Abraham

Speaking of Abraham....

(See yesterday if you missed it.)

...so I was invited back to the adult Sunday School class to teach again. This time my topic was Abraham's order to sacrifice Isaac. So after consuming an extraordinary amount of coffee Friday night, I stayed up until about 2 in the morning unpacking that section of Scripture and coming up with things to say to the group.

...a.k.a. coming up with things that stepped on my own toes until I couldn't even feel them anymore. (Super.)

So here were a couple of the things that got me.

Since Abraham was introduced in Scripture, the following things have happened in his life (that we know about…perhaps many other things happened that we don’t know!): He was called to leave his home, his family, his friends, and everything he knew – forever – to go to a yet-undisclosed location. He went through a famine. He thought he was going to die because Pharaoh wanted his gorgeous wife. He lied about his relationship with her (in a lifetime-movie-esque) scandal. He was kicked out of Egypt. He got in a family fight and ended up parting ways with the family he had left. He took the lesser land to keep whatever peace was left. He then had to rescue said family member from a political scuffle. He and his wife battled infertility. He got talked into having an affair with his wife’s servant. He got her pregnant. He had a son. His wife got jealous of the servant and the son and treated them badly. He chickened out on fixing the situation. He lost his son and the servant. He had to institute circumcision – to which we’ll just say OUCH. He had new name and identity presented. He found out Lot’s city was about to be destroyed and went through some warfare to preserve his family’s life. Lied again about his relationship with Sarah.

And THAT brings us to the part where “God decided to test Abraham.” Really? Had life not been test enough?

You ever feel like that? Like you just want to throw your head back and say “Are you stinking kidding me?!!?!?!!?!?!? What more do You WANT from me? Haven’t I been through enough? Haven’t I learned enough? Haven’t I proven my loyalty? WHAT DO YOU WANT!?!!?!?!?!”

And then God pointed out this to me...

The end of that passage is where Abraham is about to complete the sacrifice and God stops him and instructs him to spare Isaac and instead sacrifice the ram that divinely appeared over to the side.

I really shouldn’t speak for anyone but myself…but sometimes when I think about this passage of Scripture…I think “where is my ram?” There has to be a ram. This has to be a test. This can’t be real world. God surely is sending something to save the day.

When I do that, my focus is on the wrong thing. Abraham wasn’t darting his gaze around him in search of the “out.” He was fully focused on the command. He was going to carry it through even if it ripped out his soul.

If we move our focus to a ram-hunt, really, we are testing God. And that is completely backwards. This whole section was about GOD testing ABRAHAM. Abraham was so committed to obedience that he was…in his heart…fully committed to doing this thing. In the end, God spared him. But that was God’s call to make. And our job if we are put to the test – is to do the test, regardless of the outcome.

Gulp.