11 - No Question!
Genesis 22
9. Then they came to the place of which God had told him.
And
Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order;
and he
bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
10. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay 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. And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, 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."
13. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was
a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram,
and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
NKJV
There is an occasion in everyone's walk of faith where God, having
given you what He promised, requires you to give it all up, with no
promise that you'll ever see it again.
This was that time in the life
of Abraham.
God had told him that he and Sarah would have Isaac. They had waited
and waited on God for many years in faith for the fulfilment of
this promise.
Now Isaac was a fully grown young man, the most precious person in
Abraham's heart, the one through whom God had said he would fulfil
His great promises to Abraham,
and God says, "Give him back to Me!"
Abraham's heart must have screamed, "God, what do You mean: sacrifice
Isaac as a burnt offering to YOU!"
But Abraham never voiced that question to God.
He chose instead to
believe that God would give Isaac back to him, so he went ahead in
faith to obey God's command:
"and took the knife to slay his son…"
When God comes to test your faith by requiring some impossible sacrifice
of you, will you respond in trusting obedience like Abraham?
Or will your own self-will rise to the surface and question God's
directives for you?
Abraham had no assurance that this incident would end the way it did.
It was the practice of the idol-worshipping people who surrounded him,
that they would offer their children as burnt offerings to their gods.
Abraham had never been told that God is totally against child-sacrifice of any kind.
Still he decided to obey God in faith.
Prayer:
Father, the way Abraham was able to trust You here is astonishing to me.
I want to be able to obey You without question, in faith,
the way Your man Abraham did.
Today, like the Lord Jesus Christ, I put away my self will, and say,
Not my will, but Yours be accomplished in my life,
In His name I pray,
Amen.
