God Loves… Himself

Ezekiel 28:17 – “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.”

The New Testament speaks highly of Abraham and his faith, so unless we have read the Old Testament we would not see the battle of his heart. Abraham was indeed of the promised seed and he is looked at in the New Testament as the standard of faith. “Yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform” (Romans 4:20-21). Yet Abraham was a man that made some blunders. He went in with Hagar who was Sarai’s maid at the request of Sarai so that she might obtain a child through Hagar. That had disastrous consequences. Once again he looked to his own reasoning and had Sarai (who was now Sarah) pretend to be his sister in order that he would be treated kindly by Abimelech. God’s promise had faded into the background for the moment.

The issue of self comes up and we think that we are in our own hands and left to our own devices. This is the battle that human beings have to face each and every day. Do we believe in the promises of God or do we follow the reasoning and promises of self? Abraham fought the battle and sometimes he fell behind but God kept him from falling completely. Abraham had received promises directly from God and even a strong covenant promise from God. The direct promises of God also included Sarai and God changed her name to Sarah. Yet the battle of self and of pride was still there. It seems as if the pull of self that is in the heart of all human beings came out in Abraham and it is amazing to us now. Yet we have the promises to Abraham made clear and we even have a resurrected Savior who also ascended into heaven. Even more, the Father and the Son have sent the Spirit. Yet the battle with self continues. God promises to be the possession of His people. He promises to dwell in them and that they would partake of His very life. Yet we still sin. How ugly is that pride and self as we rationalize and reason to ourselves about how we are to do what God commands in our own way.

The battle that Abraham had was epitomized in his son Isaac who was the child of promise. We must remember that Abraham was the seed of the woman and that seed was going to be passed on through him to someone. It was not going to be Ishmael who was the result of a plan to help God out. It was going to be Isaac who was to be the child of older parents and whose mother had been barren until then. When Sarah had Isaac one can only imagine how joyful Abraham and Sarah were. They had waited for years and now not only did they have a on in their old age, but they saw the promises of God being fulfilled. But then God commanded Abraham to take Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering (Gen 22:1-2). The battle that went on within Abraham the next three days as he journeyed to the place where he was to sacrifice Isaac must have been intense. God had made promises about Isaac it was in Isaac that all of His promises would be fulfilled (at least in the line of Isaac). Now God told him to go and sacrifice Isaac. It would have been so easy for Abraham to have reasoned his way out of this as he had reasoned about Hagar and the two times he told others that Sarai/Sarah was his sister. It is true that she was part sister, but that is not what Abraham was saying to the kings. It was nothing more than a lie in an attempt to do his part to save his own skin. The inward wrestling that Abraham went though had to have been very intense. But after he had learned his lessons, he now knew that God would not lie no matter what and that God could do as He pleased. Nothing would or could stop God from keeping His promises.

Hebrews 11 tells us of the incredible faith of Abraham: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (Heb 11:17-19). As Abraham walked along he either came to the conclusion of Hebrews 11 or he came to that conclusion immediately and did not waver from it during the three day journey to the place of sacrifice. His faith is seen in Genesis 22:5 when he said that “I and the lad will go very there; and we will worship and return to you.” He said that both would return. The faith in the promises of God that was in Abraham overcame the power of self and the reasoning of self and Abraham was going to kill and burn his son in a sacrifice while believing that God would raise him from the dead in order to keep His promises. The promises of God were ultimately kept in the seed of the woman and the seed of Abraham years later. They were kept in Jesus Christ who was killed as a sacrifice. He was also raised from the dead. It is nothing but pride to argue God’s promise can come in any other way. How wicked is the pride of the human heart.

This entry was posted on May 5, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Pride. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.