Will you trust me? Genesis 22:1-19. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son.
After many long years, the promised son has been born. The promises that God gave Abraham and Sarah are becoming more real: land, their own child, and a blessing to all humankind through them.
Then comes these horrible words, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac –….Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will show you.’
Before we jump in with all our justified concerns, I invite you to gently set them aside, and listen to this as Sacred Story. Can you see how carefully put together it is? Can you imagine sitting around the cooking fire, and listening to a master story-teller? This plot is no different to what you watch or hear today. What are people willing to sacrifice, to get ahead or to protect themselves, their families or their business, and is that a good sacrifice?
The other critical thing is that we are told at the very beginning that this is a test. This is also the culmination of many long years of God interacting with Abraham and Sarah. They have certainly not got everything right at times. Their actions have put the promises in jeopardy. But now the mature Abraham simply follows the instructions and doesn’t deviate. His trust that ‘God will provide’ is honoured at the very last instant, with Isaac spared and an animal provided for a sacrifice.
Through Abraham and Sarah’s son and all his descendants, the Messiah is finally born. Here, God did not spare his Son, but offered him up for us all, through his death on the cross. This is how God shows his faithfulness to us – his Son knows and takes on all the pain and hurt of our human lives. He transforms that into forgiveness and hope. He promises that there is always new life out of our dead ends.
We’ve all made sacrifices. Some have been good, some not so good. Finally, we don’t own or control the people around us. We have to let go our grown children, and our life achievements. We let them go to God, for him to work with, even when we got things wrong. God says, ‘Will you trust me with the most precious parts of you, just like Abraham did?’ Saying yes to God brings great joy to God as well as ourselves. We are not the only ones changed or blessed by the connection – God changes too.
