what God does for us. God does sacrifice his own Son! In this story of Abraham and Isaac, we see a prophecy of Christ and the sacrifice he would make for us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abraham goes to sacrifice his only Son, whom he loves. God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten Son whom he loves to die for our sin. Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain. Likewise, Jesus labored under the wood of his own cross on Mount Calvary. Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. Now, Isaac is a youth strong enough to carry a load of wood up a mountain. There is no way Abraham was going to outmuscle Isaac. Yet, somehow Abraham manages to bind Isaac and lay him on top of the wood on the altar. This could only happen if Isaac went willingly. And so, Jesus goes willingly to the cross to suffer for our sins. No one takes his life from him. He lays it down of his own accord.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, there the similarities end. Abraham does not slaughter his son. The angel of the Lord stops him. Rather, the Lord provided a ram stuck in the thicket by his horns. Abraham offers the ram instead of his Son, and then confesses with us, \u201cThe LORD will provide.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And what does the LORD provide us? Not a promise that our children will become a great nation, however nice that might be. Not that they\u2019ll inherit some land on this earth to farm and tend until they die. No, he provides a Redeemer from all our sins, who gives us everlasting life. Listen to what Jesus says to the Jews, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.\u201d This is what the LORD provides. He provides the Lamb of God, who grants eternal life to all who believe in him.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The unbelieving Jews mocked Jesus for saying this, pointing out that Abraham died. So, Jesus declared, \u201cYour father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.\u201d Yet, this made the Jews mock him even more. \u201cYou are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, did Abraham see Jesus\u2019 day? And did Jesus, who was only about thirty-three-years-old&nbsp; at the time see Abraham, who had died nearly two thousand years before Jesus was born? Yes, and yes. First, Abraham indeed saw Jesus\u2019 day and rejoiced over it. On the mountain where he thought he would slaughter his own son, the Angel of the Lord stopped him and provided a ram. In that ram, Abraham saw God\u2019s promise not only to make Isaac into a great nation, not only to give his descendants the land of Canaan, but Abraham saw the promise to bless all families of the earth through Isaac\u2019s seed. And this blessing was not a temporary blessing. It is an eternal blessing. The Jews kept repeating that Abraham and the prophets died. They were dead. No more! But that\u2019s not what Abraham believed. Abraham did not trust in a God who ruled over the dead. Abraham trusted in the God of the living, the God who could even raise his son from the dead. Abraham indeed saw Jesus\u2019 day through faith in the promised Savior, who would grant eternal life to all who believed in him.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Jesus indeed saw Abraham. His human flesh was not yet fifty-years-old as he stood before his Jewish opponents. Yet, Jesus is not only a man. He is truly God. Before Abraham was, he is. In Hebrew, that is the holy name of God. In Exodus 3, Moses saw the Angel of the LORD appear in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush. This Angel of the LORD called Moses and said, \u201cI am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.\u201d So, the Angel of the LORD is the LORD God. When Moses asked God what his name was, he said, \u201cI AM WHO I AM. Say to the people of Israel, \u2018I Am has sent me to you.\u2019\u201d And so, the people of Israel called God, Yahweh, which is Hebrew for, <em>He Is. <\/em>So, when Jesus said, \u201cBefore Abraham was, I AM\u201d, he was declaring himself to be the LORD God. This was an even greater moment in history than when God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. Here, they can see Jesus\u2019 face. And Jesus is He Who Is.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Angel of the LORD called to Abraham on the mountain in Moriah saying, \u201cDo not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.\u201d Did you catch that? The Angel of the LORD said that Abraham did not withhold his only son from \u201cme.\u201d Just as in the burning bush, the Angel of the LORD proves himself to be the LORD himself!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, who is the Angel of the LORD? The Angel of the LORD is the second person in the Holy Trinity. He is the preincarnate Christ; Jesus, before he became a man. So, when Jesus\u2019 opponents laugh at him and say, \u201cHave you seen Abraham?\u201d, they do not know what they are talking about. Jesus indeed saw Abraham. Jesus is the Angel of the LORD who stayed Abraham\u2019s hand, so that he would not slaughter Isaac. Jesus is the Angel of the LORD, who provided Abraham with a ram to slaughter instead of his son Isaac. And Jesus is the Angel of the LORD, who looked at that ram caught in the thicket by his horns, and knew that he would one day wear such a crown of thorns and be sacrificed to save not only Isaac\u2019s descendants, but all people everywhere.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How is it possible that this thirty-three-year-old man is the same Angel of the LORD, who is the LORD who called Abraham? Faith does not ask that. Rather, faith believes that God provides such a Savior for us, even though it seems impossible.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Sunday morning Bible study, we\u2019ve learned that horns are a symbol of power, which is obvious if you look at a ram\u2019s horns. In fact, the Hebrew word for horn is often translated as strength or power. So, when we see this ram trapped by his horns in the thicket, we learn a lesson about our Redeemer. He is trapped by his power. Well, what is Jesus\u2019 power. What is his greatest attribute? The answer is his Love. Jesus came to be our Savior, because he loves his Father and he loves us. His love brought him to do the impossible, to become a man, to die for the sins of the whole world, to rise again, and to offer eternal life to all who believe in him.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our faith does not figure out how all this can be. Our faith clings to the promise and believes that God\u2019s love can accomplish all he promises. And we see that it does, because we see that Jesus has died and rose for us. God has provided for us. On Calvary, the Mount of the LORD, it has been provided. Amen.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lent 5 Judica| Genesis 22:1-14; John 8:56-58| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 3, 2022\u00a0 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, \u201cAbraham!\u201d And he said, \u201cHere am I.\u201d He said, \u201cTake your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2022\/04\/18\/abraham-saw-jesus\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,40,17,7],"tags":[438,250,188],"class_list":["post-5000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-lent-5","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermonsbyrevjamespreus","tag-genesis-22","tag-james-preus","tag-lent-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5001,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions\/5001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}