The Test of Faith | Genesis 22
Phil Krause | January 4, 2026
My name is Phil Krause. It is my privilege to open God’s word with you today. Pastor Brian is taking a well-deserved break, and so we will be in Genesis 22.
We’ve started a new year, and if you’re like me, you might be thinking, “I wonder what this year is going to hold. What surprises will be in it? What will I find to bring great joy and what is going to be a difficult test?”
Today we’re going to look at a scene from the life of Abraham when his faith was tested and he passed. We’ll also see God’s amazing provision in the midst of that test.
Well, so you might be thinking, “Will my faith be tested this year? Will I pass, or what even is a test of faith?”
A test of faith happens anytime you face the choice to believe or not believe something God has said. Your response to his word demonstrates what you really believe.
So today we’re going to look at this test of Abraham’s faith, his response of surrender and obedience; and all along the way we’ll try to apply this to ourselves and also see how we can see Jesus pictured here. Okay?
Genesis 22. This happens when Abraham is already an old man. Scholars estimate that his son Isaac was probably at least in his teens, maybe as old as in his thirties when this happened. Even though Abraham refers to him as “the boy,” that term could be translated “the young man.” We’ll look at Genesis 22:1-19. I’m going to be reading from the Christian Standard Bible. Hear now the word of the Lord.
“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, ‘Abraham!’
‘Here I am,’ he answered.
‘Take your son,’ he said, ‘your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’
So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.’ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together.
Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, ‘My father.’
And he replied, ‘Here I am, my son.’
Isaac said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’
Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ Then the two of them walked on together.
When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’
He replied, ‘Here I am.’
Then he said, ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.’ Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, ‘It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.’
Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, ‘By myself I have sworn,’ this is the Lord’s declaration: ‘Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.’
Abraham went back to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham settled in Beer-sheba.”
This is God’s word.
So, there are three things to consider this morning in this passage:
1. The Test of Abraham’s Faith
2. Abraham’s Response
3. God’s Provision
1. The Test of Abraham’s Faith
I’m going to say it again: a person’s faith is tested anytime they’re confronted with the choice of whether or not to believe something God has said.
These instructions from the Lord seemed to be a massive contradiction to God’s earlier promises to Abraham. Let’s think about this. What had God said to Abraham? We call it now—theologians call it—the Abrahamic covenant. It was first expressed in Genesis 12. There were four aspects to it, four things God was promising to this guy who was as yet childless, seventy-five years old at that point. Dale Ralph Davis alliterates those four things with p’s to make it easier to remember. He calls it God’s quad promise to Abram.
God promised him a people. Remember he said, “I will make a great nation out of you.” He also promised his protection and presence when he said, “I will bless those who bless you and I’m going to curse those who curse you.” Thirdly, this quad promise included a program or a plan that went a lot farther than just, “I’m going to give you kids.” God said, “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” That’s pretty massive. Then fourth, God promised a place. He said, “Go to the land I will show you,” and he said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
So I want to quickly just visit some of the scenes in Abraham’s life to pick up on patterns we see, especially as it relates to faith or unbelief, from his perspective, in Abraham’s life; that is, whether or not he trusted the Lord. Then we’ll dive into Genesis 22.
So Abraham did leave his home; he traveled to the land of Canaan. He obeyed. He trusted God. His faith was tested in that moment, and he passed. That was in Genesis 12. And by the way, Abram builds an altar to the Lord there. He worships him.
Then there’s this little incident where Abram is fearful that damage will come to him because of his beautiful wife Sarai, and so he tells the Egyptians that she is his sister. He tells Pharaoh that. He acted in unbelief. No altar here in Egypt, no trusting God. Remember, God had promised his protection to Abram, but he chooses fear over faith and he tells a lie about Sarai’s identity. His faith is tested, and he doesn’t do so great in that moment. Well, God protects and blesses him in spite of his lack of faith.
In chapter 13, though, he goes back to the place he had first made an altar and he calls on the name of the Lord. Communion is restored.
Then Abram and his nephew Lot have to go separate ways. Abram kindly tells Lot, “You can choose first.” That takes faith. That takes faith. They split up; God reiterates his promise to Abram. He tells him his descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth. So Abram again builds an altar to the Lord.
In chapter 15, Abram and God have a key conversation. The word of the Lord comes to Abram in a vision, and this time Abram asks God some clarifying questions. “Lord, you promised me all these offspring, and so far I have zero. In fact, my legal heir is my servant Eliezer of Damascus.” God says in essence, “No, he’s not going to inherit your things when you’re gone. It’s going to be your own son. One who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
Again, Abram responds in faith. Genesis 15:6 is a famous verse quoted in the New Testament. It says, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” So Abram passes that test.
In this vision or dream, God then ratifies his covenant with Abram. You may remember the scene where he cuts animals in half and the flaming torch passes between them.
Then in chapter 16, Abram and Sarai decide to try to help God out. They take matters into their own hands, and Sarai’s servant girl, Hagar, has Ishmael by Abram. That proves to be a disastrous decision. It’s not faith-based at all, not waiting for God’s timing. All through the life of Abraham and Sarah, we see these opportunities to respond in unbelief or faith, and sometimes they trust and sometimes they fail.
We’re all that way to some degree, aren’t we? We’re all fumbling and bumbling through life, unable to see exactly how it’s all going to work out.
Remember Sarai laughing in the tent when the Lord tells them that she, now an old lady, is going to have a baby? That’s not exactly a faith-filled moment for Sarah. You know, the Lord says, “Why did you laugh?” And she says, “Oh, I didn’t laugh.” He said, “Yeah you did.” So the baby’s born and they name him “laughter”—Isaac. I love that.
Abraham pleads with God as he intercedes for the city of Sodom. That is a scene dripping with faith and perseverance in prayer. But then it’s like déjà vu all over again when Abraham and Sarah tell Abimelech, king of Gerar, that she is his sister. Are they acting from faith or unbelief in that moment? It’s unbelief.
Aren’t you thankful that the Bible doesn’t sugarcoat things and present us with flawless, perfect heroes of the faith? No. Abraham is referred to as the father of faith, and yet in so many of these scenes from his life we see him operating from a place of fear or self-sufficiency or trying to do it himself instead of trusting God. I don’t know about you, but I can relate to that.
So, here in Genesis 22, then, now God is bringing him this huge test. “Sacrifice your son.” Did you notice how clear God is in specifying which son? Verse two: “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.”
By the way, that’s the first use of the word “love” in the Bible, in Genesis. It’s the first time that that word is used, and I think it’s really a sweet thing that it’s used in reference to the tender affection of a father for his son.
Three times in this chapter God calls Isaac Abraham’s only son. This is “only” not in the sense of numbers, because obviously he had Ishmael already, but from the perspective of the covenant, Isaac was the only son with any claims. And I think also that the use of the word “only” here is a faint hint at the day that God the Father will sacrifice his only begotten son. Legally though, Isaac was the heir. He was the son of promise, the one through whom God was going to begin carrying out his promises to Abraham.
So, Abraham is facing this monumental, heart-rending decision. God is asking him to do something that seems to go against his very specific promise to Abraham. “Give me your son.”
English pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached on this passage in 1869. He said,
“Every syllable of the text is significant. The words are all a case of knives cutting at Abraham’s soul. There is scarce a single syllable of God’s address to him in the opening of this trial but seems intended to pierce the patriarch to the quick.”
Abraham was tested.
We know from the book of James that God never tempts anyone. In other words, he never induces us to sin. Now our flesh does that; the evil world system that we live in does that; Satan tempts us. God does not. But he does try or prove our faith, meaning he orchestrates situations to show that we trust him, and that’s what was going on here.
So let me pause and ask, what promises has God made to you through his word that you’re now facing circumstances that are forcing you to either believe what he says or act in unbelief? Maybe you’ll face a huge test of your faith this year. Pastor Brian, when he preached on this passage, had this little list I want to read to you.
You may be tested with a sudden loss.
You may be tested by an unexpected diagnosis.
It might be a surprise change of circumstance.
Or testing may come as God moves you to a new level of obedience or some new way to serve him that will involve sacrifice on your part.
In those moments, God is testing you. He’s testing your faith. He’s asking, “Are you going to trust me?” That’s the test Abraham faced.
2. Abraham’s Response
Let’s look now at Abraham’s response. Did he waffle? Did he argue? Did he drag his feet? No! In fact, everything in the text indicates it’s really the opposite. It says he got up early in the morning and made preparations for the long trip. I mean, it was a three-day road trip one way. So I guess saddling his donkey in those days would be like putting gas in your vehicle. I don’t know. There was no Starbucks to stop at on the way out of Beersheba, so they had to bring whatever coffee or trail mix or whatever they needed for the trip.
Notice the step-by-step descriptions of what Abraham did. They almost feel like they’re being played back in slow motion with some kind of ominous music playing underneath it.
He split the wood. That one stands out to me because I like to split wood. Think about that. Abraham, he’s probably 120, 130 years old by this point. He’s splitting firewood for the purpose of burning up his son’s lifeless body.
Here’s how Spurgeon put it in that same sermon.
He was a sheikh and a mighty man in his camp, but he became a wood splitter, thinking no work menial if done for God and reckoning the work too sacred for other hands. With splitting heart he cleaves the wood, wood for the burning of his heir, wood for the sacrifice of his own dear child.
Can you imagine the emotions that must have been swirling in Abraham’s heart as they traveled those forty-five miles from Beersheba to Moriah? I mean, he has to be thinking, “God wants me to do what? Isaac is the son of promise! Why? Why would he ask me to do this?”
Whatever his thoughts were, there’s no question about his rock-solid faith in this instant. We see clues to his trust in the words that came from his mouth. Notice that when God called Abraham’s name, Abraham responds with, “Here I am.” In other words, “I’m listening. What do you want, Lord? I’m ready to obey.” That was an attitude of surrender.
We hear his faith in the comments that he makes to the servants. He said, “The boy or the young man and I will go over there to worship and then we’ll come back to you.” “We will come back.” Not just “I will come back”; “we will come back.” That’s faith.
There’s faith in his answer to Isaac’s very practical question: “Okay, Dad, we brought the lighter and we’ve got the firewood. Where’s the sacrifice? Did we forget it?” Abraham tells him, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” That’s faith too—solid, unwavering.
I mean, this went way beyond a flippant, you know, “God’s going to take care of this.” Abraham clearly was ready to go all the way. It says he tied up his son. He put him on the wood. Incidentally, this whole account in Jewish circles is referred to as the Akedah, literally meaning “the binding,” because of the fact that he tied his son. He reached for the blade that was intended to make his son bleed and die.
The author to the Hebrews comments on this scene.
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises, and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said, ‘Your offspring will be traced through Isaac.’ He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead. Therefore he received him back, figuratively speaking.”
So yes, in the past, Abraham has had some rough patches when it came to trusting God. But now he passed the test, as we say, with flying colors.
Writing about the obedience of faith seen in the life of Abraham, Dr. Crawford Loritts says we should consider three important lessons from Abraham.
(1) First, to obey God when we don’t know where we’re going. Remember, God had told Abraham, “Leave your home, go where I show you.”
(2) Second, to obey God even when we don’t know when God is going to fulfill his promise. Remember that whole situation with the timing of when Isaac was born, that that was a difficult step of obedience for Abraham and Sarah.
(3) Third, to obey God even when we don’t know why he’s leading us the way he is. And we see that, of course, in his asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
Crawford Loritts writes,
“Faith does not shrink back from painful sacrifice. Even if we don’t know where, when, or why, we must be willing to give up the very thing God promised us. If we defiantly cling to what he’s given to us, then his gift has taken his [meaning the giver’s] place. This is something you and I should never do. Faith is far more than an abstract concept. It’s obedience every time.”
So, the obvious question this morning is, do I love God so completely, do I trust him so unquestioningly that I’m going to do what he says, no matter what? Or am I loving his gifts more than I love him, the giver? And do I fear the Lord? Remember, the angel told him, he commended Abraham—he said, “Now I know that you fear God, since you’ve not withheld your only son from me.”
So, do I have that overwhelming sense of holy reverence and awe and even holy dread at the thought of disobeying him? That’s all wrapped up in this concept of fearing God.
Abraham’s was a response of faith and surrender, grounded in his fear of the Lord and evidenced by his immediate and complete obedience.
3. God’s Provision
Let’s look, third, at God’s provision. What did God provide?
(1) I think in this story we see God providing several things. The most obvious thing is a substitute, his provision of the ram caught in the thicket by its horns. It was a substitute, a sacrifice that took the place of the one who would have died. Already in the story, Abraham told his son, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” He trusted. I’m sure he didn’t know exactly how all the details were going to work out, but he knew God would not lie, and even if Isaac was slain, he would live again. So, the most obvious provision in this passage is that God provided the lamb, this ram in the thicket.
(2) We also see, secondly, that God provided a blessing. Look at verses 15-18. “Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, ‘By myself I have sworn.’” In other words, “There’s nothing greater than I am, so I have to swear by myself. It’s all on me here.” That’s what God is saying.
“This is the Lord’s declaration: Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”
So, this was a restatement of many of the aspects of that covenant, yet again. What an amazing promise to Abraham!
(3) I think if we look carefully, we’ll also see that God was providing more things in that moment. Thirdly, he was also providing Abraham and Isaac and all of us a revelation, a better understanding of who he is, his character. Notice that Abraham names the place “the Lord will provide.” Yahweh Yireh. Literally in Hebrew, “the Lord will see.” But “the Lord will provide” is a good translation, because in modern thinking, we think of seeing as a passive thing. Not in the ancient Hebrew way of thinking. Seeing in their way of thinking was more active. So some theologians have said, you could translate this, Yahweh Yireh, as “the Lord will see to it.” That’s the idea here. God is going to take care of things.
Isn’t it cool that Abraham’s first impulse was to give the place a name that brought honor to God? I mean, he could have named this spot, you know, Close Call Mountain or Isaac’s Escape Peak or the Torture of Abraham Trail. I don’t know! But no, Abraham wanted the attention to be drawn to the Lord. He called it “the Lord will provide.”
He was saying, “My God is a God who sees to things. He provides.” It’s not just something God did in that moment; it’s something about who he is.
Incidentally, in 2 Chronicles 3, it says that Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah. That’s fascinating, because at this point in Abraham’s world, it’s scrubby woods—I don’t know what exactly it looked like—but Abraham is offering his son one day where, hundreds of years later, it’s the very place where thousands of sacrifices are going to be offered. And perhaps not far from here, a place where the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world will be offered up once for all. So, he’s Yahweh Yireh, our providing God.
What other aspects of his character do we see? He’s a covenant-keeping God. Remember, he had promised something to Abraham, and he still kept that promise. He made a way for that promise to be kept.
(4) Fourth, his sense of timing is often very different from ours. That’s something else that Abraham learned about God’s character. God seems to love to wait until all possible hope is lost.
In the late 1700s, the poet William Cowper (he’s known for his hymns like “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”) was a friend of John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace.” Well, William Cooper wrote this hymn reflecting on that name Jehovah Jireh, or Yahweh Yireh, specifically as it relates to God’s last-minute timing. Listen to these encouraging words.
“The saints should never be dismayed
Nor sink in hopeless fear,
For when they least expect his aid,
The Savior will appear.
“This Abraham found: he raised the knife,
God saw and said, ‘Forbear.
Yon ram shall yield his meaner life;
Behold the victim there.
“Once David seemed Saul’s certain prey,
But hark! the foe’s at hand!
Saul’s enemy turned another way
To save the invaded land.
“When Jonah sank beneath the wave,
He thought to rise no more,
But God prepared a fish to save
And bear him to the shore.
“Blessed proofs of power and grace divine
That meet us in his word!
May every deep-felt care of mine
Be trusted with the Lord.
“Wait for his seasonable aid,
And though it tarry, wait.
The promise may be long delayed,
But cannot come too late.”
I love that. Abraham, David, Jonah, and so many others throughout history have learned to wait on the Lord and trust his timing. He is, as some have called him, the God of the eleventh hour. Maybe you’ve experienced that.
(5) I think we see God’s character, too, in the fact that he values life. God prevented Isaac’s death. Now the pagan nations all around Abraham in those days worshipped idols that they thought demanded human sacrifices to appease their anger. God is not that way. We see that by the way the story turned out, that he never intended for Abraham to actually kill Isaac. So God provided a better understanding of his character.
(6) Finally, in this story God provides us with a beautiful picture. Here’s what I mean. When we read this story with New Testament eyes, it explodes with parallels—amazing, colorful, not-so-subtle hints at the gospel, and foreshadowing. We call it the foreshadowing of the Messiah. Jesus said in John 5 that all of the Scriptures point to him. So it makes sense that, even though this happened approximately two thousand years before Christ walked on the earth in human body, we still see him foreshadowed. We see him pictured beautifully.
We see a beautiful picture of Jesus in Isaac, right? Isaac’s the chosen son of promise, the only son of the father, the son loved by the father, who willingly submitted to his father’s will. We think a lot about Abraham’s faith in this, but Isaac had to be trusting in God in this as well. Isaac carried the wood intended for his own death. So did Jesus, as he struggled beneath the weight of the cross. Both were tied or constrained in some way and laid on the wood. Both were ready to shed their own blood.
Second, we see Jesus pictured in the ram caught in the thicket. Here was the innocent substitute who died in the place of another. Jesus shed his own blood as the perfect, spotless Lamb of God.
I believe we see both God the Father and God the Son pictured in Abraham; Abraham, the father who was willing to give his only son whom he loved. He pictures God the Father, who, Romans 8 says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.”
I think Abraham also shows us the mind of Christ with his “Here I am, Lord” attitude. He obediently followed God’s plan, at great cost to himself. Remember Jesus’ prayer as he was sweating great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane? He didn’t want to do what he knew he had to do, so he prayed, “Father, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” That was the great climactic test of his faith.
The angel of the Lord in this story, in Genesis 22, was probably a preincarnate appearance of Jesus himself, intervening mediating, calling out, putting a stop to the violent death that would have come.
So, to review, we’ve looked today at the test of Abraham’s faith, we’ve considered his response, and we’ve seen how God provided not just the ram, but also a blessing and a clear glimpse into his character as well as a picture of his greater plan.
I’d like to close where I started today. We’re at the beginning of a new year. You and I are going to have tests, moments where our faith is tested. They may not be as dramatic—they won’t be as dramatic—as Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah, but they will come.
So the question for each of us today is, will we respond like Abraham did? Will we have faith? Will we willingly surrender our wills to God’s, and will we fear him and prove that faith and fear by our obedience? Will we rest on his wisdom and worship him for providing us with all we need for life and godliness in Christ? Let’s ask the Lord, who gave his Son for us, to make it so in our lives. I’m going to pray, and then after that we’ll go straight into a time of reflection where you can think through, “How does this apply to my life?” After that we’ll sing together. So let’s pray.
Father, thank you for this story. Thank you for Abraham’s example to us. Thank you for what it teaches us about you. When our faith is tested, help us to respond humbly and obediently. Help us to trust your word, help us to wait on your timing; help us to worship you in response to your revelation of yourself. Thank you that all the promises, all of your promises are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. By yourself you have sworn, so even our faithfulness really is only because you will hold us fast. Remind us that if we fear our faith will fail, you’ll hold us! If temptation hits us hard, you’ll hold us fast. It’s all by your grace, for your glory, that we pray today. We pray in Jesus’ name, our Lamb offered for us, amen.
Phil Krause
