'''WORSHIP always supposes self-will to be broken. In the preceding chapters of Genesis Abraham is seen in Egypt, and we have observed that, while there, he built no altar; but Abraham left Egypt, and then, having given it up, he could build an altar to the Lord. When David saw the child he loved sick, he fasted and frayed, but he was wrestling with God—his will was of brought into subjection. When the child Was dead, David changed his raiment, ate and drank, and then he could come into the house of the Lord and worship; because the struggle in his heart ceased, and Lis will was broken. Job, after those heavy afflictions described in the first chapter (the loss of goods and children), rent his mantle indeed (ver. 20), (in all this he sinned not we are told—his sorrow was legitimate —it was not wrong in him to grieve at the loss of his children); but he fell down before God and worshipped; The could worship, because in him self-will was broken, and he could say, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” But, in this chapter, we find something beyond what we have seen in Job and in David. They indeed acquiesced in the will of God, but their submission was passive, requiring no act on their part. This is not the case in Gen. 22:44Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. (Genesis 22:4) Abraham is not only called to accept the will of God, but to act against himself. He is obliged, so to speak, to offer himself up, for to offer up his son was nothing less. God says to him, “offer up thy son, thine only son." The name of a person expresses to us all that concerns that person, and our relationships with him. Thy son! That word touched the tenderest feelings—and he was to offer up that son! That name, moreover, recalled God's promises, and it was in this son that they were to be fulfilled, for God had said positively, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called." But he whose will is subject to God, rests satisfied with two things, “God will pro vide," and “I am with God." All hope in the flesh as to the accomplishment of the promises, must be given up, so that God may stand alone as the spring of life, blessings, and promises; as the one whose resources can never be exhausted, even when those means He has Himself pointed out fail for the accomplishment of His promises.
Thus God tries the heart, in order to destroy all confidence in the flesh; but at the same time, knowing that the heart needs support in the trial, He sustains it by a new revelation, which enables him to conquer. Thus we see (Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19)), that Abraham had a revelation of resurrection (which was then understood), in connection with the sacrifice that was demanded of him. Thus God causes us, in His infinite mercy, to I gain in Him what we lose in the flesh.
It was apart from the servants, that is, alone with Isaac and God, that Abraham received this revelation, and learned to offer up the goat instead of his son, as he had himself said, “God will provide Himself a lamb." And it is in the secret communion with God that we learn most of Him. In Jesus, the true Worshipper of the Father, there was no self-will to be broken: the cup was (we know),) full of bitterness; but He, so to speak, forgets this bitterness in his desire to do the will of God, and exclaims, " The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it? "