A FATHER'S FAITH
"By faith, Abraham, when he was tested..."
Just when Abraham thought God had completely fulfilled His promise of a son, He put the man of faith to a test. God told Abraham to take Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there in worship of Jehovah. The son of promise was to be put to death by the hand of his own father.
His walk of faith in God had brought Abraham to the place where he had learned to obey God instantly and completely. He didn't look for sympathy or opinion from anyone else. He simply said "Yes" to God and announced that in the morning he and Isaac were going to worship God a long distance from home.
Believing that Isaac was the son of promise through whom the world would be blessed, Abraham reasoned that when he killed Isaac, God would bring him back to life. Plunging the blade through Isaac's heart would tear Abraham apart, but he would do it. So strong was his faith in his Leader.
It wasn't that Abraham hadn't killed before. During the course of his lifetime, the old man had slain countless sheep and goats, lambs and rams from the herds. But this would be different. He was to slay the lamb of his heart!
Early the next morning, Abraham and Isaac started for the worship destination several days journey away. Servants were with them to care for needs like meal preparation and tent-pitching at night. When they reached a certain place on the route, Abraham told the servants to wait there, while he and his son set out by themselves toward the place God had designated.
Abraham must have ascended the mount with tear-filled eyes. Every step he took brought him closer to the fatal moment when he would kill his son! How he dreaded it. But he pushed forward, driven by his obedience and honor for God.
They had brought little with them. Just the two climbed the mountain. Abraham carried the censer protecting the fire to light the wood. But not an animal. No lamb rested on his shoulders.
Abraham bult the altar assisted by the much younger Isaac. The stones they used were rough, unhewn and weighty. Once the altar was ready, the two searched for branches suitable for a fire. Only then did Isaac voice the question he had been pondering silently: "Where is the sacrifice? Where is the lamb?" While the Bible doesn't tell us his thinking, it does record Isaac's question of wonderment. Here there were no herds. Did he suppose Abraham would try to capture a wild animal?
Always before, he had seen his father scan their herds for an animal having no disfiguring marks or health issues. Only a perfect animal was suitable to offer before God. Here in the wilderness, what would he use?
Loved as he was by Abraham, Isaac never considered that he would be the sacrifice. His father would never hurt him. Many had been the hours when old Abraham repeated the story of God's promise to him of a son even in his old age, a son who would father a nation. So great was his destiny.
It was time to place the sacrifice on the altar. But what would Abraham use? It was only then that he told Isaac he was the one who would lie on the stones while his father thrust the knife sharply through the boy's heart.
What anguish must have gushed from Abraham's lips as he revealed the plan to Isaac. Even as overwhelming love for his son wrenched Abraham's heart, even stronger awe and fear of God ruled his will and intentions.
Isaac lay down on the cold, hard stones face up. He watched as his father picked up the blade and raised it above his head, ready to drive it to its intended mark. Isaac faced imminent death willingly and without flinching.
At that moment, Abraham died. Died to all his dreams of greatness for Isaac. Died to having his own way while claiming to totally believe God's promise. Most importantly, he died to himself. His son witnessed the death of all the patriarch held dear. History pivoted on that holy moment.
But obey God He would. Abraham raised his hand as high as he could and was about to lower it swiftly when a voice halted his movement: "Abraham! Abraham!"
The trembling lover of God replied: "Here I am."
The angel of God spoke again: "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
What an electric moment that was! God prevented the actual act! Willing even to violate "Thou shalt not kill," Abraham's heart was changed forever. To this day Scripture extols his faith.
Snared by thorns and brambles, a ram bleated his presence as God's substitute for Isaac. Isaac climbed off the altar to join his father in wrestling the ram from its captivity to the altar. There it died in their place..it became Abraham's sacrifice of praise and worship to God. So, too, worship and adoration filled Isaac's heart as he considered his life was now spared to serve God. Neither would be the same again
What only is implied in the context of the narrative is what Isaac experienced during the testing of his father's faith. First,, he saw the genuineness of his father's faith. Abraham walked his talk! True to their nomadic way of life Abraham had told Isaac all about his call to leave Mesopotamia to follow God to an unknown destination. All that was history when Abraham told Isaac the stories. But this trip to Moriah and participation in his own near death was a present, a now experience of which Isaac was a part. Abraham's faith was a living faith to the moment and Isaac saw that intimately!
Second, Isaac saw Abraham's priorities were correct. God came first, while his family was second. There was no blurring of roles for first place in Abraham's heart. God was his ultimate Lord who owned Abraham's honor, respect and fear.
And, third, Isaac witnessed how his father walked in faith and obedience before God. He had a pattern for his own life and for his sons coming later in seeing Abraham live by his faith in God without hesitancy. Scripture still refers to them as "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." In spite of their human frailities, each man stood for God and Israel's future.
In this day of fractured families, what a lesson about the absolute need for a father's influence as head ot the family. Sons especially need a father after whom they can model and learn how to correctly serve God and lead their family to do the same.
Abraham underwent a test from God. But his responsse to it impacted his son in an eternal way. The future of Israel as a nation depended on it. In today's moment, your family depends on you, too, Dad. Your kids depend on you. Can God?