GordoZone

This summer my church has been engaged in a study series called Big Stories of the Bible.  One of the stories was when Father Abraham was called by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac, only to be stopped just before the sacrifice by an angel of God and given a ram to sacrifice instead.

Read the story here in Genesis 22, if you like.

Now, I got to thinking.

There are many lessons that have been drawn from this Bible story.  Most Jewish and Christian scholars offer up the moral of God testing Abraham, that this was a soul-searching model of a loyalty test.  Abraham had to journey with his son for days to get to the spot of sacrifice, then bind him and place him on the altar, and then be willing to kill him.

Some Jewish scholars take a slightly different bent.  Since the Torah is clear that human sacrifice of any kind is an abomination to God, it is postulated that either Abraham let his imagination get carried away with regard to what he thought God wanted him to do, or had some understanding all along that this was ultimately going to be a symbolic act.  I don’t know — I find it all interesting, though.  Very interesting.  It possibly alludes to the fact that God no more actually spoke to Abraham any more than He has to you or me.  Just a point to ponder — I’m not trying to rewrite anyone’s doctrine.

Most Christian scholars point to the foreshadowing of God offering up His own son, Jesus, as a substitutiary sacrifice, so that the rest of the human race could be saved from death (spiritual death is generally the understanding here, by the way).  Do note that not only did God offer a ram as a substitute, but that it was caught in a thicket by its horns.  This is important, as since it was caught by its horns, this would make the ram’s body without scratch or blemish — a perfect sacrifice.

At the end of the chapter, God tells Abraham (through an angel) that because he was willing to give up his one and only son that all nations would be blessed through his descendants.  The End.  Next chapter.

Now, I got curious about something.  I read on through Genesis until I reached the end of Abraham’s life.

Gen. 25:7-8 Altogether, Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.

OK, so he died.  There wasn’t much between Chapter 22 and 25:7.  Sure, there were other moments recorded for us to know and learn from, but nothing from 23:1 to 25:7 had anything else to say about Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of Isaac.

So here’s my question: Did Abraham have any idea in his life what had just happened in Chapter 22, and did he have any idea of the ramifications of his actions?

Now, surely the first thing you’re going to do is point to the end of Chapter 22 and go “See! See! See! Look what God said to Abraham.  Of course, he knew it was big.”

You’re so sure, are you?  Let’s look at Genesis 22:15-18 and see.

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” 

OK.  Let’s assume for a moment that you’re a human being — particularly one that can at least pretend to function in society.

Now, assume you could actually talk to the Almighty Creator of the Universe, and He was quite chuffed that you had done something or other that He had asked you to.  So far so good.

Now, here’s the kicker.  What if, through an angel, He told you that He was going to bless you, give you lots of descendants, that they would be powerful folk, and that the world would be blessed by them.

Where would you go with that?

I mean, eventually the euphoria of the moment would fade and you’d have to go back to work, go to the bathroom, cut the grass, etc.  That’s what Abraham did, in fact.  In the very next verse he gets right back to business:

Genesis 22:19  Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.

Again, if you had been told what Abraham had been told, just what would you think?  What would you do about it?

Frankly, I think Abraham didn’t really know what to do with this — at least not any more than you or I.  He went right back at it.  Don’t get me wrong, I think we’d all be happy that our descendants would rock the house, but then what?  I suppose you’d eventually get back to business as usual with a slightly lighter step in your stride, but business as usual, nonetheless.  It’s what Abraham did.  He lived for quite many years after this, in fact.  Business as usual.  Then he died.

Think about it.  In his life, Abraham had no real idea what significance the dance of Isaac’s Near-Sacrifice had on the fabric of the entire history of the world.  We’re still drawing lessons from it today.  Abraham got a massive pat on the back from God — a blessing he couldn’t really understand from his perspective — and then he went on with serving God until he died.

We have been reading this story from the last chapter the entire time.  We always knew the significance of the story.  We get it, or were told how to get it, in a way that Abraham never did in his lifetime.

Now, ask yourself:  What could you be doing today in obedience to the Highest Truth that may, on its face, seem absurd?  What are you being called to do that just can’t have any sense to it?

Consider the possibility that you either have or will be called to do something totally off the chart:

1. You do it
2. You feel obedient
3. You see no visible effect
4. You go about your business until you die
5. Long after you die the world is profoundly blessed in ways you couldn’t see in your lifetime.

Sooooo, does this make you think twice about what you’re doing?  What you’re willing to sacrifice?  Where you’re being led to go?  What you’re being called to do?

Yeah.  Me, too.