THE AMAZING OBEDIENCE OF ABRAHAM

This morning in my quiet time, the passage was about Abraham’s amazing obedience.

One day, the Lord called him, telling him to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering to Him.

I could just imagine the anguish that Abraham must have felt when he heard that from God.  He must have been horrified.  Abraham and his wife Sarah had waited for a long time for a son.  Sarah was already past child-bearing age.  However, at age 90, she gave birth to  Isaac.   Abraham was then already 100 years old.  Abraham and Sarah loved Isaac very much.  But here was God telling Abraham to kill his son as sacrifice?  Is that reasonable? Is that sensible?  What’s happening?

As human beings, that defies logic.  No one in his right mind would kill his own child.

But Abraham did the illogical.  It was God who told him to sacrifice his son.  And Abraham’s faith in God was absolute.  God is God and whatever God would tell him to do, he would do. He would obey everything God would tell him to do. 

So, early the next morning, Abraham saddled his ass, and together with his son Isaac and two of his young men, brought wood for the burnt offering, and headed to the land of Moriah. 

They travelled for three days before they reached the place.  When they arrived there, Abraham told the two men to wait for him, while he and Isaac went farther with the wood for the burnt offering.

When Abraham and Isaac had finished preparing the place with the wood and the fire, Isaac asked his father where was the lamb for the burnt offering.  The Bible did not elaborate the conversation between the father and the son.  Maybe Abraham in a calm but anguished voice, told his son that God had told him to sacrifice him as the burnt offering. It must have been a very emotional scene for the father and son.  Isaac being brought up to be an obedient son, and had been taught who God was, must have trembled with fright but did not struggle.  Notwithstanding, he let himself be bound by his father.  What great faith this father and son had exhibited!

But when Abraham was about to strike Isaac with the knife, the angel of the Lord called Abraham, telling him not to kill his son. 

                                     

Genesis 22:11-13 reads:  But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”  Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

As I meditated on this passage, I could not help but wonder.  How many people today would have that kind of faith and obedience?  I don’t know.  It’s so hard.  It would take great faith to do what Abraham did.  Hindi na ako lalayo.  How about me?  Am I ready to obey God if it would entail so much sacrifice?  I really don’t know. 

Dear God, help me to trust you completely.  Help me o Lord, to love you more than anybody else, help me o Lord, to love you more than myself.