We don’t need to protect what God gave us from the God who gave it to us.
This is a point I heard my husband make in one of his sermons a couple of years ago. It comes back to my mind this week. Yesterday, we had friends from church bring their newborn son home from the hospital to start their new journey as parents. Yesterday, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law drove their son, Tyler, to college to start his freshman year. Next week, they will make the same drive with their daughter, Brittany.
No matter how excited you are about what God has for your children, no matter how long you have planned for this day, no matter how much you have prepared yourself for this moment – there is nothing easy about letting go of your children and trusting God with what comes next. Only this is not the first time John & Cheryl have trusted God with their kids. They have spent the last 19 years placing their most precious gifts from God back into the hands of the God who provides. It is something we, as parents, have to do daily.
Abraham would understand just how hard a task this is. But Abraham would also understand how it is the same God who blessed us with children in the first place who asks us to trust Him with what comes next – to do anything God would ask us to do with the blessings He has provided for us.
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
“Take your son, your only son – yes, Isaac, whom you love so much – and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told his servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am.”
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” – Genesis 22:1-14
Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham trusted God to provide and faithfully, without hesitation, walked up the mountain with his greatest possession – his son.
We don’t need to protect what God gave us from the God who gave it to us.
– My marriage
– My family
– My job
– My money
– My health
– My friends
This morning, Jake & Bekah woke up to the sounds of their newborn son.
This morning, John & Cheryl woke up missing the son they dropped off at college yesterday.
This morning, Kelly will stand by Joe’s bedside and watch the doctors turn off the machines and kiss her husband goodbye.
This morning, Matt & Trish will drive their son to his second surgery in the last 8 days.
This morning, Tim will continue what he has been doing since July 5th – sitting by Darci’s beside and praying for God to heal her.
“Here I am, Lord.” Show me this morning what I am clinging to that has never been mine to begin with. Remind me of your provisions and give me the strength to trust you with what comes next. I thank you for the abundant blessings you so generously extend to me every day. I place EVERYTHING on the altar and I choose to listen to your voice. Yahweh-Yireh – the Lord will provide.