Sacrifice the Promise

Abraham is on a journey to do what God has told him to do: to sacrifice the Promise.

Genesis 22:2

[God] said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

Abraham was prepared to trust God.

Genesis 22:2

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Abraham took the fire and the knife in his hand. Both his hands were committed. He would stab his son to death and then light the wood.

On the Third Day

Abraham had time to think. He remembered the visitation from God, twice telling him how this child was going to be his legacy. He tried to make the promise come true by having a son, Ishmael, by another woman who was not his wife Sarah. They thought the Promise would be thru Ishmael, but God said, “No, I made the promise that it would be through Isaac, he is the promise.”

Three days he spent traveling to Moriah, thinking about this contradiction:

God said that He would do something great thru the life of Isaac and now He’s saying to take that life and end it.

It’s either a contradiction or hypocrisy or a terrible trick.

I don’t feel like Abraham thought that God was any of those things. I know that his faith already relied on God following thru on His Promise.

He would kill the Promise and he believed the Promise maker was powerful enough to change the reality of death.

Death is a reality. It’s the most impactful reality because life ceases to exist from that body. Coffins are empty inside even though it contains the left over unusable remnants of a life.

Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead—that was the only conclusion he could arrive at.

Isaac had to live, so if he killed the boy, then the same God that caused angels to appear to him and fire to fall from heaven to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, must be able to raise him from the dead.

Thank God for Hebrews 11:19.

[Abraham] considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

He didn’t know the how of what God was going to do, but he knew the who —God — and believed that the One who Promised was able to see the Promise through to fulfillment.

Reflection on “Sacrifice the Promise”

Are you going through an intense time in your life, where you just can’t make sense of what God is doing? You are placing your trust in Him and you have received a Promise, but it looks like the Promise is going to die or maybe is already dead.

God was using Abraham as a type, a story to learn from. Have this hope like Abraham had, believe that God has the power to resurrect to life any Promise He’s made to you. Don’t give up. Don’t stop believing and walk in the same kind of confidence that Abraham had when he walked with his son, with the knife in hand and prepared to see God raise Isaac from the dead.

Prayer

Father, we want to thank you for Your unbelievable love. That you would not let Abraham take the life of his son, but you willingly laid down the life of Your One and Only Son, Jesus. You raised Jesus from the dead so we would have the story of Abraham and the real-life experience of Your power to fulfill Your Promise. A belief that can seem unreasonable when you ask us to sacrifice the promise you have made to us.

We hold to that Promise, that You will do what You said You would do. Speak, for we are listening.

Amen.

Photo Credit: Guillaume de Germain