Today’s Reading: Genesis 20-22
WE DO NOT NEED TO PROTECT WHAT GOD GAVE US FROM THE GOD WHO GAVE IT TO US.
This is a statement I heard my husband make in one of his sermons several years ago. It comes back to my mind as I read today’s passage of scripture in Genesis. This week we took our youngest daughter, Brooke, to a meeting at the high school for next year’s incoming freshmen. How is that possible? In two weeks, Madeira will turn sixteen and the plan is to go straight to the DMV after school to get her driver’s license. How can that be? This week we filled out the FAFSA in preparation for our oldest daughter, Libby, to start her freshman year of college in the fall. What?!!
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 we have trusted God with their kids. We have spent the last 18 years placing our 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 blesses 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.” – Genesis 22:1-5
God promised Abraham that he would have countless descendants. Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. What?!! How is that possible? How can that be? That is how I would have reacted, but it is not how Abraham displayed his faith. Abraham trusted God to provide and faithfully, without hesitation, walked up the mountain with his greatest possession – his son.
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 22:6-14
The Lord provided. The words hold such power over our current situations. To know with confidence that God keeps His promises, and to know that He provides for the fulfillment of those promises – this is the knowledge that keeps us going when it seems like life is moving too fast.
WE DO NOT 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
– My future
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 Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. – Hebrews 11:17-19
“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.