City Life Starter

Written by Paul Lane

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 

Genesis 22:9-12 (ESV)

⁹ Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” ¹⁰ But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job 2:9-10

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 10:37-39

Reflection

Interest Item 1: This is Abraham’s fifth and final alter.

Interest Item 2: Many experts believe that the location of this test is the same location as Jesus’ crucifixion.

It is interesting that this testing of Abraham is not about sin.  Rather it is about proving that Abraham has gotten to the point in his faithfulness that nothing is worth more to him.  Most of our pleading to God is that He would take away some broken part of our lives and fix it.  Never do we passionately plead for the Lord to come into our lives so that we can give up all the good things we have or do.  But that is what the Lord asks for.  Job has it right at the beginning of his testing.  We should be praying “yes to whatever you ask, Lord.” 

But this testing is like no other.  Note that it is a test and not a tempting.  The Lord tempts not but is intent on testing every one of His children.  Through modern eyes we should be calling Child Protective Services to take Isaac away from this crazy old man.  But in Abraham’s day, many cultures regularly sacrificed children.  Perhaps the unusual nature of this test spoke more clearly to the surrounding cultures that Yahweh sought a sacrifice but preferred a substitute.

Regarding Abraham, today’s verses are probably the toughest verses for a father to think about, obedience to God at the cost of your child.  It is in the natural order that parents die before children, so this seems to be very unnatural.  It does not seem fair, but every father knows that things such as this do not come down to fairness.  This is only about performance.  Will you or will you not?  That is the question. Abraham must give up the most precious thing in his life, for no good reason other than that God told him to.  Would that be reason enough for you?

Application

When I was in school, I had an “Abraham moment.”  I fear that my comparison to Abraham’s test falls woefully short, but it might help you in some way. You see, I have wanted to design airplanes since I was three years old. I do not know what it is like to want anything else. But when I committed my life to Christ, I felt that I should surrender everything in my life to God. It was to the point that I felt that I should drop all my classes and start preaching the gospel. I actually went to the administration office to start the paperwork. Oh, what a fearful moment. Just as I was about to walk into the office, a friend bumped into me and asked me what I was doing there.  It was like God calling, “Paul, Paul” to me, just like when God stopped Abraham. Later I went and talked with my pastor. Note, that I should have gone to my pastor before heading to the administration office.

All of that to say, it is the experience of going to that extreme that gave me the confidence that God trusted me with the dream that He Himself put in me.  And so, it is with everything in our lives. It all must find its way to the alter of the Lord so that He can either bless or discard. 

Prayer

Take my life, oh Lord, and judge it for faithfulness to Your call. Lord, I pray for the grace to release all things that take away from my faithfulness to You.  Teach me Your voice, that I might know the right path and that I might walk it with confidence. In Jesus name, amen.