After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” and he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. (22:1–3)
What a test! This is his longed for, promised son, whom Abraham waited for many years, and now God is telling him to offer him as a burnt offering! This passage does not tell us anything about Abraham’s emotions, but he was human, and we can certainly imagine what kind of emotions he had! And yet what the Bible says is “So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey…” (Genesis 22:3) and set about doing what God asked him to do, as we read in the rest of the chapter.
Whatever his emotions were, the Book of Hebrews tells us “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead…” (Hebrews 11:19).
God had promised this son, God had delivered on His promise. Through this son and his descendants, nations were supposed to be blessed. Abraham had the faith to believe that somehow God would bring this to pass, even if it involved raising Isaac from the dead.
As it turns out, he was stopped from actually killing his son. But what a test!
Have you ever had to give something up that you felt was from God? Most of us do not have to deal with as intense a situation as giving up a long-promised miracle son. But sometimes, as we think we are following God, we do have to be willing to give up things that we thought were from Him. I have had to do that on occasion. One of those occasions was when I was writing a book on homeschooling—there were many roadblocks on the way to the book being published, and I had to pray a prayer of surrender: “Lord, I believe you have called me to encourage homeschoolers and that I should write this book, but I don’t need this book to ever get published. May Your will be done.” The roadblocks were eventually removed, and my book did get published. (Stress-Free Homeschooling: Getting It All Done and Enjoying It!) I was willing to let it die, so to speak, knowing that God knows best and could bring it to fruition if He so chose.
Prayer: Lord, may I have the faith of Abraham, that I may obey you even when it doesn’t look like there will be a good outcome. May I obey in the big things in life, but also in the little, daily, things. Amen.
