Part of the HARBOR HAWAIʻI ʻOhana
HARBOR HAWAIʻI ʻOhana

Sermon Questions and Resources

All In With Dependence

Community Group Discussion Questions
Week of Oct 4
Genesis 22

OPENER

  • What’s one everyday thing you’d have the hardest time going without for a month? Coffee, your phone, rice?

DISCUSSION
Abraham finally has the son God promised, a quiet life, and a tamarisk tree planted for the long haul. Then God asks him to lay Isaac on the altar. Genesis 22 isn’t a story about God being cruel. It’s about whether we depend on God or on his gifts, and it points us to a Father who did not hold back his only Son.

  • Read Genesis 22:1–2. Abraham answers God with “Here I am.” In Hebrew it’s one word, hineni: I’m available, whatever you say. Then God names Isaac three ways: “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” Why so specific? What would it look like for “Here I am” to be your first response to God?
  • Read Genesis 22:1 and Job 1:9–11. God “tested” Abraham. God already knows everything, so the real question is this: Does God have to buy our love, or is he worthy of it even when the gifts are gone? Why does that question matter so much?
  • Read Genesis 22:3. Abraham doesn’t argue or bargain. He gets up early and goes. Your Isaac usually isn’t something bad. It’s the good, God-given thing, like a career, a relationship, a kid’s future, or financial security. What’s your Isaac?
  • Read Genesis 22:4–8 and Hebrews 11:17–19. Abraham tells his servants, “We’ll come back,” and tells Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb.” Hebrews says he believed God could raise the dead. Where do you need to say, “Lord, I don’t know how you’ll do it, but I know you will”?
  • Read Genesis 22:9–14 and John 1:29. God provided a ram “in place of” Isaac. Centuries later, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God.” On Moriah, a father was stopped. At the cross, the Father was not. How does Jesus dying in your place change how you trust God with your Isaac?
  • Growing as a Giver: Read Genesis 22:15–18. The blessing was never meant to stop with Abraham. It reached all the way out to these islands. You can’t give with a closed fist. Where could you open your hands to bless someone this season?
  • Fruit → Root: When the fruit is anxiety, control, or a quiet grip on something good, what root might be underneath: fear of losing it, or finding security in the gift instead of the Giver? How does the gospel reframe what it means to hold and let go?

ACTION STEP

  • Write down your Isaac. Pray over it with open hands and tell God, “Here I am.”

DIG DEEPER
We study Scripture to understand what it says, means, and intends, patiently walking with the text instead of moving too quickly to application.

OBSERVATION – What Does It Say?

  • Here I am” shows up three times (Genesis 22:1, 7, 11). Who is Abraham speaking to each time, and where do these moments fall in the story?
  • Trace the objects in Genesis 22:6–10: the wood, the fire, the knife, the altar. Who carries what? What does Isaac notice is missing?
  • Look at how Isaac is described in Genesis 22:2, 12, 16. What phrases repeat, and what do they emphasize?

INTERPRETATION – What Does It Mean?

  • Genesis 22:1 says God “tested” Abraham. How do Genesis 22:12 (“now I know that you fear God”) and James 1:13 help us understand what this testing is and what it isn’t?
  • Abraham says God will provide “the lamb” (Genesis 22:8), but God provides a ram (Genesis 22:13). Then Abraham says “it will be provided” in the future tense (Genesis 22:14). What does this suggest the story is pointing toward?
  • What does the phrase “in place of his son” (Genesis 22:13) reveal about how God deals with sin and death?

CROSS REFERENCE & CONTEXT(Connect the Bible to Itself)

  • Read Genesis 12:1–3 and Genesis 22:15–18. God’s command to “go” in both chapters uses the same Hebrew phrase. How does chapter 22 complete what began in chapter 12?
  • Read Hebrews 11:17–19 and James 2:21–23. How do these two writers each read Abraham’s faith on Moriah?
  • Read 2 Chronicles 3:1, John 1:29, and Romans 8:32. How does Mount Moriah connect to the temple and ultimately to the cross?

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