Abraham was one of the greats. He is the father of the three major theistic religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Without a doubt Abraham is one of the greatest figures mentioned in the Bible. He even takes up a large portion of the Biblical Hall of Faith, Hebrews chapter 11. And the source of his greatness, is his faith and trust in God. All throughout his life Abraham put his trust and faith in God.
Eventually Isaac was born. Isaac became Abraham’s pride and joy, and that became a problem. To quote A. W. Tozer “The baby represented everything sacred to his father’s heart: the promises of God, the covenants, the hopes of the years and the long messianic dream.” Abraham started putting his hope and trust on Isaac, his joy started becoming reliant on Isaac, and that’s not good. It wouldn’t have happened all at once, as is normally the case it was probably slow, piece by piece, but as Isaac grew, Abraham took the hope and faith he had given to God and started placing them on Isaac. God then commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him.
Some might say that this is a story of a vengeful God who became insecure about losing the admiration of His followers. But, even by secular standards, it is recognized that placing your hopes and dreams on your children can have detrimental effects.
Take for a moment a young man in high school. This young man is good at baseball. He is the best in his school and routinely outperforms the kids from other schools. He goes on to college and plays college baseball, and he is pretty good. His future is baseball. His career, his income, his fame and glory, are all baseball. But before he has his big break, something else breaks. His knee gives out, or his elbow, or his shoulder, either way baseball is gone. His future vanished.
This man goes on to eventually marry and have some kids. The oldest kid is a boy. As you can imagine, the father is going to enroll the boy in baseball. At first the boy enjoys it, he is young and it is just a game, there is no pressure on him to do well because no kid actually plays teeball well. But as the boy grows up, so does the pressure. The practice sessions grow longer and more frequent. The boy is expected to perform better. The boy feels the increase of pressure and the increase of anxiety. He feels the need to be better, to be perfect, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to earn his father’s love. Baseball, once a game, became a burden on the boy. Slowly and quietly, the boy begins to resent baseball, and his father.
The Bible does not record Abraham’s reaction other than ultimate obedience. I think though, that it is safe to say that Abraham did not have an easy night. I am sure that were a lot of tears, begging, and pleading. Offers to take his own life and not his son’s. To quote Tozer again, “Possibly not again until a Greater than Abraham wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane did such mortal pain visit a human soul.”
God did not test Abraham in order to learn whether Abraham would obey Him. God has no need for such tests, part of being God is knowing everything. God tested Abraham so that Abraham would learn whether or not he would obey God in everything. Because I am sure, that up to that point, Abraham wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do.
Abraham may have gone through the motions of saddling the donkeys, gathering supplies, and taking his son and some servants to the location, but he probably had a worm of doubt in the back of his mind the entire trip. Constantly anxious, trying to reassure himself with religious thinking such as, God can raise him from the dead.
It is easy to say and think that you will act a certain way in certain situations, but it is much harder to actually do it. If I asked a bunch of men how they would react in a home invasion scenario, I am sure most of them would probably paint themselves as a hero, bravely defending their families. Would you though, are you sure you won’t freeze up? What if you’re a college student and a professor starts mocking the Bible. You would like to think you would bravely stand alone in the defense of the Bible. But would you? I know I didn’t when I had the opportunity.
Sometimes it’s impossible to really know how you would act until it is time to commit yourself to action.
Abraham was probably like this. He may have gone through the motions, and he may have even told God ‘I will obey’, but he probably still wasn’t sure if he would actually go through with it. How could he? His pride and his joy, how could he kill that?
Abraham kept going through the motions. He left the servants behind. He and Isaac went up the mountain alone, with Isaac himself carrying the wood on his back. Abraham built an altar, bound his son, and placed him on the altar. He picked up a knife, and then the moment came. The moment to commit himself, to obedience to God, or his own heart. Abraham chooses to obey God. He chooses to bring the knife down on his pride and joy, and to trust in God to make everything right. And the moment after he committed himself to this deed God tells Abraham to stop. God then goes on to provide a ram for a sacrifice.
This is not the last time God Himself provided the sacrifice. A couple thousand years later the Greater Abraham knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane. Like Abraham the Greater Abraham was also in great anguish, so much so that He sweat blood, He pleaded with God to take the cup from His hand. He also said, ‘Your will be done’. But unlike Abraham, the Greater Abraham did not have any doubt in the back of His mind. He had committed Himself, from the beginning, to this course of action. And like Isaac He bore wood on His back. This time though it was a hammer that was raised not a knife, and this time God did not say ‘stop’.
The story of Abraham and Isaac is not a story about a vengeful or insecure God. It is a story about a loving Father using the exact right amount of discipline to correct His children so that they may live better and fuller lives, free from impossible expectations. God call us to make the same sacrifice as Abraham. Whatever it is that we place our trust in, whether it is our income, our job, our house, our family or friends, we need to place it on the altar and sacrifice it to God. Only He is great enough to sustain our needs. Only He is capable of sustaining and fulfilling our hope. God wants each and every one of us to commit ourselves to Him so that we can enjoy the fruits of the even greater sacrifice that God has already made.