After finally giving Abraham and Sarah a son, and watching him grow, God finally put Abraham to the test. “Abraham, I want you to take your son, Isaac, and offer him up in sacrifice.” Abraham did not utter one word of complaint, at least, if he did, the bible did not record it. The old man, now well over a hundred and twenty-five, took his son up to Mount Moriah and bound him and placed him on a pile of sticks on the stone altar, and was about the sacrifice him, when the voice of God spoke out and forbade Abraham to kill his son. Fortuitously, the old father found a ram whose horns were caught in a tangle of briers. He released the ram and sacrificed the ram in place of his son.
What does that say about this God we are trying to figure out? On the surface it looks like he is heartless and without feeling. Being a spirit, he does not have feelings like we have. What he decides to do and what he asks is not out any selfish motive, because it is against the nature of God to be selfish. He is a god of love, and knows only love. What he asked of Abraham was for a very profound reason. When God takes us into his intimacy, our life changes. When is going to use us, our life will become very complicated and very difficult and unpredictable, and the hardships that will result will demand that we maintain a trust in God that is far beyond what he ordinarily expects of the vast majority of people. For God’s special intimates life is not easy, it is extremely stressful, and part of God’s training for these special souls is disciplining them to have a determined and steadfast trust in him, that no matter what happens and how dark and frightening the journey may be, God will always be hovering close-by to assure us of his protection and his strength, and to resolve any imminent crises.
From painful experiences, I have long ago learned that God is a master of brinkmanship. How many times, when the path seemed bleak, and tragedy imminent, and when there seemed to be no hope of survival, in the one last frightful moment, God mysteriously changes everything, and the way is changed in an instant. I will never forget one day, many years ago, I had taken my mother on vacation and we were on our way back home coming north on Route 54 in southern Illinois, or northern Missouri, I forget which. I was driving on a very winding two lane mountain highway. On the right was a guard rail, and a two or three hundred foot drop down to the river below. As I was going around a bend I saw a huge trailer truck coming around the bend in our lane. I knew there was no possible way of the truck smashing into us. All I could do was to say, “This is the end, Mother. I love you very much.” “I love you to, Joseph.” I closed me eyes so I wouldn’t see the crash, but there was no crash, just an eerie silence. I opened my eyes and looked in the rearview mirror, and the huge truck was behind us. We both said together, “That was a miracle, how that truck got behind us.” It must have gone right through us without touching us. So, ever since then I always knew that nothing, absolutely nothing is impossible to God.
So, when God asked of Abraham the sacrifice of his only son, it was not an act of meanness, but part of a painful training program that God was putting him through to prepare him for his very difficult and extraordinary mission, which would demand total trust in God’s
