It’s About Jesus, Stupid
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey… On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son…”
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!…” “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns…He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide.
The place The Lord Will Provide.
I heard a good sermon recently.
The sermon was based on this story.
The story of Abraham and his son Isaac, from Genesis Chapter 22.
This was Abraham’s test.
The test of his faith, the test to see if he trusted God.
There are all sorts of tests.
Many of those tests have nothing to do with God.
Like last week in Florida with my grandsons, the topic of tests referred to math tests and vocabulary tests. And the somewhat instantaneous results received; was it an A, or a B, or a C.
And today I went for my “Annual” checkup. The blood tests I endured will shed some light on the health of my body and how I may need to adjust my activities of daily living. I will know those results in a couple of days I suppose.
But these tests aren’t like the one God asked of Abraham.
His was a test of faith, of trust in God.
A life test.
And the sermon went on to say we are tested because God wants to bless us.
And though He wants to, if God does bless us, He can take it back too.
We have all been tested in that way to some degree.
We have all been life tested.
But it’s more likely our blessings aren’t as obvious as was Abraham receiving a ram in the thicket, to replace his son as his sacrificial lamb.
His answer to his test was immediately realized.
It is more likely that we feel like we are in the thicket, most likely that we don’t understand why we have been tested and asked to sacrifice.
But as the preacher pointed out in his sermon, real trust begins where understanding ends.
Why Lord?
Why Lord? When the house burns to the ground.
Why Lord? When you are blessed with a child, only to have God take that child back.
Why Lord? When you lose a brother or sister or dear friend way too soon.
Why Lord? When you get that diagonosis that no one has an anwer for.
Why Lord? When you are constantly denied the chance to hold the child you tried so hard to conceive or adopt.
Why Lord?
None of it makes any sense, it’s beyond our understanding.
And having endured all that, where’s our response, where’s our blessing? Where’s the ram in our azalea bush?
We are like Isaac, asking, “Hey Pops, we got the wood, we got the fire, we got the knife, what am I missing here?”
And of course, Pops says, “God himself will provide the Lamb.”
And God did.
Because, to play on another famous quote, “It’s about Jesus, stupid.”
We don’t need to be looking in our bushes, God provided us that Lamb in Jesus.
That’s where our trust begins.
That’s our test of faith.
Believing.
And realizing even in our grief, our return, our blessings, are all around us.
Postscript:
Sunday, after that awesome sermon at Community Church in Ashburn Virginia, a group of faithful consummated their trust by being baptized in the water by immersion. Just like Jesus did. It was very moving. And on this Sunday, it was especially moving for me because there I stood, with water in my eyes and my lower lip bouncing up and down as I watched my daughter Savannah baptized in the water, acknowledging her faith, I realized that in this place, the Lord does provide.
