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The Test Of a Lifetime
Genesis 22:1-14
The scene came from a television movie a few years ago. I don’t even remember the title. A woman is speaking across the valley of death to her young daughter who had died and now wants her mother to cross over and be in heaven with her. As you can imagine the death of her daughter had brought horrible grief to the mother. She had prayed and begged God for the life of her daughter, but her prayer were not answered. Now it is time for the mother to cross over.But, there is one condition. In order to cross to where her daughter is, the woman has to affirm that she loves God. The problem is that she can’t. Her grief was so strong. During her daughter’s illness she had prayed so hard that God would heal her daughter. Now she feels that she doesn’t love God at all. The dead girl was pleading, “Please mommy, say that you love God. You can’t be with me if you don’t love God.” Then the little girl was crying, but the woman could not say from her heart that she loved God. The scene ends with both the mother and the girl crying as they are separated across this valley.Of course, it was just a scene from a television movie. It was not even good theology. But, it made me think of how I would feel as a parent, if one of my sons was taken from me. The pain would be so great that I must confess I would probably feel like that mother.
Our scripture reading from Genesis this evening is hard for us to comprehend. It takes us back a few thousand years to a culture and a world we have a hard time understanding. You know the story of Abraham and Sarah. They had been through trials and difficulties. They had trusted in the promises of God which seemed almost impossible. Then Abraham and Sarah finally receive the gift of a child. It has been twenty-five long years of waiting, wondering and praying. And whether thousands of years ago or today . . . the joy that comes with the birth of a long awaited child is one of life’s true celebrations.Then think about Abraham. Remember this one line. “Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”Imagine . . . any volunteers here among our Senior Adults willing to become parents of a newborn? Abraham has waited and waited. Now the child is here. Then we get to our scripture. What happens is hard to comprehend. The scripture says that God “tests” Abraham’s faith by asking him to give up the son he loves, by allowing the boy to be killed. The boy will be killed by Abraham’s own hand in a ancient ritual of child sacrifice.It makes me wonder what God was thinking. When seen from the perspective of modern times when we are so sensitive to child abuse and the ways human beings are treated all around the world. This story seems like an example of horrific child abuse. What if this story was to appear in a modern day newspaper?Associated Press: N.Y. July 20, 2010 A man was arrested today after police received an anonymous tip about a bizarre religious practice that was to take place. The man’s son was freed by police as the father was in the act of taking the boy’s life with a butcher knife. Police said the man told them he had heard the voice of God command him to sacrifice the boy.Names have been withheld to protect the juvenile boy’s identity and the father is in custody pending examination by state psychiatrists.That’s the way it would tend to look today . . . he’s got a psychological problem. But, when we go back a few thousand years, things were different. With this story from Genesis we go back at least four thousand years of human history.In fact, these verses from Genesis lead Abraham away from the practice of child sacrifice. In the culture of Abraham’s time, child sacrifice was quite common. It was not, however, to be a part of Israel’s life. Later in Israel’s history, King Josiah destroys an altar which was used to sacrifice children because this was an abomination to God. (II Kings 23:10) When we examine this story, perhaps we can find some truths for our lives today that will strengthen our own realtionship with God.
There are two things that we need to do and there is one promise of what God will do:
[1] We need to Listen, and
[2] We need to “Trust and Obey”, and then
[3] God will meet our needs.
Let’s look at each one for a few moments.
[1] We need to Listen
When God calls, Abraham hears. After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
(Gen. 22:1)
I believe that God still speaks to us, but we need to be listening. Abraham lived his life in light of his relationship with God. His relationship with God wasn’t a Sunday thing or a sometimes thing. Abraham’s relationship with God was a normal everyday part of his life. Since the day he left his homeland to follow the voice of God the “the land that I will show you”, Abraham’s spirit was sensitive to the voice of God. Now Abraham wasn’t perfect, and the scripture bears witness that he didn’t always do what God told him, but Abraham seemed to know how to listen. Has anyone ever told you that you don’t listen?
When someone feels as though we aren’t listening to them . . . When we are not paying attention to what they are trying to tell us . . . the message comes that we need to pay attention. How many times when we have been told we aren’t listening, have we become angry and defensive and perhaps shouted something like, “I do too listen!” But we have already shown that the criticism is true by our defensiveness. For us to raise our voices does not make us better listeners, it is an attempt to get the other person to hear us. And the hearing ability of the “other person” was never the point!
So how do we listen to God? Is there a way we can do that? Think about some ways God speaks to us . . . God speaks to us in scripture, in our times of prayer, in the conversation with Christian friends, in times of worship or in a Sunday School class or retreat. One of the problems is that our society is filled with good “talkers”, but there just aren’t that many good listeners. I have found in my years of ministry and counseling that talking does not build good relationships. Listening builds relationships. It is the same with God as it is with any other relationship . . . we don’t hear if we don’t listen.
In our relationship with God if we are not “intending” to listen . . . then the chances are really good that we are not hearing God speak to us. There is this simple prayer that will help our communication with God. It is simply, “Lord, help me to hear your voice in my life.”
That simple prayer, if we really mean it, can transform our relationships with God. “Lord, help me to hear your voice in my life.”
[2] We need to “Trust and Obey”
Remember the old gospel hymn entitled, “Trust and Obey.” It calls us to reflect on two important themes . . . trusting God. . . and obeying God. These are central to our faith, and we really cannot do one without the other.
Abraham hears the voice of God asking him to do something unthinkable. Give up his son? Does God have this right? This is “. . . your only son Isaac, whom you love . . .” Abraham obeys. Wait a minute, this isn’t a “blind obedience”, it is an obedience based on trust. If we were there, we might have said, “Abraham, are you sure it was the voice of God? Maybe you made a mistake.”
But I have a feeling that Abraham would have responded something like this:
“The Lord has been with me from the very beginning of my journey of faith until now. God is the one who made things happen that no one else could even imagine. For everything I have seen over these thirty some years, I will trust God for everything I do not see.”
This isn’t blind faith. It is a faith formed and strengthened from walking with God through the years. Abraham has learned over a long period of time that listening for and obeying the voice of God results in good things. And the work of God in our lives, though sometimes difficult, always results in the best for our lives.
Abraham’s part in the life of faith is to bring a commitment to listen for God’s voice and couple that with a trust in God and an obedience to what God asks of him. God’s part is to provide.
[3] God will meet our needs
Remember one of the central themes of this story is that child sacrifice will never be a part of Israel’s religious life.
Child sacrifice is one of the reasons pagan religion and Caananite religious practices were an abomination to God.
There is a sense deep within human hearts of a separation between ourselves and God and the feeling that this separation must somehow be closed. Primitive religions, almost without exception, projected a sense that there is an “angry god” out there somewhere that is out to get everyone and these gods have to be appeased in order to escape their punishment. Children were seen as innocent or perhaps a young virgin would be innocent and people felt that they could appease the gods by sacrificing one who was innocent. Perhaps such a sacrifice will pacify the angry god. Some sort of sacrifice had to be made.
In Israel a lamb represented innocence. Isaac knows that he and his father Abraham are going to worship God and offer a sacrifice but Isaac has a question, “where is the lamb?”
Abraham’s response is the response of faith . . . that faith that is based everything Abraham has experienced God doing up until this point. “God himself will provide the lamb,” Abraham responds. What was Abraham thinking? Did Abraham really think God would step in and halt the sacrifice of Isaac and provide a lamb? Or is Abraham simply trying to calm the boy?
I would say neither. Abraham knows this one thing. The God who called him to become the father of a “Great Nation” is the God of the impossible. This is the God who brought about an impossible birth. How is this God going to make Isaac the one from whom the nation will come and at the same time take back his life?
Abraham might have said this, “Well, I don’t know, but then, I didn’t have a clue how Sarah and I were ever going to have a child. I’ve never had a clue why God chose an an old man like me for this “nation-fathering” business. But this one thing I know. When I listen to God’s voice, trust what I hear and follow through with obedience, things work out. When I don’t listen and make up my own way, then I make a mess of things.”
God is the one who provides for our needs.When the ram caught in the bushes had been offered to God, Abraham called the place “Jehovah-Jireh” which literally means, “The Lord will provide.”
We listen . . . we trust . . . we obey . . . and God will provide.
Carroll H. Page
Wednesday evening, July 21, 2010
Prayer Service
Boiling Springs Baptist Church
P. O. Box 917
Boiling Springs, NC 28017
(704) 434-6244
Author : admin | July 23, 2010
Category: Ministries |
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