Genesis 22: Loose Hands

(upbeat music) - Welcome to chapter by chapter four year journey through the greatest book given to the human race. The word of God, the Bible. We get to go through it chapter by chapter. Seven minutes a day and seven days a week. Join us each day and share it with others so they can join this journey that will be life changing. We'll stop at unexpected places on the journey and be challenged. Some verses will create awe and wonder, and we will have chapters that will be instructive. And others will find joy and comfort. We will occasionally be convicted and need to change, but all in all the journey will be worth it. Once in a while we may take a detour on the journey and hear from some of God's servants on their favorite passages from a chapter of scripture and let them give you their insight. Every journey needs a small detour occasionally. The best way to get the most from this podcast is read the chapter we're discussing before after. It's his word that transforms. You'll find more and see more than I can ever articulate. Welcome to chapter by chapter. And today's chapter is Genesis 22. Holocaust survivor and Christian evangelist Cory Timbun once said, "I have learned to hold all things loosely so God will not have to pry them out of my hands. I want to teach you an important lesson about worship from Genesis 22. Those who worship don't just lift up their hands. True worshippers have loose hands. This may not make sense now, but worship is what brought me to New York City. The worship I'm speaking about is nothing to do with music, but everything to do with Genesis 22. A great starting place to study and understand a biblical concept is a research method called the law of first use or the law of first mention. What is the law of first use? It's finding the first time a word is used in the Bible and using it as the starting definition. The law of first use is like the cornerstone of a building. All the other stones are set in reference to the first stone. And here in Genesis 22, we discover worship is used for the first time in an unexpected place. There are no keyboards, there are no microphones, there are no choirs, there is no stage, no lights, no smoke, and there is no LED wall. There are only two people at this worship service, a hundred-year-old man and a teenager. Let's let the centenary and teach us what worship is. Genesis 22 is powerful. The story when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. It's not only unthinkable, it's unprecedented. Right after the miracle birth of Isaac in Genesis 21, we can't even catch our breath, and we are hit with this in Genesis 22. Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am, and he said, take now your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Mariah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So Abraham arose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes, saw the place from a distance, and Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, and I in the lad will go over there, and we will worship, and then return to you. God asked Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, and Abraham called this act worship. He was redefining a word that has been lost in music. That day worship would not be singing, but worship would be obedience. Worship would have to have loose hands because God was asking Abraham to let go of something that was valuable to him. Christian author, K. Arthur said, if you do not plan to live the Christian life totally committed to knowing your God and to walking in obedience to him, then don't begin. For this is what Christianity is all about. It's a change of citizenship, change of government, change of allegiance, and if you have no intention of letting Christ rule your life, then forget Christianity. It's not for you. That's loose hands talk. When Abraham said to the young men, stay here with the donkey, and I in the lad will go over there, and we will worship, he said, we will worship and return to you. There's an element of faith in that statement and return to you. It seemed he was speaking of resurrection, not an angel stopping the burnt offering for those that know the end of the story. I've asked this question, how did we turn worship into singing? We have drifted from its original use. We have services turning into a concert with low light smoke machines and a timer that says done in 17 minutes. The attenders drink coffee in the sanctuary, watching but not participating. It's much easier to let others do it for them. The stage becomes unaware of what is happening in the audience because they are not leading people in worship. They are asking you to watch them perform. How did we turn worship into singing? Because singing makes no demands on your life, but worship does. It did for Abraham and Isaac. What is worship? It's when I offer to God not only my mistakes, but my miracles. Don't forget, there are two sons in Abraham's life, Isaac and Ishmael. One son comes from a mistake and the other comes from a miracle. Isaac was the promise and the miracle. I think if God was asking for Ishmael, this would have been easy. Ishmael was a symbol of Abraham's mistake and impatience when he would not wait on God, but try to come up with his own way to make God's purposes happen sooner. But God asks for the hard thing. God asks for the miracle. I had a friend that has long been with the Lord. He was from Wales and told me on one of my visits with him to go to a Jewish rabbinical bookstore in Brooklyn, New York and buy a Tumash. He said, "When you read the Torah, you will see how the Jews saw the story that you read in your Bible." The Tumash speaks to the tradition of the story. I want you to see something I discovered when I read Genesis 22 in this rabbinical commentary. I read that Genesis 22 was not just a command, but it was a conversation. We see commas in this verse in our Bible, but tradition believes this was a conversation. It was Abraham's pushback. He was what I read in Genesis 22. He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Mariah and offer him there as a burn offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you." Like Cory Timboon said, "God had a pry Abraham's hands off the miracle. Let me explain what I learned by showing you the conversation from the Jewish perspective from the Tumash." God said, "Take now your son, where the comma is, they believe Abraham responded and pushed back like this. God, I have two sons, God speaks. Your only son, the commas where Abraham speaks again, "God, they're both my sons. God keeps going and won't let it go." And says, "The one whom you love, the commas where Abraham speaks again." "Come on, God, I love them both." And then the finality of the conversation, God says one word. Isaac, no more commas, no more back and forth, Abraham got found out, God named it. Worship is giving to God what you love, not what you don't want. True worship is not asking for singing, but asking for you to lay down what you love. Billy Graham said, "When we come to Christ, we're no longer the most important person in the world to us. Christ is. Instead of living only for ourselves, we have a higher goal to live for Jesus." Worship says, "I have no boundaries." Worship says, "Nothing is off limits." Worship says, "God can request anything He wants." There is no relationship, no dream, no goal, no friend, no possession that is in my control. It all belongs to you. There is a song we sing occasionally at church that I am singing differently now because of Genesis 22. I want to make sure it is really worship. The chorus says, "You are worthy of it all." All is what the worship says God can have. Worship is telling God my life doesn't have any no trespassing signs. My whole life is God's property. You have access to it all because you are worthy of it all. Worship brought me to New York City because God asked me to hold on to everything loosely. We love where we lived and then God gives us a Genesis 22 moment. My journey in ministry started with loose hands. David described the posture of worship best in Psalm 956. When he says, "Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." Worship is recognizing He is God and submitting to Him is true worship. Giving up sin, that's ish meal and that gets you salvation. Giving up that which you love, that's Isaac. And that's what they write biographies about. They write the stories that lay it all down. Thank you for joining chapter by chapter. Every chapter from the greatest book, the Bible, the Word of God. Seven minutes a day, seven days a week. We'll see you tomorrow.