Key verse: Abraham
answered, "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."
And the two of them went on together.
Genesis 22:8
What has God promised
you? Would you be willing to lay it on the altar and kill it forever if he
asked? Might you be tempted to protest,
"But God, you said I could have it!"
Abraham was being asked to sacrifice his future, and his
hope through all the promises that God had made. Also, God was putting His own
future on the line here. How could Messiah come if Isaac died?
We see here, in Abraham, the example of a man who has truly
become mature in the Lord. Nothing was too important to be held back any more.
The Lord had demonstrated his faithfulness to Abraham over the years and now it
was Abraham's turn to reflect back all that he had learned. Would he really
believe that what he believed was really real? His actions show that in fact,
he does.
"By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac
as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one
and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that
your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise
the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the
dead." (Hebrews 11:17-19
Somehow, Abraham understood that, even though he was giving up everything that the Lord had ever promised him, God, true to character, would make it up to him.
God had always
done so over the years as Abraham and He had walked together. Perhaps, this
sacrifice wasn't as hard for Abraham as we often imagine because of the
steadfast faith that Abraham had been taught to have in the wholly reliable God
of creation. Somehow, as far as we know, Abraham did not question. He was asked
to sacrifice his only son and he simply obeyed. He did not argue or reason or
try to negotiate. He got up early the next morning to obey immediately, took Isaac and he prepared to do the hardest thing that
God could ask of any parent. He stepped out in obedience to God's call.
What Abraham did not know, though we do, is that God would
do the same thing Himself, 2,000 years later, but there would be no ram in the
thicket for Him. We may never be tested
the way that Abraham was in this moment. That is not the point. The question
is, how willing are you to sacrifice everything, or anything, if the Lord asks
you to do so. True, Abraham was spared from going through with the sacrifice of
Isaac, but he didn't know that he would be spared at the time.
We also may not
know the outcome of our obedience to Christ. The big question is, are you
willing? God is asking us, as he so often asked Abraham, "Do you trust
me?" As with Abraham, God may not stop at hearing our words, but may ask
for our action, to back up our words, as well.
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