Heather and I recently studied the Old Testament account of
Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his only son, Isaac. God miraculously provided Abraham and his
wife, Sarah, with a son, Isaac, so that God could fulfill his promise to
Abraham, the father of Israel. In Genesis chapter 22, God directs Abram to take
Isaac, the very son through whom God was going to fulfill his promise to
Abraham, go up onto a mountain, and murder him as a sacrifice to God. Amazingly, Abraham obeyed without hesitation and
without complaint. Then, just as Abraham was about to lower the knife upon his
long-awaited son, God provided a ram as a substitute sacrifice in lieu of his
son.
This is truly an amazing story of faith. The extent to which
Abraham was “tested” makes the entire story seem like an ancient Greek myth,
particularly in an age like ours. But rather than dismiss it as such, I’m sure
there are numerous applications to each of us for how Abraham acted in
faith. For me, there are two ways in
which Abraham’s faith is convicting.
First, are we willing to follow God at any cost? In other words, do we really love God more
than anything else in our lives, even our own children? The greatest
commandment is not “Love your children with all your heart ….,” but instead, “Love
the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
and with all your mind.” (Luke 10:27).
Thankfully, we are not being called by God to bring our children to the
sides of mountaintops to kill our own children.
But whether you lost a child or face or types of significant sufferings,
the question remains: Are you still willing to trust in God, and love God, even
after what God allowed to happen? Christ’s
death on the cross demonstrated that there is no “line to be crossed” by which
we can say that the cost we suffered is too much to bear, and that we can no
longer follow him.
Second, is my faith such that I believe God can accomplish
his purposes through any means?
If you are honest, I’m guessing that your initial reaction to Abraham’s
action in following God, even to the point of sacrificing his son, was “what
was Abraham thinking?” That is, what was
he thinking that God was going to accomplish through the death of Issac and,
therefore, why should he obey God?
But God was not “testing” Abraham’s logic; it was a test of
his faith. Abraham trusted that God could accomplish his purposes through any
means. In Hebrews 11:19, the author says
about Abraham, “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the
dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”
In Abraham’s case, the benefits of trusting God, even when
he did not understand his ways, were two-fold.
On the one hand, he received his son back. The earthly life of his long-sought after son
was no consolation to whatsoever when, in the moment of testing, he faced the
very real prospect that his long-promised son would be a victim of his own
knife, his own hand, his own sacrifice.
And, secondly, he could marvel all the more at God’s sovereign work in
his life. Abraham would have not had the
opportunity to worship God’s special provision for him in this circumstance had
he not “stepped out” in faith.
I pray that you will, like me, follow Abraham’s
lead in loving God more than anything else.
I pray that you will trust him more, so that you can see how we
intervenes in our lives to provide reason to honor, love and trust Him.
