Portraits of Faith: Trusting God's Promises Through Trials
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"Now here comes his command: take your son, your only son, to the place that I tell you and kill him. Now is that not a direct contradiction? Here is the key to the future of my promises. Here is the promised son for whom you have waited all this time. Now I want you to take this same son and I want you to kill him. The fulfillment of God's promises depended upon Isaac's survival. If Isaac was to die, how could the promise be fulfilled?" [08:44]
"But Abraham took him and was about to do with him what God told him to do. He refused to allow his obedience to the command to cancel his trust in the promise. He didn't say, 'Oh well, I guess that puts an end to all the other stuff.' No, by faith he said, 'God has a plan in this. His promise is that through Isaac all the nations of the earth will be blessed, that in his seed will be all the posterity of the future. God wants me to kill him, fine, he must be going to resurrect him.'" [09:24]
"Now I don't want to make more of this than it is, but I don't want you to miss the point. When the command was given to Abraham, he set about obeying it, and although it was in direct contradiction to the promise God had made, he did his business and he determined to let God do his. And loved ones, that is true at so many junctures in our life." [10:26]
"Yes, is it true that he has promised to save his own? Yes, is it true that we are supposed to preach the gospel and that as a result of our preaching of the gospel men and women will come to repentance and faith? Yes. Oh well, they say, isn't that a bit of a problem, that God has promised to do this and he's commanded us to do that? Well, how does the promise fit with the command? The answer is that's not my problem and it's not yours either. Our problem is obey the command, leave God to fulfill the promise." [11:56]
"By faith stand and look up at this scene, and you're looking there at a man who waited all of these years for the gift of his son, who had changed his whole life on the basis of God's word, to go into a place that he would tell him off, and the fulfillment of the promise is before him on all these sticks, and his hand is above him to kill him, and he is about to do it because his faith is such that he reckoned that if he were to kill him, God would raise him from the dead." [12:49]
"Isaac does not recant of his blessing going to Jacob. He doesn't change his mind, he doesn't change his plans. He recognized that Esau as his firstborn should have received the blessing. Jacob, by his deceit, received the blessing, and God used Jacob's deceit to accomplish his ultimate purpose. Whose deceit was it? Jacob's. Was God responsible for it? Not an iota. Did Jacob and his mother cook it up? They absolutely did. Did it take God by surprise? Not for an instant." [14:26]
"Although Jacob was so desperately unkind to his father, so pathetically misled by his mother, so astonishingly jealous of his brother, yet God helped him, used him, and blessed him. He was desperately unkind to his dad, pathetically manipulated by his mom, astonishingly jealous of his brother, and God says, 'I'm going to bless him, help him, and use him.' Then says Raymond Brown, God's blessings are given not because we deserve them but because we need them." [15:19]
"Joseph spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. Why does he mention this? Well, he mentions this because it's within his purpose. The people of God were buffeted, they were getting ever smaller in number, it would seem. They were saying to themselves, 'I wonder if there is a future,' and so he says, 'Listen, there's a future. Abram says there is, Isaac says there is, Jacob says there is, and there is a future as well,' Joseph says so." [18:49]
"God will take you up, and when he takes you up, make sure you take me up. So don't put me in a very elaborate tomb here in Egypt, which I could obviously have, but just keep my bones in the box. So in years to come, the people would ask, 'Why are the bones in the box?' and they said, 'The bones are in the box because we're going to the promised land,' and Joseph wanted us to be reminded of that, and he reckoned that by his faith he would speak in this way." [19:16]
"That's the first little picture that we have, and it is a picture of not Moses' faith but the faith of his mom and dad, and it is a reminder in passing how important it is for us as young families to establish the parameters for our kids in such a way that they grow up with this kind of history. There is a lot for us to learn from these remarkable stories of faith." [22:41]
"Don't be lying awake in your bed worrying about everything. Oh, what am I doing, where am I going, what will happen? Listen, relax, lie on the floor and rest in the fact that your Father knows best. He moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. The deceit of Jacob, Jacob's own deceit, is in the unfolding plan. The strange experience in the bulrushes is part of his purpose." [22:41]
"God is so good as he takes care of all the details, baskets and cupboards and bull rushes and mothers and sisters and stepbrothers and all of these things under his control. Don't be lying awake in your bed worrying about everything. Oh, what am I doing, where am I going, what will happen? Listen, relax, lie on the floor and rest in the fact that your Father knows best." [22:41]
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"But Abraham took him and was about to do with him what God told him to do. He refused to allow his obedience to the command to cancel his trust in the promise. He didn't say, 'Oh well, I guess that puts an end to all the other stuff.' No, by faith he said, 'God has a plan in this. His promise is that through Isaac all the nations of the earth will be blessed, that in his seed will be all the posterity of the future. God wants me to kill him, fine, he must be going to resurrect him.'" [09:24]
"Now I don't want to make more of this than it is, but I don't want you to miss the point. When the command was given to Abraham, he set about obeying it, and although it was in direct contradiction to the promise God had made, he did his business and he determined to let God do his. And loved ones, that is true at so many junctures in our life." [10:26]
"Yes, is it true that he has promised to save his own? Yes, is it true that we are supposed to preach the gospel and that as a result of our preaching of the gospel men and women will come to repentance and faith? Yes. Oh well, they say, isn't that a bit of a problem, that God has promised to do this and he's commanded us to do that? Well, how does the promise fit with the command? The answer is that's not my problem and it's not yours either. Our problem is obey the command, leave God to fulfill the promise." [11:56]
"By faith stand and look up at this scene, and you're looking there at a man who waited all of these years for the gift of his son, who had changed his whole life on the basis of God's word, to go into a place that he would tell him off, and the fulfillment of the promise is before him on all these sticks, and his hand is above him to kill him, and he is about to do it because his faith is such that he reckoned that if he were to kill him, God would raise him from the dead." [12:49]
"Isaac does not recant of his blessing going to Jacob. He doesn't change his mind, he doesn't change his plans. He recognized that Esau as his firstborn should have received the blessing. Jacob, by his deceit, received the blessing, and God used Jacob's deceit to accomplish his ultimate purpose. Whose deceit was it? Jacob's. Was God responsible for it? Not an iota. Did Jacob and his mother cook it up? They absolutely did. Did it take God by surprise? Not for an instant." [14:26]
"Although Jacob was so desperately unkind to his father, so pathetically misled by his mother, so astonishingly jealous of his brother, yet God helped him, used him, and blessed him. He was desperately unkind to his dad, pathetically manipulated by his mom, astonishingly jealous of his brother, and God says, 'I'm going to bless him, help him, and use him.' Then says Raymond Brown, God's blessings are given not because we deserve them but because we need them." [15:19]
"Joseph spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. Why does he mention this? Well, he mentions this because it's within his purpose. The people of God were buffeted, they were getting ever smaller in number, it would seem. They were saying to themselves, 'I wonder if there is a future,' and so he says, 'Listen, there's a future. Abram says there is, Isaac says there is, Jacob says there is, and there is a future as well,' Joseph says so." [18:49]
"God will take you up, and when he takes you up, make sure you take me up. So don't put me in a very elaborate tomb here in Egypt, which I could obviously have, but just keep my bones in the box. So in years to come, the people would ask, 'Why are the bones in the box?' and they said, 'The bones are in the box because we're going to the promised land,' and Joseph wanted us to be reminded of that, and he reckoned that by his faith he would speak in this way." [19:16]
"That's the first little picture that we have, and it is a picture of not Moses' faith but the faith of his mom and dad, and it is a reminder in passing how important it is for us as young families to establish the parameters for our kids in such a way that they grow up with this kind of history. There is a lot for us to learn from these remarkable stories of faith." [22:41]
"Don't be lying awake in your bed worrying about everything. Oh, what am I doing, where am I going, what will happen? Listen, relax, lie on the floor and rest in the fact that your Father knows best. He moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. The deceit of Jacob, Jacob's own deceit, is in the unfolding plan. The strange experience in the bulrushes is part of his purpose." [22:41]
"God is so good as he takes care of all the details, baskets and cupboards and bull rushes and mothers and sisters and stepbrothers and all of these things under his control. Don't be lying awake in your bed worrying about everything. Oh, what am I doing, where am I going, what will happen? Listen, relax, lie on the floor and rest in the fact that your Father knows best." [22:41]
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