Heb. 11:17 By faith Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Indeed he who gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten.
Abraham learned the lesson of offering back to God what He has given him. In Gen. 22:1-18 we see that God asked Abraham to bring his beloved son, his only son, Isaac, as a burnt offering on one of the mountains in Moriah.
Even though Isaac was born through grace and he was from God, being the seed God promised Abraham and eventually gave it to him, God still required Abraham to give Isaac back to Him. This is not because God was jealous of Abraham or because “He has moods”, wanting back the gifts He gives His people. Rather, this was a test to Abraham (Heb. 11:17-19) and it is a very important spiritual principle that we experience today.
One of the basic principles in God’s economy is that all that God has given to us – even what He has wrought into us and through us – must eventually be offered back to Him at His request and in His time, so that we may live a life of faith, not holding to anything except the Lord Himself and not relying on anything else but Him.
This is the test that Abraham went through and passed, and this is the test that God puts us through from time to time. He gives us something, a gift, something that is from Him and of Him, and He works Himself into us to produce something of Christ in us. However, at one point, He comes back to us after we have thoroughly enjoyed Him and He requires that we offer back to Him what He has given us.
Everything is from God, through God, and unto God (Rom. 11:36), and therefore nothing should be of us, through us, or unto us. Even the good things God gives us, the gifts from Him, the power and abilities, or the Christ He works into us through many precious experiences – everything needs to be returned to Him in His time when He requests it, so that we may rely on nothing and no one else but God Himself.
This is the highest demand from God, and when He requires this from us, He Himself will also supply the life and power for us to do it.
Learning the Lesson of Offering Back to God what He Has Given to Us
God gave Isaac to Abraham by working Himself into him and bringing forth Isaac, after He promised him a seed, when Abraham was 100 years old or so. Abraham treasured and loved Isaac, and he was clear: Isaac was the promised seed coming from God. Everything concerning Isaac was of God and by God, and yet at one point in time God required Abraham to offer Isaac back to Him as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:1-2).
If we had been Abraham we probably would have argued with God, Lord, didn’t YOU give me Isaac? Isn’t Isaac the promised seed? How come You’re asking for him to be offered to You back? I am over 100 years old and my wife Sarah is also old…why would You do such a thing to us? But Abraham didn’t argue with God: he obeyed God and trusted in God.
In our Christian life today it is the same: God may give to us certain things like gifts, power, work, success, etc, and He is working Himself into us to bring forth Christ through many precious and deep experiences of His grace. However, at one point God will require from us the gifts, power, work, success, and even the experience of Christ we had – to be offered back to Him.
One day, after having a good time of enjoying the Lord, He will ask us to give Him back something that He has wrought into us or has given us and we know it is of Him and it is for Him.
It’s not “the new car” or “the new house” that God requires from us as being “Isaac”; rather, something that God has imparted into you and you have experienced of Him. And no, God’s gifts and His calling are not revocable; He will not change His mind after He gives us something. Rather, God wants us to obey Him and enter into the experience of a new dimension of faith: God will simply resurrect this if He’s asking for it!
In Abraham’s experience, we see that God didn’t accept Lot (He allowed Lot to go away from Abraham), and He rejected Eliezer (his most trusted servant) and Ishmael (the product of his fleshly endeavor to please God).
God doesn’t accept anything of ourselves in our natural man or our flesh; what He hungers for and what He desires is the Christ whom He works into us in our experience of Him. Anything we can muster up from our own endeavors to please God and serve Him is rejected by Him. Only that of Christ which is wrought into us by God through our experience of Him is pleasing to God, and He will require this from us at one point.
We all need to learn the lesson of offering back to God what He has given us, the Christ He has wrought into us, for His good pleasure.
“Many Christians, including some Christian workers, have never learned the lesson of offering back to God what He has given them. Have you received a gift? Do not hold on to it. Sooner or later God will come in and say, “Offer back to Me the gift which I have given you.” Has God given you a successful work? At a certain time, God may say, “This work is the Isaac which I have given to you. Now I want you to offer it back to Me.”…All that God has given us, even what He has wrought in and through us, must be offered back to Him.” (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 756-757)
All that God has Given Us Must be Offered Back to Him that we may live a Life of Faith not Holding to or Relying on Anything but Him
A basic principle in God’s economy: all that God has given us, even what He has wrought into us and through us, must eventually be offered back to Him, that we may live a life of faith, not holding on to anything, even to the things given by God, but relying only on Him. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis, msg. 57)
We may think that, after enjoying the Lord in His word and after many experiences of Him, He will ask us to do things for Him – and we will be qualified for this. However, the highest demand from God is to give back to Him what He has given us.
God wants us to live a life of faith, a life in which we trust only in Him, we rely only on Him, and we hold to nothing – not even to the things or experiences He has given us of Him – but on Christ alone. God knows that we as human beings have the tendency to cling to what He is giving us. In our strong self we may even say, I know that this is from God! This is God’s will for me, God showed this to me and He spoke this to me, and nothing can take this away from me!
God wants us to offer back to Him what He has given to us and what He has wrought into us and through us so that we would cling only to Him. God is not arbitrarily and randomly asking us for things from us; rather, He has a purpose and a heart’s desire.
God desires to be the flowing source of life into our being, and He doesn’t want us to grasp onto something He gave us or did for us in the past, even though we may be attached to it. This clinging to what God gave us, did for us, and wrought into us in the past can preoccupy us and can hinder God from further dispensing Himself into us.
He wants us to be open to Him, just an open vessel, not clinging to experiences from Him or things He gave us but being fresh, new, living, and young to receive His up-to-date speaking and fresh dispensing moment-by-moment. In His time, God will require “our Isaac”, and He Himself will be the supply and power within and to meet this requirement.
We shouldn’t “dash for Mount Moriah” but we should just enjoy God, drink of Him as the redeemed and covenanted water, experience Him as the mysterious God who is the eternal life, live a practical church life with many life experiences, and eventually God the Father will bring us on a journey to Moriah.
When the requirement comes, the supply will also rise up to match it. Hallelujah!
Lord, keep us enjoying You at Beer-Sheba until You are calling us to go to Mount Moriah to offer up our Isaac as a burnt offering for Your satisfaction. Keep us drinking the covenanted water of life, eating the life-giving tree of life, experiencing the God who is eternal life, and living the practical church life with all the life-experiences You give us. Lord, work Yourself into us and give us the experiences we need so that Christ may be brought forth through us. Give us the grace that we would not cling to our past experiences of Christ but rely on nothing else but You.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 57),as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 11 / msg 11, The Offering of Isaac and Experiencing God as the One who Gives Life to the Dead.
- Further reading: recommending ch. 6 in Watchman Nee’s, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Once it was the blessing, / Now it is the Lord; / Once it was the feeling, / Now it is His Word; / Once His gift I wanted, / Now, the Giver own; / Once I sought for healing, / Now Himself alone. / All in all forever, / Only Christ I’ll sing; / Everything is in Christ, / And Christ is everything. (Hymns #513 by A. B. Simpson)
# I offer now without reserve / All that I am and all I have / Thy purpose to fulfill. / Oh, may the Lord accept and keep, / That henceforth I may only seek / To do the Father’s will. (Hymns #471 by Witness Lee)
# Lord, I give myself to You right now. / I want to be occupied with You. / I leave all else behind / And concentrate my being on You alone. / Lord, You are my focus, / You are my goal, / Lord, I give myself to You right now. (New song on Giving Ourselves to the Lord)
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