When God Tempts

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Promises are dangerous things. Sure, when you make a promise, you have in mind only the wonderful, glorious things that such vow will open to you. But the razor's edge of a promise is that you actually have to keep it. Once you give your word that you will do something, or that you will not do something, you must keep it.

Promises come in all shapes and sizes. The one most familiar to most of you is probably your wedding vows. You promised to love and cherish your spouse, to have and to hold her, remain faithful to her for richer or for poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, til death do you part. This is no light wish or flip gesture. You were joined to each other under this vow before God. For better or for worse, she is yours and you are hers. “What God has joined, let no man put asunder.”

Another vow you take before God is the vow to serve as sponsor for a baptismal candidate. This oft-overlooked promise obligates you to see to the spiritual well-being of the one placed under your care. By taking this vow, you have obligated yourself to pray for him, see that he is brought up in the fear and knowledge of the Lord, and that he receives faithful instruction in the faith. This vow contains in itself no threats, but is binding upon him who takes it nevertheless.

Perhaps one promise you may have overlooked is the one you have made when you received your pastor. You were asked to “receive him, show him that love, honor, and obedience in the Lord that you owe to the shepherd and teacher placed over you by your Lord Jesus Christ” (LSB Agenda p.169). You promised that you would receive the Word of the Lord proclaimed by the one the Lord has sent to you, that you would receive the Holy Sacraments from him as from Christ Himself, just as your pastor has promised to be faithful and diligent in exercising his office for your benefit in the Gospel.

However, in spite of however many promises you might make, you fail to keep your word. Sinful men that you are, you “fall short of the glory of God” and break your promises. The old Adam in you rises up and chokes off the good intentions that form those words of promise upon your lips. Adversity comes along and you begin to look for ways out of your vows. Your spouse offends or strays, and you seek to put her away. Your godchild moves away, and wanders away from the Church, and you simply let him be for the sake of family peace. Your pastor annoys or confuses, and you fail to put the best construction on everything.

However, regardless of how badly you fail to keep your word, God always and forever keeps His Word. The Psalmist says, “None who wait for You shall be put to shame” (Ps. 25:3). God, the Author of Truth, cannot lie. What He says, is, just as surely as He has spoken creation into being. God is not false in His dealings; He is not idle in keeping His Word. What the Lord has spoken shall come to pass, whatever the appearances.

And so it came to pass that God promised Abraham offspring. Not just any offspring, but He promised that Abraham would have a son by Sarah. God said, “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him” (Genesis 17:19). He swore to Abraham that the covenant of blessing and the multitude of offspring would come through Isaac, the son to be born of Sarah, even in the midst of her old age. And so Isaac was born.

But then God tested Abraham. He called to Abraham and said, “Take your son, you only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” What devastation this must have wrought on a father's heart! The Lord had given Abraham a son through Sarah, born of his old age. God had promised that this son, Isaac, would be the bearer of the everlasting covenant, by which all people would be blessed. Now, this beloved only son must be sacrificed as a burnt offering on a faraway mountain.

The Lord tested Abraham's faith by commanding the death of the covenant. Abraham knew the promises the Lord had made, and that those promises would die with Isaac's last breath. For how can offspring come from ashes and dust? And yet, despite the facts in evidence, Abraham trusted God. He did what God commanded him, because He trusted in the Lord's faithfulness to His Word.

In the midst of suffering, the temptation is terrible to abandon God and His Word. He told Abraham that Isaac would be the father of the covenant, and yet he must be slaughtered on the mountain. The Lord desires not the death of His saints, and yet He allows your loved ones to suffer and die. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and yet no one is around who can comfort you in your despair. By all human accounts, you ought to simply follow the advice of Job's wife, to “curse God and die”.

But Abraham believed in the promise. He believed that the Lord would be faithful to His Word. “All things are possible with God”, so perhaps the Lord would raise up offspring from the dead, ashen loins of Isaac. Perhaps the Lord would raise the beloved son back from the dead and restore him to his father. The Lord would be faithful to His promises, no matter what the appearances. So Abraham trusted, even though his heart grieved.

Indeed, as St. James says, “God tempts no one.” God truly tempts no one to sin, for He cannot sin or be false to His Word. However, God does test the faith of His children. He tries, tests, and strengthens the faith of those He loves through trial and temptation with in your own hearts. When the Lord allows suffering and adversity to befall you, the evil that presents itself is not in God, but in your own heart that seeks to blame God or to distrust His power and grace.

Sometimes it is difficult to see the promise being kept. The promise held before Abraham's eyes was very dim in those three days on the way to Moriah. He traveled with a heavy heart, knowing what lay ahead. You often travel the road in front of you in darkness and confusion. Why does God permit these things to befall you? Why does God make you suffer so? Where is God in the midst of your trials and tribulations? God is there, strengthening you, even in the midst of suffering, lest you fall into despair and other great shame and vice.

Father and son, this dreadful little band, reach the mount, and as all is nearly prepared, Isaac asks, “My father, where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Even now, faced with the imminent death of his beloved son, Abraham answers, “God will provide for Himself the lamb.” Indeed, at the fullness of time, God did provide the lamb for the burnt offering. As Abraham was poised with the knife, God called to him and stopped him, seeing now that Abraham believed, “and it was credited to him as righteousness.” In place of the beloved son, a ram appeared in a thicket, and Abraham sacrificed it in Isaac's place. The covenant was maintained, the son's life was preserved.

Just as that ram gave his life in place of Isaac, so God has provided another lamb to take the place for the sacrifice. In the fullness of time, He sent His beloved, only-begotten Son to be the sacrifice for all the people of God. He bound Jesus to the cross, that He might bear your sins and be your savior. The Son of God is the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the whole world.

Just as father Abraham withheld nothing from God, but offered up his son in obedience to the Law's demand, so has your Father in heaven withheld nothing, but offered up His Son to fulfill the Law's demands. The Lamb of God was sacrificed for your transgressions, and with His death you receive life by the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, provides access to the grace of God. He, the whole offering, burned in the wrath of God, is the acceptable sacrifice that renders you acceptable, pure, and holy.

The Lord is truly faithful and just. He provides the Lamb for the sacrifice, not just for Abraham, but for you and for all men. He not only preserves your life in your body, but He provides your life for eternity. He is faithful to His Word, that He will keep you from death. He is faithful to His promise to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He is faithful to you in the midst of joys and in the midst of trials.

Trust in God, and you will never be disappointed. For God always keeps His Word. Let us end with this comfort from Martin Luther:

Therefore one should hold fast to this comfort, that what God has once declared, this He does not change. You were baptized, and in Baptism the kingdom of God was promised you. You should know that this is His unchangeable Word, and you should not permit yourself to be drawn away from it. For although it can happen—as with those who were on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:28)—that He pretends to want to go farther and seems to be dealing with us as though He had forgotten His promises, faith in the Word must nevertheless be retained, and the promise must be stressed—namely, that it is true and dependable—even if the manner, time, occasion, place, and other particulars are unknown. For the fact that God cannot lie is sure and dependable. (AE 4:96)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.