Holy Cow! When Abe is on, he is ON! The previous chapter is the fulfillment of God's promise and the beginning of the covenant - the birth of Isaac. As a reminder, Abe was 100 and Sarah was 90!! "Some time later" (v.1), God commands Abe to sacrifice this fulfillment of promise, thus jeopardizing the covenant. If he kills Isaac, how can he be sure that Sarah will have another kid (in light of the fact that it took a huge act of God for Isaac to come into existence). Nevertheless, the Bible seems to indicate that Abe never wavered. In fact, when Abe & Isaac separate from the servants, he says that "we will return to you." Was he just thinking positive? Or was he just flat out/100% trusting God? It seems like he was saying, "I'm not sure what God is doing here, but I trust that He is right...even if everything in me thinks this is wrong. I don't understand everything, but I'm not unclear on God & His character: loving, holy, righteous, merciful, full of grace, etc. I will choose to lean on what I know to be true over what I think with my brain or see with my eyes." That is AMAZING. I'm not sure I can recall many times when I've made this choice when encountering a crisis of faith. When God says that Abe believed (or showed faith) and it was credited to him as righteousness, I think this is what He meant. I would imagine God was pretty dang proud of Abe that day. It makes me wonder 2 things: will I ever have this kind of a defining moment in my life? and, will I choose like Abe did? I know God already loves me unconditionally and couldn't love me more (see the Cross for evidence of this argument), but I am motivated to please God in this way.
Couple of other observations on this story:
- Funny line from Isaac - v. 7 - "uh, Dad...where's the sacrifice?"
- How did that work? what is Isaac thinking when his father is tying him to some wood the same way he'd seen his dad do with other sacrifical animals (read: things that were about to be killed)
- No brainer picture - v. 12 - when the angel tells Abe to not kill Isaac, he refers to Isaac not just as his son, but adds "your only son." I know another Father who proved His faithfulness by sacrificing His "only begotten son" (not just His Son). What a great picture and foreshadow.
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