Abraham and me: thoughts from Mount Moriah.

Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you." - Genesis 22:2

For just a moment think of what must have been going through Abraham's mind when God spoke these words to him. I mean, what more did God want from him? He had already packed up his family, all his belongings and servants and left Ur to go who knows where for God, now God is asking him to sacrifice his beloved Isaac. Did he feel fear? Anxiety? Betrayal? Perhaps a mixture of all of them, but most importantly, I think we can guess as to what Abraham's strongest inclination was by seeing that he obeyed. Abraham trusted God, willing to go so far as to sacrifice the life of his beloved Isaac for love of God.

Why do I bring this up today? God's grace is a wonderful thing, and by God's grace I have come to realize through talking with a newfound brother that I experienced a kind of Abraham/Isaac event myself in the past few years. God has blessed me with so many things, but perhaps most importantly, about 3 years ago, my eyes were opened to God's truth, and he blessed me with a great gift of understanding. As part of this understanding, I went through a time of trial whereby God was asking me, "Ok, now that you have been blessed with understanding, how far are you willing to go for love of me?" On the surface, it would seem awful selfish of God to make me choose, but in reality, in being willing to sacrifice something special to me for love of God, I would be opening myself to blessings untold through being obedient to the Truth. In choosing God over my own wishes, everything else would fall into place, and through my suffering, I would be redeemed.

Now, think about God himself. He is the source of all that exists, Being itself. And because he is the source of all being, the fact that we exist at all is from him willing us to exist. God's very nature is one of giving. So, when Abraham was called to give his son Isaac's life to God on Mount Moriah, he was undergoing not merely a test of his faith, but a test on whether he understood God's true nature. What God was illustrating with Abraham was a foreshadowing of what he would do with his own Son, Jesus, thousands of years later. However, where God provided a ram for sacrifice at the last minute for Abraham, the lamb in the sacrifice of God's son was Jesus himself. God's giving is so complete that he would not even hold back by saving the life of his very own son. So through the suffering that I experienced in my life about 2 years ago, I was given an insight into the true nature of God, one of being willing to sacrifice everything, and through being faithful I was redeemed. I experienced to some degree the faith of Abraham.


"I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--all this because you obeyed my command." - Genesis 22:16-18

Thanks Hockey Man.