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           Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.” 

He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:10-12)

 

 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and [a]foremost commandment.  The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39)

 

We’ve been considering how sin separates. It’s doesn’t take much to understand how murder, adultery, rape, and theft can separate. If they were the only things that separated us from God, from others, or from ourselves, it’d be easy. But they’re not the only things. Sometimes, it’s not evil that separates us, It’s good.

God had promised Isaac to Abraham. Abraham and Sarah having a son could not be considered evil. But as a result of the birth of Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael were separated from Ishmael’s father. And you know the story that ends in today’s passage. God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, and thereby prove that even that good thing, his promised child, hadn’t come between Abraham and God.

It’s easy for us to take umbrage. How dare God take away what He promised? X is a good thing, what can be so wrong about my having it in my life. In fact, one of the arguments given for why something should accept certain relationships as good is “love is love.” But what Matthew, and the whole of Scripture warns us is that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength: with your will, your mind, your body all together and coordinated by your soul. And if loving that person you love is more important than loving God, then that person has separated you from God, no matter how good you may think that person is for you or you for them.

The same is true of things. Having money may be a good thing. Having a car that works is definitely a good thing. Having a good job is a good thing. But money, cars, and (perhaps especially) good jobs can get in the way of our relationships with God. This last one has an “oops story” attached. Years ago, I had a job I hated but that paid a pretty good salary. I prayed for a better job, one that I’d like, and that paid a third to half again as much. Within six months, I no longer had any job, and when I found a new one, it paid a third to a half less than the former job and I hated it even more than I had the previous job, but it let me participate in a ministry at my church and kept me from being tied to a career that would have made it much harder to leave when my father needed more care than I could give him while working.

I’m not suggesting that we throw away everything good, but now and again, we should consider whether the good thing has come between ourselves and God.

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