“Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 He said, ‘Do not stretch your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. 13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.’” -Genesis 22:9-14 (NASB)
This is the second half, the ending, of the story of Abraham’s sacrifice; or almost-sacrifice, as told by this ending of the story. In the entry from earlier, I talked about how we shouldn’t hold our earthly blessings too close to us, letting them get in the way of God in our lives. Often we’ll find that God will ask us to give up what we hold most closely in our lives.
In this case, what was held most closely by Abraham was Isaac. I still can’t wrap my mind around having to give up a son whom I held more dearly than I could possibly imagine, especially since I’d waited for a century to get him.
I also talked in the last entry about how much composure it must’ve taken for Abraham to keep Isaac’s future at the time a secret. But what about the moment he was standing over his son, who was tied to an altar, with a knife in his hand? As if having to walk with the sacrifice (who happens to be your son) up the mountain wasn’t bad enough.
The next part is probably one of my favorite parts of a story from the Bible. Just when Abraham is about to sacrifice his one and only son on God’s command, God sends an angel down to stop Abraham.
I always picture this in my mind: the altar is built, Isaac tied to it. I can’t help but assume that Abraham was crying. Any person with even a shred of emotion couldn’t fight back tears. The hand with the knife fully extended, and right as the arm is set to swing down and end the life of God’s most precious gift to Abraham, an angel appears. He in turn reaches out and stops Abraham’s motion.
Every time I think of this, I feel chills run through my body. I guess it’s the thought of how much God truly loves me. Abraham followed God’s command to sacrifice his son, but as it says in verse 12, because he showed no intentions of withholding Isaac, God would keep Isaac and Abraham together and bless them even more than before.
I’m certain it’s the same way with us. Maybe not this extreme, but I think that we often forget that sometimes, in order to gain what we truly desire in Heaven, we might have to give up what we love here on Earth. But we shouldn’t forget something very important.
God loves us. He doesn’t want just robotic love; he wants real, genuine love. That’s why He checks us, to make sure that we’ve still got Him at numero uno. Remember, He wants us to be happy. He wants us have good things. And He will always provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment