there is none like you

Warren Wiersbe says: ” True faith is always tested.“  The Bible says, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked.”  Ps. 11:5  Why?  Well, what makes you swifter?  Sitting or running?  Of course, the harder, more difficult thing – the running.  Testing = the way to gain strength.

Wiersbe, again, “Of course, God did not want Isaac’s life; He wanted Abraham’s heart.  Isaac was dear to Abraham, and God wanted to be sure that Isaac was not an idol, something more important than God, standing between God and Abraham. It was possible that Abraham was trusting Isaac to fulfill the promises and not trusting God.”

God wanted Abraham’s heart, his love.  And God loved Abraham so much, He wanted Abraham to KNOW that he had given God His heart!  How often we feel shame if we’re compromising on that point, our loyalty to God.  God wanted Abraham to be sure of Him and sure of himself.  So God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering…” Genesis 22:2

How could God ask this thing of Abraham?

God had tested Abraham already by asking him to leave everything – home and family – behind in Ur.  And God had tested Abraham  by challenging him to believe God would give him a son through whom all the nations would be blessed – yet causing the appointed time for this child’s birth to come 25 years after the promise was given.  That surely took patience and trust.  But this?  Taking that much longed-for  son and sacrificing him like a lamb or a goat on an altar?  It was way over the top.

And yet Abraham responded not with incredulity, despair, or doubt.  He took his boy and all the implements for a good sacrifice, two other men, and off he went to find the mountain God had indicated.  He left in perfect trust.  This was a mature Abraham.  There had been more than one side trip into half belief in prior times, Pharaoh, Abimilech, and Hagar were all people with whom Abraham had compromised himself and his faith.

But now, he went with steadfast earnestness.

They got to the mountain and he told the companions to wait.  “We will worship and then we will come back to you,” he called, perhaps waving,  and journeying on.  “Where is the lamb, Father?” Isaac queried.  “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, son.” Gen. 22:8

I was so touched to read these words and catch in a fresh way Abraham’s unrelenting faith, “We’ll go worship and WE’LL be back.”  Not, “I’ll return shortly.”

Hebrews 11:17-19 says: “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him.  Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.’   Abraham reasoned that if Isacc died, God was able to bring him back again.  And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

God tests so that we come to utterly depend  on Him who is Love.  And when we do get to this place on the high mountain of the pilgrimage of our lives, we’ll have arrived at a blessed place where no storm or fury of life can rock or shake us.  Let all hell come against us.  We’ll be able to stand every time with Job and say, “I know my Redeemer lives.”

Praise God for the storms.  As Warren Wiersbe also wrote, “Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.”  With all your life and breath, only trust Him.

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Tags: Abraham and Isaac, belief, doubt, faith, fear, Genesis 22, Trust in God, uncertainty