Walking With Christ

Genesis 22:1-2 (1)After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” (2)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.”(ESV)

This is easily the second most difficult example of being obedient even if it hurts with Jesus being the obvious choice for most difficult. Still, Abraham was old when he had Isaac. Abraham was well beyond the normal age to be able to have children. Yet, here was Isaac. After having lived nearly a full life without having children, most likely having given up on the idea altogether as evidenced by him saying that his heir was Eliezer, Abram and Sarai receive a promise of a child. Then it actually happens.

Don’t miss that there were several small tests along the way such as leaving Ur. They both had lived lives that were pleasing to God. They just didn’t have any kids. When given the promise, Sarai laughed at the thought because of her age. The doubt was understandable. They remained faithful and held onto that promise. It’s true that there was a failure in understanding dealing with the “how” of the promise (tried to make the blessing happen in their timing through Hagar). Even with that, the Lord stayed faithful to His promise. They did, indeed, have a child even despite the advanced age of both of them.

Imagine the overwhelming and nearly indescribable joy at finally having something that had simply been out of reach your whole life.

Then, imagine the gut wrenching agony of God asking for you to give it back.

This is where we find Abraham in Genesis 22.

The direct message here is that Abraham recognized that Isaac was a gift from God and ultimately belonged to God. Even beyond that, he recognized that everything belongs to God. He is the creator. He is the giver. If He gives then only He can take. If He gives then asks for it back, rejoice in the blessing that you were given. If He gives and we refuse to give it back if asked, that shows that we do not recognize the giver and did not truly appreciate the gift in the first place. If we receive a gift and God asks for it back but we insist on keeping it, that is putting our desire for the gift above the will of the giver.

“The good Lord giveth. The good Lord taketh away.” This doesn’t cover situations where we are not given a choice and certainly isn’t meant to suggest that every loss is from God but, most, even if not all, of the time when God asks us to return a gift He has given, regardless of what form it takes, we will be blessed in even greater ways because we were obedient instead of selfish. The thing is, God may give us a blessing meant for now. If He asks for it back later that’s because He most likely has a greater blessing in store for you but has to make room in your life for it. If you choose to keep the old blessing, He will honor your free will choice but won’t be able to give you the greater blessing that was planned.

We will all face trials in this life. There will be times when we do not want to be obedient to His will. We are never guaranteed to understand His will for the moment, let alone our lives. We can rest in the promises that we have been given. We can rest in His word knowing that our future is secured by a saving relationship with our creator. If we lean into that relationship and learn to fully trust His will for our lives in order to ultimately submit to Him completely then the reward will be greater than anyone could possibly imagine.