Dev Ramcharan - Class 5: Take Now Your Son, Your Only Son Whom You Love

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   This is the Rocky Mountain Bible School, Friday, June 28, 2019. This is the final class of our brother Dev Ramshram, class number five. His theme this week is Abraham Believed God. The title of today's class is, Take Now Your Son, Your Only Son, Whom You Love. Brother Dev.

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   Good morning, brothers and sisters. Good morning. I see the group seems smaller this morning, which means that some folks may have departed. A couple of things before we begin. I just wanted to thank the organizers, all those who have been working in the school, for a lovely Bible school. And I want to thank you as brothers and sisters for your kindness, your thoughtfulness, the bags of Cheetos and chips.

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   And other nutritional pillars upon which I leaned through the course of the week. Catching up on my studies as people enjoyed hot springs and sulfur. So, thank you very, very much for a lovely school and for everything we've done together. We're going to begin this morning, not in Genesis, but in 1 Peter chapter 2.

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   In 1 Peter chapter 2, we're going to go to a section which might not seem to be as applicable to what we're looking at in Genesis, but let's see. 1 Peter chapter 2. Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 !

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   Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 Week 10 ! Week 10 ! Week 10 with an ecclesia that is going through persecution. Great trouble. Conflict with the world outside and conflict inside of the ecclesia likewise. The worst is coming out of brothers and sisters and their interactions with each other as the worst is being unleashed on the ecclesia in a time of great persecution.

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   Probably around the time of the Emperor Nero who was clinically disturbed. He was mentally unwell. It's clear from the behavior of Nero that something was seriously wrong. It wasn't just bad behavior by a Roman emperor. It went way beyond that. At a particular point in time, Nero and his henchmen, based on a whim, in his head, which drove him to think that he wanted to rebuild sections of Rome so that they were more beautiful along Greek architectural lines, burnt down almost half the city.

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   Thousands of people died in the fire and the mood of the city turned in a disastrous direction for him. The Christadelphians, the Christians, who were a people that held themselves apart from everyone else and didn't run to the same level of riots and abandon that the society did, were easy marks. They were easy people to use as scapegoats.

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   And Nero did the most horrible things to the Christians at that particular point in time. Rolling some of them in tallow, covering their bodies with wool, having them tied to posts, and setting them alight as torches that he could drive his chariot in and amongst. In plays at the time, theatrical productions, usually Greek plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, what would happen is, if a character had to die, a man or a woman, they'd put a Christian on stage and literally kill the individual in the play.

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   Terrible things happened at that time. And yet look at what Peter says. Verse 17. At a time when it was brutally difficult to do these things, honor all men.

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    Love the brotherhood. Honor the king. And the king was Nero. And so what Peter is instructing his brothers and sisters to do is the last thing that would be easy for them to do. It was the last thing on their mind. Honor all men, including those who are doing these wretched things to us.

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    Love the brotherhood with all its troubles, all its inconsistencies, all the hypocrisy, all the bad behavior, all the lack of support, all the things that make the brotherhood less than what it should be. Why should I love that? I'm so disappointed in it, so disappointed in the ecclesia. Love the king, honor the king.

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    And that word, honor, means to value highly, to esteem as very valuable. That's what it means. Now he doesn't, he doesn't just ask them to do these things without giving them a framework or a spiritual context, a perspective within which they'll do these difficult things he's asking them to do. He goes on and writes, servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

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    Froward. The word is skolios. It means bent, crooked, twisted. Masters that were not good. And so they are to be subject. They are to be in subjection. That same word that is used in connection with the wives. They are to be subject to their masters and not be rebels. rebels. In a time of rebellion and horror.

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    They were to be the kinds of servants who submitted. And he says, look, what glory is it if you are beaten after you've done something wrong? But if you do right and get beaten for it, well, that's something that's worth something in God's eyes. That's thankworthy. That's something that is to be looked at as as something that is beneficial or worthy of praise.

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    And then he goes on and says, for even here unto were you called. You were called to buffetings. You were called to trouble. You were called to less than ideal circumstances. You were called to imperfect ecclesias. You were called being an imperfect man or woman into all the perfection that is in this world and to still be in it as God's child.

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    A person of faith. Even here unto were ye called, he says, because Christ also suffered for you, not for us, for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps who did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.

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    what Peter has just done, what God has done through Peter is tied the atonement to their everyday, daily lives and all its frustrations. Effectively, what Peter is saying is we honor the king because that is what the atonement teaches us. That is what our faith requires of us. That we honor a dishonorable king.

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    That we honor all men irrespective of their quality, ethically, morally. That we love the brotherhood with all of its imperfections. He then goes on, having talked about the Lord Jesus Christ, who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we having died unto sins might live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed.

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    For ye were going astray like sheep, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. Now that word likewise means in the same way, in the same way as what? As Christ gave himself in his act, in his daily life, in his act of tremendous faith and obedience and love that chose its object with decision of will, agape love, in the same way.

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    Now what that would seem to be saying to us is, husbands are not always lovable. Husbands are not always naturally triggering the admiration of their wives. There are times when a wife chooses, when it is not natural to submit herself to her husband in spite of his quality, in spite of however he may be at that particular point in time.

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    that's not to say that a sister puts up with dangerous circumstances in the house of a man who could do violence or has done violence or is doing violence to her. That's not what this is saying. But a sister has a context and a framework, a container within which to understand her submission to her husband.

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    It is tied to the atonement. she is doing the atonement in her life, in her submission to her husband. And it goes on and it says that if any obey not the word, they also may, without the word, be won by the behavior, the conversation, the behavior of their wives. And traditionally we have interpreted that to be in connection with individuals who may be married to someone outside the truth.

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    But there are times when your brother husband who is in the truth isn't. When you are carrying the spiritual can and you are exhausted, burnt out, trying your best to hold on with the children and all their needs and all their struggles and a marriage that is barely holding together there. And a husband who is not involved in anything spiritual, he's not interested, he's checked out, he's robotically showing up to things but he's not even there.

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    It's the figure of your husband that's there, not him. again. And that's the moment in time potentially where you choose to continue to love your husband, to honor him and to submit to him. In the hope that by doing this whatever the outcome might be you are honoring God and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ but also that that could eventually turn him so that he realizes you know what I can't be this way anymore this isn't right and this is not making me happy being as I am I am going to join her and be with her in these things and straighten myself out.

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    Peter then goes on to say while they behold your chaste behavior with fear now marriage has no fear in it it must not have fear in it of a wife towards her husband that fear is towards God fear of God reverence for God fear of his might and awe towards him but at the same time reverential feeling towards God which then drives how we behave as wives whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel now that doesn't mean that you know a sister walks around in burlap sack or a burka and you know just doesn't care about how she looks at all but what this is saying is that's not the obsessive heart and center of her life there were women at this particular point in time in history who took the most precious material that was available to them it wasn't diamonds it was pearls and rich women would sometimes have pearls woven into their hairdos that took hours to get done and some of those people might come to the ecclesia like !

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    Peter says that's not your life that's not who you are sister don't let that be the heart and he says let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price and it sounds like a description of Sarah doesn't it well it is that is what it is a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God the revised version says hoped in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord the sister once had said she was having some difficulties with her husband they were a young couple and she wouldn't listen to anything he said and when she was talked to by someone she said if he was more godly I'd listen to him as soon as he's more Christ like I'll do what he says I'll take his guidance and direction but he's not so I don't think I have to that is the opposite of what you've just read because what you've just read is this through thick and thin !

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    matter what takes Abram Abraham made no matter how terrible the situations were that his half truths put her into she continued to be in subjection to him even as Sarah calling him Lord the love the respect that Sarah had for her husband through thick and thin now if Peter has been talking all along up to this point in time about doing an act in connection with the atonement as a part of her everyday life that is performed in difficult opposing circumstances then that means that this must be the same thing going on he's saying Sarah did this when it was not easy to be in subjection to Abraham she still did it calling him Lord in her heart in her heart this is a woman of faith at work whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any terror meaning don't be afraid of what the world can do to you in this persecution trust in God be subject to your husband the point is this is the measure of that wonderful woman who God put at Abraham's side she did the atonement in her subjection to a man who was not easy always to be subject unto and so we go now to Genesis chapter 22 and the end of chapter 21 says and Abraham sojourned in the Philistines land many days many days now we are not told how many days but it may mean many years quite a few years pass enough time for Isaac to grow up enough time for Isaac to not be a small child you know the little child that you

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    see in the children's Bible storybooks as depicted you know small he could be eight maybe ten years old in those story books but he was in Philistine territory for many years came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham he proved him he put him to the proof now as brother Jim has been telling us our life and the truth all that we go through the mistakes that we make the things that we learn it's all a period of training it's all training what happens in the world after we've gotten trained in something well you have a test you have an exam it shows you the quality of what you know the extent to which you understood the material and are able to show the answers to the questions but put on the level of the heart of our lives spiritually speaking there are those milestones in life where the father puts us to the test we become very clear in our minds as to how much additional growth and development we need and Abraham had that at several key points in his life he had it in the matter of the descent into Egypt he had it in connection with Hagar and the ruse the artificial unsanctioned plan that he played along with hoping that through Hagar the promise of seed might be fulfilled he has it again and it must have hurt him and moved into tears in privacy when he failed in connection with Abimelech and to heap more pain on top of that the goodness and the integrity of this man was such as to demonstrate how far he

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    himself had to travel and so the many days would be a period of reflection of learning of decision making Abraham Abraham now would say to himself I am never going to be in a situation again it doesn't matter what God asks me to do it doesn't matter how bad things look where I lose my faith and panic and try to figure things out with my own thinking I'm not doing it again I'm going to believe and trust in God with everything in me this child is a miracle child I have this child because God gave him to me God gave me promises I believe them to the core of my being now and I believe he's with me he is my shield because no matter what a fool I was in my life he was always there and got me out of my trouble and he he will also be the one who will recompense me for all the trouble of my life in the fulfillment of those promises he's given me I believe it and I'm not going to make the mistake again every man in this room knows what that feels like every woman in this room knows what that feels like those mistakes we make that are so bitterly bruising which we learn from and they change us they alter the direction of our lives of the movement and the flow the feelings and the thoughts of our hearts so that they are diverted away from the dead sea and back up to Galilee the reversal the waters of our lives those things that hurt so badly and teach us so much

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    and so the man that we see at the beginning of chapter 22 is not the man who failed in Gerar he is not the man who failed in Egypt he is a man who grown ! and matured and he was doing lots of maturing between those events but the exponential growth in spiritual strength using something that brother David showed us last night from that last event with Abimelech to this period now has completely matured brother Abraham to be the man that he is now later on in this chapter you'll see reference made to the word lad lad we think about little boys that word itself yes has a wide distribution of meanings anybody from a baby to Joseph in Egypt at the age of 30 where Pharaoh's servant says I remember my sins now I made a mistake I should have told you about this earlier but there was a young man who was with me when I was in prison who interpreted my dreams that term young man in Genesis 41 is the same word translated lad Joseph was 30 years old can it mean then that Isaac might have been between 30 and 33 years of age could it be that the almighty waited until Isaac grew to exactly the point in time his son would give his life so that Abram could participate fully in the feelings of Yahweh as he sacrificed his son could that be the case it's a wonderful thought to think about and in connection with this particular word just remember it has a variety of applications but it is applied to Joseph in Egypt it is applied

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    to fighting men that David chose to be amongst his ranks it is applied to the young men earlier in Genesis who fought as the combined associate force with Abram when he went to deliver his brother Lot and it is the same word that's used in Ruth chapter 2 when Boaz says have I not told the young men don't touch you and so it's not little kids it's not little seven eight year olds which means the only way the story could have played itself out if Isaac was that old was if Isaac at the final at the final piece where his father is tying him up realized and agreed fully with his father so that he and the father were together in making this sacrifice it isn't just about Isaac in the story it's Isaac and Abraham it's Jesus and Yahweh together the story focuses on Abraham but Isaac was fully compliant what he was about to go through with his father was an act of faith because he believed as much as his father that he would be resurrected do you not think every day of his life Abraham would have poured the promises into his son's ears explaining them fleshing them out talking about their interpretation dealing with how this would work out in detail as much as he understood he would pass it on to his son because he knew that had to go through the generations and God said of him that that's the kind of man Abraham would be that he would train his family and keep them in the way Isaac knew all about to the extent that Abraham knew

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    what would happen for these promises to be fulfilled so the father and the son are one together take now thy son thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of God gives you a child at the age of 100 and God says that to you I would run in the opposite direction as fast as I could but that's not who Abraham is at this point in time Abraham accepts and he makes the decision to obey his faith in God is so great as we're told and as Jim has pointed out to us from the epistles of Paul particularly from Romans Hebrews Colossians Galatians Abraham believed that God was able to raise this child this boy this son back up from the dead because all the promises were rooted in their fulfillment in him so he knew a resurrection would happen but he knew he would still have to go through that pain of cutting his son's throat and God knew what would go through his mind and in this excruciating test of his faith Abraham chooses to obey everything in his upbringing in his being would have pulled in the opposite direction but using his mind and the eye of faith the eye of faith he obeys God and it says Abraham rose up early in the morning he didn't think about it for a week or two he rose up early in the morning we don't know if he told Sarah we don't know would you tell Sarah but if

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    you believed that you were going to bring that boy back home with you you might not tell her and Abraham sandaled his ass and took two of his young men now who are the young men not his children so they're Gentiles Jew and Gentile are together at this moment where there is a father and a son and a sacrifice on Mount Moriah and all of this is motivated by love by faith by obedience now the word Moriah it means seen of Yahweh or Yahweh will see to it those are the two interpretations of it and embedded in that is the name Yah referring to God and taking our minds to Yahweh Elohim he who will be manifested in mighty ones and the word Ra'ah which means to see to see Ra'ah and so this is this is a mountain where God will see to it that something happens one day that will involve the sacrifice of his only beloved only begotten son so that all humanity will experience the results of the fulfillment of the promises made to this man and his progeny and his progeny and it says he took Isaac with him he claimed the wood for the burnt offering and the Hebrew word for wood is etz it means tree means tree and it says went unto the place of which God had told him then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off and Abraham speaks to the young man and says look you stay here and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you and that word worship

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    means to bow down to the ground literally in Hebrew now one might look at this as a cynic or an atheist and say well that was clearly a lie he completely misrepresented what was going to happen but in fact it wasn't he believed he was coming back with Isaac he believed he would do what God asked him to do and that in faith God would send him back with his son and Abraham took the wood the tree of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son we see in our mind's eye the Lord Jesus Christ broken throughout his skin we see him with his ribcage lacerated tattered flesh and skin hanging down his ribcage visible I may tell all my ribs I can count them his shoulders torn to pieces with the cross piece or the cross strapped to his arms carrying it on his upper shoulders and Isaac is walking along in this way and they went both of them together and won't have time to go into it but you remember you remember the darkness that came upon the land during the crucifixion and if you were to look at the theme the word darkness through the Old Testament you'll see that when God manifests himself sometimes there is great darkness involved and God is clothed in the darkness as he comes down manifested by his great angel in the presence of men and so that darkness in which everyone was enfolded and Christ on that cross was like his father right there hugging him to himself on the cross and so we go forward and it says they went both of

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    them together Zechariah chapter 12 one moment now Zechariah chapter 12 he'll give me a second here I will just find it at verse 10 we'll begin and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn God and the Lord Jesus Christ were together in the atonement when a son was dying on the cross God felt it deeply every pang his son went through every cry every half suffocating breath every pushing up of the body so he could breathe he felt it all with his son and so in this passage him and me are barely distinguished from each other in hurting him he felt it and of course in love he had engineered the entire thing that we might have the hope of eternal life if we would but love obey and have faith in him and have faith in him and so when we go back to Genesis chapter 22 the words they went both of them together it seems as if too many words are in that sentence all that needed to be said was they went because it's just the two of them walking we've already read that but God says so that we know they went both of them together every step that Isaac took every step that Jesus took Abraham and Yahweh took with their beloved son every step together

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    and he said behold Isaac says to his father my father and he said here am I my son and you know for the first time in the Bible you've got that kind of an exchange where father and son speak to each other that way my son my father he said behold the fire and the wood but where's the lamb for a burnt offering and of course when you think about the law and the burnt offering where everything of the animal was burnt except the skin that was given to the priests the animal its ashes were taken outside of the city or outside of the encampment after and we will remember that that burnt offering symbolized complete and utter giving of oneself to God which is what Jesus did which is what Isaac is going to become a burnt offering and he says where's the lamb for the burnt offering and of course lamb reminds us of the lamb of God behold the lamb of God John would say and Abram said my son God will provide himself a lamb and the word provide is the Hebrew word ra'ah it is that same word built into the name moriah ra'ah is in that word moriah God will see to it God will provide himself the lamb the lamb for a burnt offering so they went again both of them together fully united in this pre-enactment of the atonement they came to the place which God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood and this

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    this is that moment where Isaac could have bolted but he didn't he loved his father he obeyed his father completely it was his joy to do his father's will no matter how painful the circumstance and he did it because he knew this is tied to the fulfillment of the promises through which multitudes will benefit it says Abraham stretched forth his hand took the knife to slay his son and the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said Abraham Abraham that doubling is about the urgency of the call he said here am I and he said literally literally in the Hebrew do not extend your hand to harm the land the knife was already in his hand he was moving towards his neck and he stops him and it says for now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy son thine only son from me and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by the horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son that ram is caught up in the world in which we live caught up in humanity caught up in mortality he's extricated and he's sacrificed and Abraham called the name of the place Yahweh Yireh Yahweh Yireh as it is said to this day in the mount of Yahweh it shall be seen it shall be provided once again the same word Ra'ah which goes right to the beginning of the chapter and shows us from beginning to end God knows

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    what he's doing everything is in his control our lives are in his hands he has a plan his son is the center the linchpin the hinge upon which everything is fulfilled all the promises and all the hope that we have the blessings are given again the seventh time but now they're unconditional it's not if you will obey me and this is what you will do because he's demonstrated he is a full fledged full grown man in the faith full of faith and it says that they went together verse 19 to Beersheba and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba and that's where we will leave the story brothers and sisters it is a story of a journey of faith a journey that had hard times troubles mistakes and so much learning along the way a journey in the progression of which more things had to be learned or learnt more deeply as experience accumulated through the lives of beloved Abraham and Sarah they function for us as what a mother and father should be they function for us as people who demonstrated how hard a life in the faith is and yet we keep on moving we keep on trying because it's what we do we never give up and we hold on to the end God is with us and will take us all to the end of that journey we need to hold on to him and believe him with everything in us us to read us read read !

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