sacrifice of isaac

 

Put yourself in Abraham’s shoes. Your son is the child promised to you by God. He was given to you though you and your wife were very old and seemingly unable to conceive. Here he is, the hope of humanity, through whom would be born the Savior of the world.

And God says:

 

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Genesis 22:2

Listen to the way God says it: Take your SON, your ONLY son, whom you LOVE. Imagine being a parent and hearing that.

And we complain about having to put a few dollars in the plate on Sunday morning.

Yet, Abraham, great hero of faith he is, did exactly what God commanded.

Consider this: Why did Abraham assume that God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19)? Why did he not assume the easier option: that God would simply not let Abraham go through with it? Essentially that is what happened, though it was not for Abraham’s sake or for pity’s sake that the Angel stopped Isaac’s death (it was because God is the only Father who will sacrifice His only begotten Son).

Abraham assumed God would raise Isaac because he could not think of any other way for God to use Isaac to continue the seedline of promise. Abraham was not approaching it from the vantage point of God sparing him his feeling or pain; he was merely trying to work out how God was going to kill Isaac and still save the world through Isaac’s seed. The only rational explanation he could conceive was that God would simply raise Isaac from the dead.

Again note that Abraham’s thinking assumes that Isaac will die (and therefore die at Abraham’s own hands). This is not an assumption one takes lightly. Abraham has already killed Isaac in his mind; now he is trying to figure out God’s next step. And while worrying about how God is going to do something was a recurring problem for Abraham (and got him into trouble on more than one occasion), his general willingness to put God first is no problem at all. As far as Abraham is concerned he is going to kill Isaac; what God does then he can only speculate.

What an incredible example of sacrifice! He does not question the command; he lived by the belief that everything belongs to God and whatever God wants God will have.

Whatever happened to such an attitude? Think about it!

Have a great day!