In principle, what He did here, first of all, was remind him of the promise. Then the next step was to broaden Abraham’s scope, beyond the limits of flesh and blood. See, He made him look up into the heavens. He literally made him do that, in a sense, made him look away from the physical, looking away from flesh and blood, looking away from the earth and towards God’s throne, into an expanse that was so great.
Remember, Abram was probably an astronomer, a mathematician. He took Abraham right into his elements, and said in a sense, in a nice, kind way, “Look dummy, get your mind off the self, get on to heaven above, get your mind on the vast scope of the power of which you are dealing.” And Abraham believed. It means that he took God at His word and God immediately responded. He accounted it to Abraham for righteousness. It was the right thing to do and God acknowledged it.
But now, the rest of the chapter. Abraham believed God. God is always the same. Faith, that belief, must be tested. Of all things, He tested Abraham purely with worship of that God. That has a valuable lesson contained within it. Now we might just expand on this word worship. Worship in its broadest sense involves every act of life. We tend to think of worship in terms of coming to services on the Sabbath, and that certainly is included because at that time we very definitely have a fellowship with God. We are in His presence, and we lift up prayers to Him and He speaks to us through His Word. There is a communication there.
But in its broadest sense worship includes all of the acts of life: what we do at home, and what we do on the job, while we are shopping, and while we are driving an automobile. Everything in our fellowship with God is contained within the scope of our worship of Him. This has something to do with the lesson that is involved here. How is God going to picture something to you and me in which this lesson is contained? He did it through a very ingenious method, and that is by requiring Abram to do something that we could very easily relate to as being an act of worship.
Now everybody here understands that when an Israelite worshipped, he made a sacrifice. That was the individual Israelite’s supreme act of worship. Under normal circumstances it was to make a sacrifice.
Here comes the answer to his question: make a sacrifice. Abraham’s question at first glance appears like a contradiction to verse 6. On one hand he believed, and on the other hand he is asking for proof. No, he is not asking for proof, that is why God accounted it as righteousness. Abraham believed, he took God at His word, and he knew it was going to happen. What we have a little trouble with is this, “How shall I know?” What he is asking for is how or through what experience the promise will be fulfilled. He believed it was going to occur, but he wanted to know the means through which it was going to occur. Now you and I are wondering about that and asking that about God all the time. We ask, “I know you’re going to do this, but how are you going to do it.” That is exactly what Abraham did.
We too may believe. Abraham believed, you see, but God’s answer is sacrifice. Now what kind of an answer is that? What He is telling Abram is this: That understanding God’s will comes when we offer ourselves as a burnt offering. Do you remember the sermons I gave on the offerings of Leviticus? We went through the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.
All the aspects of the burnt offering (Leviticus 1), the sin offering (Leviticus 4), and the trespass offering (Leviticus 5), are contained here. In the animals that were offered, you remember the type because I went through them, we see service, sin bearing, and innocence. The bull, the sin bearing of the ram and goat, and the innocence of the turtle dove. These aspects cover our … . . .
