Sacrifice

          By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19) 

         

           How could a good God ask any parent to kill his/her child? In our society, the question seems to be the reverse: how could a good God ask any mother not to kill her child? But in this case, Isaac wasn’t just Abraham’s child. It was the child he and Sarah had spent decades waiting for, the miracle child, the promised child through whom all the other promises would be received. How could a good God promise all that He had promised, and just as the boy was heading into manhood, demand his life? Isn’t that the epitome of cruel jokes?

          It’s similar to another cruel joke. In this one, someone gives a present, or someone introduces two friends, and watches as the present becomes the obsession of the recipient, or the two friends become lovers and reject or betray the one who introduced them. This was the issue in the challenge God gave Abraham: Do you love Isaac more than you love Me? Is the gift I gave you, or even the promise I gave you more important than the one who promised it? Are you looking to Isaac as your source of joy and solution to your problems, or to Me?  

         The knife hand rose. It was poised. In his mind and heart, Abraham had already sacrificed Isaac. He would obey God even if it cost him everything he held dear. And God stopped him. He told Abraham that He now knew that Abraham loved Him more than he loved Isaac. In His omniscience, He always knew that, but now he had experienced it. And so did Abraham and Isaac.         

        I sometimes fear that God will ask me to give something up: my dog, my home, my writing, my delusions of competence and independence… It doesn’t really matter what. I’m convinced my best response would be, “No, no, no, no, no… oh OK.” That’s my usual response when I think God is saying, “Go this way.” The fact that everything in me says, “No!” is what leads me to believe it’s God speaking.

          But I’ve been over this terrain before. I’ve given up dreams (and sometimes had them returned to me.) I’ve given up my home, my job, my parents…. In fact, I tend to fear accepting something, because I’m sure at some point God will have to take it away. That’s probably as bad as not being willing to sacrifice, because I’m still focused on the thing, and not on God.