Abraham and Isaac

This is easily one of the most well-known Bible stories...God's command for Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering.

The parts of the story that have always stood out to me were Abraham's immediate obedience. Twice God calls his name (which is pretty cool in and of itself), and twice (v. 1 and 11) he answers, "Here is am." After God gives the command, the Bible says Abraham "rose early in the morning...arose and went to the place of which God had told him."

The other part of the story that I love is Isaac's role. He went along, trusting his father, even though he had to have been wondering what was going on. In fact, at one point he asks his dad where the sacrifice is, and Abraham expresses his faith in God's provision (v. 8), "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering."

Okay, so I've always known this was a story of trust and faith (the chapter title in my Bible is "Abraham's Faith Confirmed"), but it hit me today that it's not just that Abraham trusted God in general or that he had faith in him, but that he trusted in God's goodness. He trusted in God's promise. And he trusted in God's faithfulness.

So the obvious question is whether I trust God enough to obey His commands without question or hesitation. I also wonder if I'm listening carefully enough to hear Him calling my name. I don't think that God would call anyone to sacrifice their child, even as a test of faith, in this cultural context (for one thing, we don't do sacrifices of any kind, whereas in the OT they did). I was trying to think of an example of something He might ask me to do in order to demonstrate my faith, and I could only come up with one, but I'm sure there will be other situations that come up that do require just this.

My sister is going to Africa this summer with Global Expeditions. Besides fighting intense jealousy because I have always wanted to go to Africa, I am so proud of her and her desire to serve God and the African people. But I think this is a good example of my parents trusting God's goodness, promise and faithfulness as well as His provision in their decision to allow her to go. It's hard for me to imagine letting our girls travel across the world without us, but that just may be something that God asks us to do at some point.

In the meantime, I am sure there are dozens of ways everyday that He's asking me to demonstrate my trust in His goodness and to obey His word without hesitation. I want to respond like Abraham did, "Here I am."