Beth Moore - The Art of Showing Up - Part 3
Tell me the three, we've been to three lands already, three venues, three places, and part of our objective this weekend is that you and I are trying to figure out which present land we're in. We're also looking back over our shoulder at our journey with God and going, "Oh, have I ever been in that land before"? And then, in the future, "Okay, I remember this now, I remember this, this is also another place for me to just stand before the Lord and go, 'Here I am,' why? Because I'm in this place, so much like that original person in Scripture".
So that's what we're after, so, I wanna hear these three. I wanna hear, first of all, about the land of Shiloh. Would you tell me about it? Where piety becomes a parody and revelation becomes a rarity. Okay, you got that down in your brain, where you can picture it? Then, anytime we're in a situation where, I mean, we thought we had really signed up for something spiritual, and we're in a land where we look around us and piety has become parody and revelation has become a rarity, that is the land of Shiloh. Somebody tell me about the desert's far side, where the self-exiled hide but Mount Horeb abides.
The beauty of this is, we can be hiding from everything and everybody, and he's still gonna make sure we run into a mountain where he is able to say our name, and that is the place we get a new opportunity to say, "Here I am". And like Moses perhaps, in all our reluctance, telling him all the things we cannot do, and we still can't do them even after we've been present right in front of him, all the things going back and forth, but still, here I am. And as reluctant as Moses was, he fulfilled his calling in God, and we're told at the end of Deuteronomy that a more humble and a greater servant had never been known, in the Old Testament, than that particular man.
Then we'll go to the throne room in Isaiah chapter 6, the throne room. The throne room, where mortal crowns tumble in the King's holy rumble, those times when, well, maybe we tasted a little bit of it this morning in worship, because I looked around you, and I tell you, sometimes there is such a sense of the Lord's presence that it just almost aches in your heart, where you feel like your soul is too big for your skin. Do y'all ever feel that way, like it needs a little room? And that is some of those moments, where we just go, "Here I am, here I am".
And then other times, maybe it's that we're just out somewhere, maybe in a part of your great and gorgeous state, where you just look over the wonders of his creation and the holiness of it, the beauty of it, it's painful, it's painful sometimes, and you're just like, "Here I am. Whoever made this, I volunteer to you, I mean, you, yes, I'm in". Okay, this happens several places, but I want you to notice something in Isaiah chapter 58. Okay, so, he's very, very frustrated, we got a little bit of an eye on this last night when we were talking about how Jeremiah was comparing the present time, when they were about to be taken captive by the Babylonians because of their rebellion and their idolatry, and their complete carnality, just doing whatever they wanted, and sometimes behind the very temple walls, in such depravity in a place of such sacredness.
And it's not okay with God, it's just not okay with God. And so, we have Isaiah talking to the people of Israel, and one of the things that they did that God so disapproved of, and you'll see it all over the prophets, but they used God, that many of those that were in places of power or privilege as leaders, they used God as a way to take advantage of the people, they exploited God. And you talk about something he's not in the mood for.
So, keep that in mind. And so, he's basically telling them, in Isaiah 58, "You know what? I'm gonna tell you something, you can just save all your sacrifices, you don't need, please, don't bring me all your festivals and all your rituals, because I've been watching you thinking that as long as you do all those things, I don't notice how you're treating people. And I want you to know I notice how you're treating people, and that faith in me was supposed to have an impact on how you are to others, that you can esteem them, indeed," as Philippians 2 says, "'As better than yourself.'"
So, he's going like, "Listen," because they're saying, "Why have we fasted, and you're not doing anything"? "Because you live like an idiot," but that's really not what he said, but that would be how I would say it in my own flesh. "What do you mean, how come you're not responding to all these religious things we're doing"? "Because you're living ungodly lives". Okay, so he says, "You want to fast? I'll tell you about fasting".
So, he says, in verse 6, "Isn't this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the LORD's glory will be your rear guard".
Okay, listen, listen. "At that time, when you call, the LORD will answer; when you cry out, he will say," do you see what the words are there? "Here I am," "Here I am". He said, "Oh, it's not that I can't hear you, he said, I see you using me so that you can take advantage of people, and I'm not having that. You were meant to be a blessing to a lost world, to draw them toward me, and when you do not bless others, when you treat them poorly, or treat them in such a way that you can get ahead and they are left in their bondage, and they are left in their oppression, and they are left in their injustice, I am not in the mood to be responsive to you. But when you do what I've called you to do and you are Christ to your community, you call out to me, and I will say, 'Here I am, here I am.'"
Now, I want you to see with me, Isaiah 65, he does the same thing. Isaiah 65:1, this is God speaking, and he says, "I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am,' to a nation that did not call on my name". Such a beautiful thing. So, he's saying over and over and over again as he reaches out to the nations of this world, "Here I am, here I am, here I am. In your distress and in your need, and in that which is not working for you, here I am, here I am". This is that same Hebrew phrase.
Now turn with me to Genesis 22nd, 22nd chapter. We're going, now, to the very first time we hear anyone say, in a way that is not just locational, but is actually about the posture of one that is presenting themselves as present before the Lord, this is the first time we see it in all of Scripture and it could not be more significant. The significance, theologically, of this chapter cannot possibly be overstated, cannot possibly be, the rest of the book hinges on what is starting, and what is told and what is portrayed, in Genesis chapter 22. Now, what's going to be really really interesting in this room, today, is if somebody's come, today, that knows nothing about this story.
Then we would be able to watch the shock on her face, because she would be just going like, "What in heaven's name is God doing here"? So he's called out this one man, this one man, Abram, and he's told him back in Genesis 12, "I want you to go, you're gonna leave your people you're gonna leave your country, and you're gonna go to a land that I will show you, and I'm gonna make you a blessing, and I will bless you, and through you all nations will be blessed". This connects beautifully, it connects all over the place, everything about it, Genesis to Revelation, is about God fulfilling this promise and how he's going to do it through the cross of Christ.
And so, keep that in mind. We've got Genesis chapter 12, the calling, he tells him that it's going to be his line through which he's going to be blessed. He tries to make the plan happen with Hagar, a maidservant that he has a child by. Well, that's not how the child, the line that is going to bring forth the people of God, the Israelites, that's not how it's gonna come. It's got to come through Isaac, and that's got to come with his wife Sarah, and so, then there is the continuing to believe God for the promises. All these years have gone by, finally they have this baby, Isaac, the one whose name means "laughter" there's such a joy and laughter this child brought.
By the time we open up in Genesis 22, he is now a little boy, maybe getting close to adolescence, but he's a boy, he's what he's going to call a lad. I want to start reading this to you and I want to narrate it as I go. Verse 1, "After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!'" Now, we already know from the beginning, as a reader, they just put us out of our misery from the very beginning, because the writer that got, Moses, the one that is writing down this account under the inspiration of the Spirit, is going to go ahead just so you don't all just lose it before you even get to the point of it. I'm going to tell you up top, this is a test.
Now, Abraham does not know that, but we do, the reader does, and so, I have to appreciate that he uses the word "Abraham". And I wanna say to you, if this makes a difference to you like it makes to me, I don't think he's just throwing out tests haphazardly. I think that my tests have been, "Beth, Beth, I want you to be obedient in a very difficult situation I'm about to place you in," but at least it's got my name on it, I don't want your test and you don't want mine.
The narrative art in this chapter, the Greek is beautiful, too, but Hebrew is, many, many years ago, I learned this from a theologian I was studying, that he just called it, "Narrative art". It's not only what God is saying, it is how he's saying it. And certainly in the New Testament as well, but if we understood, if we could read Hebrew, there are wordplays all over it constantly and all this artistry that's going on. He's meaning to build up our sense of closeness and intimacy with Abraham and Isaac.
"'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, 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; and 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".
What does he say? "Here I am". Oh dear Lord, there's just nothing like when your "here I am" to God feels like it is an extreme contrast or tension with your "here I am" to your loved one. Which is he there with? Both, both, both, because in this "here I am" moment, both are involved. "'Here I am, my son.' And Isaac said, 'The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?'" I mean, it's just this, so innocent and so believing.
"And Abraham answered," with the most wonderful, powerful words of faith, "'God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.' Then the two of them walked on together. And when they arrived at the place that God had told them 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!'"
How did he reply? Don't you know that one? Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, "Here I am," Lord, "Here I am". He catches him right with his hand up. And so, what he does, "'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.' And 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".
"In place of his son," substitutionary offering, that's so critical for us to understand. "And Abraham named that place The LORD Will Provide, so it is said today, 'It will be provided on the LORD's mountain.'" And then he goes on to repeat the promise that he had made to him. Now, here's what we need to talk about at this point in the lesson, what in the ever-loving world is going on here with God telling him to take his son and sacrifice him? That we know that God finds child sacrifice to be abhorrent because it says in Scripture over and over, I'm thinking of Leviticus, when it's, "Do not offer your children on a fire of all, do not do it, do not do it".
So we know going in that Abraham was not going to be slaying his son Isaac, but Abraham does not know that, he does not know exactly what is going to happen. We only know it because we're looking back over it with the completion of the Scriptures, Abraham is fully in the moment. Galatians 3:8-9, "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all nations be blessed.' So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith".
The Word of God tells us, Paul is explaining this to us, he's putting it all together, how the promises given to Abraham were fulfilled in Christ Jesus himself, the one and only Son of God. And that is the sense that we're going through. It says that, "The Scriptures... preached the gospel beforehand, saying, 'In you shall all nations be blessed.'" That would have happened if you look back in Genesis chapter 12, the second half of verse 3. Genesis 12, verse 3, you would see, "And through you all nations will be blessed". This is foretelling what Jesus says at the very end of Matthew in the Great Commission, "Go, therefore," out into the world, "and baptize and make disciples of people, all over the globe, and I will, I'll be with you, I'll be with you". So, it's all this promise being fulfilled.
Now, here's what I want you to understand. So, Scripture preached the gospel with these words, "In you shall all the nations be blessed". So, same man, we're coming ten chapters later, Genesis 12, we come ten chapters later, after that baby has been born and that child is now a boy or a very, very young adolescent. And now what we have is not the gospel proclaimed, it is the gospel portrayed. Abraham is the father of many, the father of the multitude, the father of the nations. When you look back over him, there's no figure in all of Scripture, I'm talking about among human beings, mortal flesh, that is more critical to our understanding of the gospel than Abraham. You see it over and over again. I mean, this is not just anybody, this is Abraham, this is the people from which he would draw out those that would be a blessing to every nation in the world.
And so, for him to choose this one for the biggest test that would ever be put before anyone is right in keeping with what would cause this story to be told through generation and generation, and generation, and generation, long before they had the Scriptures. This tradition would have been told, and Abraham wouldn't have just told it like this, he wouldn't have just told it to Isaac, who lived it out with him, and told it to Jacob, and then Joseph, and all the sons, and then on through time, it would not have just been, "And then he said this, and this is what we did". No, "No, he placed me in the position and I acted it out, he told me what he was going to do, he preached the gospel beforehand, and then he showed me how he was going to do it".
"'Take your son, your only son, whom thou lovest,' and you sacrifice him there," only he's going to provide him a ram so he doesn't have to. But God will not have a ram, he will have the Lamb of God, his only Son, and he will watch him bleed, and suffer, and die. That's the substitution, that our death simply opens us to eternal life because we believe and have put our faith in Christ and the grace of God on that cross. Our fourth venue, and this one is Moriah, where all is lost unless God pays what it costs. He's doing something with Abraham that is very specific and very individual, but I can tell you this, when we come to a point where we go, "I mean, all is lost here, everything".
Listen, when God calls you, almost every time, I'm not going to say across the board, but I could almost say it, that when God calls you to something, and I'm not talking about vocational ministry, all of us are called to some kind of ministry and some kind of calling, it's that we live it out, and whatever our workplace may be, whether we're in the bank or whether we are a school teacher, or whether we are stay-at-home moms, no matter what, whether we're caregivers of the elderly, whatever it may be, we all have a calling, we all are gifted by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts, all of those things.
But I'm going to tell you this, just as you get a little insight on your calling and you begin to think, "This is how, oh, I see, this is what it's supposed to be," the enemy will come for it over and over, and you will be tested, you'll be tested. I need somebody to know this that is in some kind of a ministry, I want you to know that I know that you're thinking of quitting, and I want to say to you that is exactly what the enemy wants you to do. So, go ahead, play right into his hand, because that's what he is after, that you quit. Will we pass the test, will we pass the test and believe our God is good and will never ever lead us in any way to evil?
Look all the way back to verse 2, "'Abraham!' 'Here I am,'" and then he says, "Take your son". Everybody say, "Take your son". Okay, there is a little particle in it, a little particle on the Hebrew word and it's rare, it's very rare in a divine command, and it makes it more of an entreaty. It would look to us, I think, oh, it's a particle, it would be, like if you'd see it with me, a dash and an N-A, a dash and an N-A, that's the little particle. And when it is used, it's only used about five times, when God says it himself, it's always in an entreaty to someone he is asking to do something really, really big, really, really serious, and with a lot of implications.
And the reason why I'm telling you this is because the scholars, most of those that come together in a committee that put together our formal translations, they are not, they're not translating it. But if you go to scholars for whom the study of language is their thing, they will over and over again translate it, and I have two different ones. That particle means, "Please," "Take your son, please, your only son". God is saying, "Please"? That's not God humbling himself, as if he is lower and has to beg something from Abraham. It is God conveying to him, "I understand how this is going to hit you, I understand the seriousness of this command".