15 The Lord’s messenger called out to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I give my word as the Lord that because you did this and didn’t hold back your son, your only son, 17 I will bless you richly and I will give you countless descendants, as many as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies’ cities. 18 All the nations of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants, because you obeyed me.”
Reflection
The story of Abraham and Isaac can be a difficult story to read. As a parent, it certainly isn’t something you want God to ask of you. If you don’t know the background, Abraham and Sarah were very old when God promised them a son who would then continue the Hebrew nation for generations to come. That son was Isaac. Then God asked Abraham to take Isaac out into the wilderness and sacrifice him. Abraham was ready to do that, and Isaac was ready to comply when the Lord said stop and provided a ram that was caught in the bushes nearby.
For those of us who have heard lots of sermons or gone to Sunday School, this is a story that we have heard often. It is touted as a story about Abraham’s obedience to God and how sometimes God asks really difficult things of us. That is true but at the core isn’t it more about trusting God with all we are and all we have and trusting God’s promises? God promised Abraham that he would be the father of generations to come. If Isaac was dead, would Sarah have another child or what would happen? None of that made sense. I also read a commentary that said Isaac was probably not a child, but a young man, a young man who would have been capable of resisting Abraham. If that is true, then Isaac trusted in God as well because he was ready to become the sacrifice. We read that Abraham did not ask these questions, but was obedient, and in our scripture from today we read that because Abraham was totally obedient, the “messenger” said that Abraham would be the father of many descendants and all nations would be blessed. Now we can get tied up sometimes in history because some well-known pastor has declared that something terrible happened because people were not obeying God. We’ve heard the Biblical stories and the interpretations of the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah and others, but let’s just focus on our personal faith today.
God definitely asks us to step out of our comfort zone at times. There is a saying “life starts at the end of our comfort zone”. Life could be exchanged with faith in that saying. I am not sure that God asks us to sacrifice what he asked Abraham to sacrifice, but maybe God is asking us to do something we never thought of doing – joining a new group, going on a mission trip, meeting new people, writing devotions, joining the choir or worship team, doing visitation, or doing one of the jobs that Joe asked for help with in the Friday update. We never know where a new idea could lead us. Let’s keep our hearts and minds open to the Spirit’s leading. We know we will be blessed in the end as doing something for the Kin-dom, even though sometimes difficult, is always a blessing –usually more to us than to those we think we are helping, because it does help us to more fully experience the Triune God.
by Janet Waryck
For Pondering and Prayer
Thoughts: What has God been asking us to do that we are reluctant to try or do because the cost seems high? What might we do to trust that God will bring us through to the other side of that with a greater faith and trust?
Prayer: God who is faithful to us, thank you for guiding us in your way. Help us to look for new ways to serve your Kin-dom, even if it is out of our comfort zone. Give us the faith to rely on your leading. Guide us by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
