Category: Features

Why did God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?

Posted on by Phill Sacre

In Genesis 22, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Although in the end Abraham did not have to sacrifice Isaac, it still raises questions: why did God make the command in the first place? The answer to this question appears if we stand back to look at the bigger picture.

Key points

  • Child sacrifice was a serious offence to God – it was forbidden under penalty of death (Leviticus 20:2)
  • Jesus loved children – for example Mark 10:13-16
  • So why did God command it?
  • v1 says that God “tested” Abraham
    • Testing is an exercise in trust. v5 and v8 suggest that Abraham thought he was going to come back with Isaac and that God would provide a sacrifice.
    • In v12 the angel says “Now I know you fear the Lord” – there’s often a difference between knowing something intellectually, and knowing it so that it makes a difference.
    • The quote is taken from C.S. Lewis’ book A Grief Observed
  • In v13-14 we see that God himself does provide. What’s the big picture?
    • v2 says that Abraham was going to the region of “Moriah” – only found in one other place in the Bible (2 Chron 3:1) – where the temple was built. God is giving is a picture.
    • Who did provide their only loved son as a sacrifice? – God!
    • Genesis 22 is a lesson for us, that God’s blessings come through sacrifice – but that God himself provides the sacrifice.
  • Why was it right for God to sacrifice Jesus? – John 10:17-18. Jesus laid down his life – it wasn’t like human beings sacrificing an innocent child!

Explore further

The video that provoked this question was about understanding violence in the Old Testament.

Your questions answered

This is part of the Your questions answered feature. See that page for more videos in the series.

If you have a question about Christianity or the Bible, please send them in or comment below.

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How do we understand violence in the Old Testament?

Posted on by Phill Sacre

People often find the violence in the Old Testament off-putting. Why is there so much violence? And why does God seem to command it sometimes? In this video we look briefly at how we should understand violence in the Old Testament.

Key points…

  • We need to distinguish between two kinds of violence in the Old Testament.
  • First, the violence which people do.
    • We often read about violence in the papers – this is because the violence is factual! The Bible often reports factual violence without condoning it.
    • Why is it included? Because shows the depth of human sin.
    • Similar to the book Lord of the Flies, where the violence there is shocking holds up a mirror to human nature.
    • The violence shows us what human nature is like.
  • Second, the violence which God does or commands, e.g. the command to drive out the Canaanites and other nations from the Promised Land.
    • This command was giving because of the sin of the Canaanites (Leviticus 20:23). The command to drive them out was actually a judgement upon them.
    • The uncomfortable truth is that God’s character remains consistent across the Old Testament and New Testament: he is loving to those who trust in him, but he punishes sin and wickedness.
    • Compare Nahum 1:2-3, 7-8 with Revelation 19:11-21.
    • God will defeat his enemies in the end because he is just and cannot leave sin unpunished.
  • BUT – Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but save the world (John 3:16-17). The offer stands open to anyone to come to him and not receive what our sins deserve, but to find forgiveness.

Explore further

There’s a whole session of the What is Christianity? course on the Old Testament.

Your questions answered

This is part of the Your questions answered feature. See that page for more videos in the series.

If you have a question about Christianity or the Bible, please send them in or comment below.

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Wisdom of Proverbs: Love and Marriage

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Proverbs is full of wisdom: wisdom is how to live in God’s world in God’s ways. Many people love to turn to Proverbs to discover what wisdom it contains for living everyday life. However, one of the problems with Proverbs is that the wisdom is not really categorised – it doesn’t come with an index system! I have found one of the best way of getting into Proverbs is drawing out everything it says on a particular topic.

In this article we’re going to look at what Proverbs has to say about love and marriage.

One thing which we need to say to begin with is that Proverbs is addressed from a Father to a Son. This means that everything is written from a male perspective. This is not to say that women cannot read and benefit from this advice as well! But it does explain why it seems to address a man rather than women directly.

Let’s put together some of the wisdom that Proverbs contains about love and marriage.

Continue reading “Wisdom of Proverbs: Love and Marriage”
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Why is the fear of the Lord the BEGINNING of wisdom?

Posted on by Phill Sacre

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

Someone asked me a question the other day about the fear of the Lord. It got me thinking about Proverbs 1:7, which famously says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (or wisdom). But the word which really struck me this time is the beginning. What does it mean for the fear of the Lord to be the beginning of wisdom? And what’s the end?

Let’s start by thinking about what the fear of the Lord actually is.

What is the fear of the Lord?

The Hebrew word translated ‘fear’ (yirah) can mean fear or terror, but when it is used in relation to God it means something like respect or reverence. It’s the same kind of idea we might say about treating those in authority – maybe parents, or teachers, or police. (We don’t tend to think in those terms these days – it does sound very old-fashioned!)

I think it’s important to say that doesn’t mean we have to be scared of God. A lot of people have had abusive fathers or authority figures and have been terrified of them. God is absolutely not like that! We’ll come onto this more in a moment.

So that’s what the fear of the Lord is not. Let’s look at what the fear of the Lord actually is.

Continue reading “Why is the fear of the Lord the BEGINNING of wisdom?”
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Mental Health Support – Psalm 91 – God our fortress

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Psalm 91 helps us to understand that God is our fortress – he can protect us from anything that might happen.

Please note – This is the final mental health livestream before Easter.

Last week’s session was on Psalm 84 – “Cast your anxiety on him”. All previous sessions are available on this playlist.

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God is the ruler that we need – WSC #11

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Who’s really in charge of the world? In this session we look at something called God’s providence, which means not only that God is in charge but that he’s a good ruler – the ruler we really need.

More Thought for the Week…

This is part of the weekly Thought for the Week series. This series is designed to give a short, 10-15 minute ‘thought’, including a Bible reading and a prayer. Currently I am working through the Westminster Shorter Catechism. You can see all videos on the catechism on this playlist.

Do subscribe to the mailing list if you want to get these delivered in a weekly email, or subscribe directly on YouTube or the podcast if you want to see them there.

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Mental Health Support: When we’re going through the valley

Posted on by Phill Sacre

Psalm 84 was written to encourage us when we’re going through a difficult time – a valley. In these sessions we spend a few minutes reading the Bible, thinking about what it means for us and the current situation, and then praying.

Last week’s session was on 1 Peter 5 – “Cast your anxiety on him”. All previous sessions are available on this playlist.

There will be one more session next week before a two-week break over Easter!

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Do you have to go to Church to be a Christian?

Posted on by Phill Sacre

People often say that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. But this is a misunderstanding: church in the Bible is not something that you can actually go to.

This session is part of the Your Questions Answered series.

Key Points

  • Church is NOT…
    • A building. In the New Testament, a building is NEVER called a church.
    • A meeting. Again, in the New Testament, church is never called an event (like a service).
  • Church is always the people. A building or an event is only church inasmuch as it’s about the people.
  • In a sense, you can’t go to church. If you’re a Christian, you ARE church.
  • A lot of people seem to think of church like a social club, or something which we can dip in and out of. But actually we should see church like seeing our family.
  • When we come to Christ, God puts us in a family of believers. He gives us a whole new family. In fact, in Mark 3:31-35, Jesus says that anyone who does God’s will is in his family.
  • So asking “Can I be a Christian without going to church?” is like saying, “Can I be in a family without seeing my family?”
  • We need to change our mindset! Being a Christian means loving others, especially loving our church. It’s not about “going to church” – it’s about being with our families.

Explore further

There’s a whole session on church as part of the How to live as a Christian course.

You might also like Heidelberg session #21 on The Church.

Your questions answered

This is part of the Your questions answered feature. See that page for more videos in the series.

If you have a question about Christianity or the Bible, please send them in or comment below.

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What it means to be human – WSC #10

Posted on by Phill Sacre

One of the most basic questions of all we can ask is, what does it mean to be human? This is often explored in Sci-Fi stories such as Blade Runner. In this session we see what the Bible says about human beings with the help of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Explore Further

I didn’t mention any links in the video but if you’d like a short book dealing with transgender issues, Vaughan Roberts little book is worth reading as a short introduction: Talking Points – Transgender.

More Thought for the Week…

This is part of the weekly Thought for the Week series. This series is designed to give a short, 10-15 minute ‘thought’, including a Bible reading and a prayer. Currently I am working through the Westminster Shorter Catechism. You can see all videos on the catechism on this playlist.

Do subscribe to the mailing list if you want to get these delivered in a weekly email, or subscribe directly on YouTube if you want to see them there.

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Mental Health Support: Cast your anxiety on him

Posted on by Phill Sacre

1 Peter 5v7 says: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” But what does that mean, and how do we do it? Let’s spend a little while thinking about these wonderful words.

Last week’s session was on Proverbs 3:-12 – “Wisdom & Well-Being”. All previous sessions are available on this playlist.

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