Some Remarks on the Providentially Interrupted Sacrifice of Isaac bu Abraham

Pastor Austin Humphreys Sermon "I'm Gonna Get It All Back!"

A PRESAGE OF THE CROSS

Tonight was day 7 of the “Ten Days of Prayer” at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta. Pastor Austin Humphreys tied his remarks into tonight’s theme, “family.” He bookended reflections on Genesis Chapter 22 (the interrupted sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham) with incidents from his own life. Note: Pastor Austin Humphreys is a “PK” (preacher’s kid).

When Pastor Humphreys was young, his father would go out of town to preach. Young Humphreys would implore him to “bring me a toy” when elder Humphreys returned home. The toy would be similar, or even identical to one given to the pastor’s little brother. The little brother would invariably covet Pastor Humphrey’s toy more than his own, and start whining about it. The pastor’s father would relieve the situation by telling him, “son, give the toy to your brother. You are going to get it back!” This reminiscence is akin to the kind of faith Abraham displayed when he was instructed to offer up Isaac. He was confident that his son would not be gone for good.

Pastor Humphreys emphasized how long Abraham and Sarah had waited for the “child of promise” (Paul’s term for Isaac in Galatians 4:28), and how his birth resulted in a “strong family in the Lord.” The pastor noted, however, that “oftentimes a blessing is accompanied by a hardship.” The pastor remarked upon the tendency of some to try to negotiate with God, placing some things that they are reluctant to lose as being “off limits” from the table of sacrifice. But this was not the attitude that Abraham displayed. Abraham had been promised by God that he would “father many nations,” so he had no qualms about possible consequences arising from honoring God’s unusual request concerning his son.

An old engraving of Abraham and Isaac, from a Christian image site. That is all I know. On Sabbath, I intend t use the depiction by Ghiberti on the Florence Baptistery doors.

When Abraham arrives at the place of sacrifice, he orders his attendants to “Abide ye here with the ass.” The pastor said that, in order for Abraham to follow God’s instructions, it was necessary for him to separate himself from those who may profess to have one’s best interests at heart, but are, in reality, thwarting the purposes of God. The pastor tied this comment into the theme of “family” by saying that when God moves in your family, it is often restricted to the immediate family circle. He admonished us not to put “temporary people” in “permanent places.” The attendants of Abraham would have, no doubt, tried to talk Abraham out of the proposed sacrifice.

Pastor Humphreys told us that some scholars feel that Abraham believed that, having killed his son, God would then proceed to raise him from the dead. Our Tuesday Sabbath School lesson this week deals with the very episode that Pastor Humphreys was relating. I had a hunch that Ellen G. White might be one of the scholars the pastor referred to. Sure enough, on page 151 of “Patriarchs and Prophets,” in the chapter 13, entitled “The Test of Faith,” E.G. White writes, “Isaac was the child of a miracle, and could not the power that gave him life restore it?” All of this foreshadows Jesus, but this is stating the obvious. (“Breath of Life” ex-spokesman, and ex-Berean Lead Pastor Walter Pearson used to often refer to “a writer I admire.” Even before I was an Adventist, I knew who he meant.)

Walter Pearson, former “Breath of Life” spokesman. This former Berean Lead Pastor has a vocabulary that just won’t quit.

The pastor, invoking “family” again, conjectured that the upbringing of Isaac instilled in him the kind of faith that allowed him to calmly acquiesce  to his father’s unusual instructions. Isaac was not a child at the time of this incident, but a young man who was capable of resisting if he so chose. Abraham himself was not hesitant about following divine instructions, and it took God’s quick intervention to stay his hand.

Pastor Humphreys informed us that when we are “obedient to God, the answers will arrive like the ram caught in a thicket.” The pastor stated that “you have to be willing to ask and expect the (ostensibly) impossible from God, and concluded his remarks with another anecdote about his own family. Pastor Humphreys was still a child when his father was called to be pastor at Oakwood (this was news to me, and a pretty big deal: the current pastor at Oakwood is former Berean Lead Pastor Carlton P. Byrd). Pastor Humphreys and his family were anxious about relocating, but he said that “when you allow God in your home, nothing should stand in your way!” And, even though his father died a scant two years later, the pastor would not be where he was today without this providential introduction into the spiritually supercharged ambience of Oakwood. The move was one that the widow and children of the late pastor would benefit from. I have to end this summary with Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Just filler material, the kind of thing I put on FaceBook when I have time: a homeless person snoozing in an entry to the exotic Fox Theater. The mission is two blocks away, the “Peachtree and Pine” shelter.