Saturday, May 2, 2015

Faith to the Lord like Abraham

Genesis 22:1-24
The Lord said to Abraham "By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have obeyed my voice, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"
God tested Abraham: The older 'tempt' has this same meaning of proving or trying. Elsewhere in the Bible it is Satan who tests, or human being who(wrongly) put God to the test. "Do not put us to the test,' Jesus taught his followers to ask God in the Lord's Prayer. But the words of verse 1 are clear; this is how the write sat it: this is, presumably, how it appeared to Abraham himself.
The journey to the Land of Moriah is about 80km took  the little group three days.
Why?
Abraham believed that the Lord will prepare the burn offering to him, even he kill his only son, God can make him alive. God gave him son, and God has right to take away his son. Son is the gift of God, who does not belong to us.
There is surely nothing in Abraham's precious experience of God to make him think that God would want child-sacrifice.
For him, as for every reader from then to now. the devastating words with which the story begins come as a most dreadful shock: "Take your son, your only son, whom you love so much'. What kind of God is this God we thought we knew? The instruction is more puzzling still, since all God's promises are vested in Isaac. How could God require his death?
The end of the story enables us to breathe again. God does not want child-sacrifice. God provides, and the two return together. The issue is clearly presented as one of trust.
Is Abraham willing to offer up the one who is more precious to him than all the word? Will he trust God with Issac? He has previously failed to trust God for his own safety: twice we have seen him selfishly put Sarah's life at rick. But now he trusts where he cannot understand. And in the offering of his only son, he mirrors the far more costly self-offering of God in Jesus.
And what of Isaac? Did he struggle or argue? In the telling, his role is passive, not active; an acceptance of suffering - like that of the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53: like Jesus who went willingly to death.
How?
Abraham trusts where he cannot understand. This is the faith to the Lord, I do not understand but just trust in the Lord.

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