Do You Trust Me?

Genesis 22:1-3

¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

² Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

OK, read that again. There's no rush...really.

Now that you have read it a 2nd time, ask yourself honestly - would I do that if God asked me?

No wonder that Abraham is the father of many nations. Take a look at this verse people. And it's just the beginning. God basically says, "Take the person you love, the person that I gave you - and sacrifice him."

Really put yourself in his shoes. Role play here and make it as if God is talking with you.

"Take the person you love, the person that I gave you and sacrifice him/her."

For some of you, that is a friend, for those who are married - a spouse. For those married with children, perhaps one of those children (or all of them, pick one). Could you do it?

Here's a question, does it even make sense that God would ask something like that of you? I maintain that we have culturalized God so much that we have a completely warped perspective of what he may or may not have us do in order to glorify Himself! Our view of God shrinks daily and our faith is definitely NOT that of a mustard seed (and I don't mean we don't have enough faith, it more screams that we aren't at peace with the right kind of faith). We cannot comprehend, let alone get to the question, "Could we do it?" The truth is that we would dismiss the thought before it even had a chance to sink in - if it even could sink in at all!

Next, Abraham gets all the supplies ready in order to sacrifice his son, readies 2 people to help him out, and then gets on his donkey! He's going through with this!

Genesis 22:6,7

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Are you serious? I don't even know if I can imagine this right...

I want you to notice the faith Isaac has in his father, and the innocence of his heart in this moment.

Genesis 22:8

⁸ Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

Without skipping a beat, Abraham answers Isaac's question brilliantly. He doesn't lie, yet he spares his son panic and confusion that most definitely would have followed. At least, I think it would have. Reading the words, I can't even believe that Abraham thought of that on his own. I have suspicion that God is lending Abraham His wisdom in this moment to give Isaac peace so that Abraham's faith can be put on display for God.

Genesis 22:9-12

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

¹² "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."

I don't think there is a man or woman on earth that would have made it this far. Abraham has the knife poised and ready to strike His son before "the angel of the Lord" calls out to him from heaven. Only now does the truth come. "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Only when you give up "the stuff you love" can you fear God. If you are not willing to give these things up for God if/when He asks, you do not fear Him - and in turn you cannot trust Him.

God asked Abraham to do this as a test. God wanted to see how far Abraham was willing to go...whether or not Abraham trusted God. Abraham passed because he would have done it. If we was not going to do it God would not have needed to stop him. God knew Abraham was really going to kill his own son because of His faith. If God does not step in, Abraham kills Isaac. This is why Abraham passes the test. Did you hear it that time? It is not because he showed up on the mountain, not because he built the altar, not because he brought his son, not because he raised the knife; but because he was ready (somehow...) to kill his son because God said so.

If you do not fear God, not only can you not trust Him - you cannot love Him. He can love you though that mess, but you cannot love Him through all of it. Without fear of God, you will not cast yourself upon God without looking back. You will stretch yourself so thin trying to build the bridge between what you can't let go of and God. Doing this breaks people apart, and we see it all the time in this world - and we continue to see it more and more. Most people that do this end up blaming God for stuff. God doesn't settle for 2nd in your life. He just doesn't.

In my last post, "The Heart of Losing your Life" I mentioned that the state of your heart is what God is really after. I share this example of Abraham with you because I'm trying to drive home this point in a very different way. God had to know that there was NO part of his life that was more dear to Abraham than God. At the core, God is jealous FOR us and will not take a back seat to anyone, or anything. Should you, as a parent, take a back seat to your baby's rattle? What about the baby's pacifier? How ridiculous does that even sound? Of course you shouldn't take a back seat to those things because of 2 important reasons! First, because you as a parent are the source of how the baby gets the rattle or pacifier. Second, because you are the source of everything they need. At least, in their world you are. If this is true, why do you expect God to be different with us, than you are with your children?

This is what Abraham believed. I would say that he understood, but he didn't get how it all worked. Abraham knew that if God told him to do something, that he should do it because God is God and had a better plan than Abraham could come up with. Abraham trusted God implicitly. This is the same thing that Jesus is asking of the rich young ruler. Jesus asks him to "go sell all of this possessions." The only difference is that Abraham did what God asked, the rich young ruler couldn't. Look at the story of Abraham in light of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law, and turned toward your heart all of this difficult nonsense that used to be burnt offerings and the like. God still looks to your heart for burnt offerings. He is looking for you to put on the altar the stuff that is piled on top of your heart preventing you from trusting Him.

I have been alive for 30 years (To some of you that will seem like forever, to others not so much). Not one time have I witnessed someone trust God implicitly. Not one time. It has always been conditional or half-hearted. It has never been like what I read in Genesis. God has not changed since then. He is still God. We are the descendants of Abraham, we should expect the same God as he did.

Let go. Trust Him.