Abraham’s obedience never ceases to amaze me.
I imagine it must have been a heartbreaking journey for Abraham. His feet must have felt like lead as he took step after step on the 3-day journey to Moriah. I wonder what went through his mind as Isaac and the other young men animatedly chatted amongst themselves as they set up camp each night. He might have re-lived in his mind how he received the promise from God, the long wait for the birth of Isaac, and the joy the baby brought his elderly parents.
Was Abraham shocked when he heard God tell him to take his son whom he dearly loved and sacrifice him as per His instruction? He may have been dumbstruck, but Abraham was quick to obey. He set out the next day. The 600 km journey from his hometown, Ur, to the great unknown where the Lord had led him would not have seemed daunting compared to this journey of faithful obedience.
His heart must have broken into a thousand pieces as he strapped his son of promise onto the altar. Isaac's bewildered question about where the sacrificial lamb was would have pounded in his ears. Did his voice crack as he choked back tears, or was his voice as steadfast as his faith, "The Lord will provide" (Genesis 22:8).
He did not know how, but he knew the Lord Himself would provide. The Bible records Abraham telling his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). Hebrews 11:19 tells us that Abraham trusted that God was even able to resurrect Isaac from the dead. And that is why he could say we will come back.
And sure enough, at the final moment before the knife sliced through, the angel of the Lord showed him the ram whose horns were caught in the thicket. But Abraham did not know when he trudged up the mountain that on the other side the ram was trudging up, just at the right time.
Though we are not called to do anything as drastic as Abraham, there are times that God calls us to lay down our plans, purposes, timelines, ideas, suggestions, expectations, limitations, numbers, lists, and relationships. The things we call "ours." The very things He has promised us and blessed us with. As we wrestle between faith and faithlessness, between the seen and the unseen, between what we know and what we believe, we begin to understand that it is a painful journey that strips us of our self-dependence, a journey of faith, humility and hesitation as we cry out and say, "Lord, not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).
The world we live in convinces us to figure this out on our own. We have to work it out in our own strength, with our abilities, our calendars, our connections! Faith calls us to lay it down at the altar and believe that the Lord Himself will provide.
I believe that even as we place whatever we are holding onto at the altar and trust God’s sovereignty over it, we will never be the same again. We arise from that place of surrender with a faith like never before, believing in our hearts even before we can see a glimmer of hope in our circumstances. Difficulties and delays on the road ahead may confound us, but there is also a deep sense of faith that no matter what, if this is what He has promised, He is able to resurrect life from the dead!
There is an incomprehensible liberation in letting go and letting God. As we place that which we hold dearest in our hearts before Him, God steps in, in a way we may never understand in our human minds. I believe that what we receive back from that place of surrender is holy, sacred and sealed with a divine promise that we cannot see in the natural, but only sense deep within our spirit. As we surrender and receive the Lord’s answer, we will never be the same again. There is an unexplainable peace and assurance that comes from knowing that we have His approval.
I would encourage us to examine our hearts and lay the things we battle with, the decisions we are torn over, the relationships we are fretting over, the finances we are sifting, the constant whirring in our minds, the things that keep us awake at night, the ideas we are daydreaming about, the timelines we are tugging at and whatever else the Lord instructs—to lay it in surrender at the altar of faith.
As Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
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