Never Stop Listening
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about."
The story in Genesis 22 is gripping. If you're a parent, I'm sure you can imagine with me how impossible obedience would seem to be. To sacrifice your only son - your long-awaited, prayed-for, and promised child becoming the solitary thing standing between you and your faith in God.
God calls to Abraham and he's listening and answers. When God gives Abraham the instruction to sacrifice his son, Abraham follows in obedience.
I'm the kind of person who needs more. I am imagining all the context between verses 2 and 3. What did Abraham feel? Did he tell Sarah what God had told him to do? Did he tell Isaac? Did the servants know? Why did he take them? Did he consider not going? My heart and my mind need more...
I suppose God left this to the imagination on purpose. He needed us to take Abraham's obedience at face value. That can't be missed.
By the time they get to the mount, Isaac is asking his father where is the lamb. Abraham replies in verse 8, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
How about now? Was he freaking out just a little bit? Did he believe what he was saying? Was he grieved? Questioning God? Pleading with Him to provide another way?
"When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son."
Stop right there. There's a reason Abraham is the patriarch of our faith. There's a reason it was credited to him as righteousness (Romans 4). He heard God. He heard God give him the hardest instruction ever given. Make no mistake, he wasn't about to take matters into his own hands. (He'd already made that mistake with Hagar. Genesis 16) He heard and then obeyed. He never lost faith, telling Isaac God would provide. Even in that faith, he continued to follow through in faithfulness and obedience to what God had asked.
"But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” verse 11
Can you picture it? His beloved son Isaac bound on the altar. I can only imagine he's crying and pleading with his father. Abraham with knife in hand is poised in painful obedience. Then the angel of the Lord calls out to him.
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. verse 12
Don't miss this. Abraham never stopped listening to the Lord. Even when what God asked him to do was painful, difficult, unimaginable, confusing and didn't make sense, he not only follow through in obedience, he did so with an open heart to God.
Most times I end up like the Abraham in chapter 16 by taking matters into my own hands. If I can even say I've obeyed God, I wonder the condition of my heart? Have my ears remained open to hear Him? Have I allowed my heart to be hardened to His word? I can't imagine how different this story would be if Abraham hadn't remained open to continually hearing the voice of God. What if he lost faith along the way?
God did just as Abraham told Isaac he would. He provided the sacrifice. The testing of Abraham gave way to one of the most beautiful examples of faith and obedience.
Give me ears to hear, a heart that trusts, a spirit that obeys.
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