Just something I wrote last year. Enjoy! :)
Everyone talks about how Abraham is the “Father of Faith”. True. He is. Yet, if Isaac had never entered the picture, where would Abraham’s faith have been seen? Abraham’s faith was linked with Isaac. Isaac was the physical manifestation of Abraham’s faith. Isaac was Abraham’s whole world. Everything revolved around him. Isaac, probably knew this. He probably grew up hearing, “You are what was promised me. You are what is going to fulfill the rest of the promise.” Isaac was proof that faith works. Isaac was proof that God comes through. Isaac was the one God chose to use to fulfill His promise to Abraham. Because of everything that Isaac was, it was necessary to God that he be sacrificed or offered up anyways.
We all know Abraham was called to give up his whole world declaring before the Lord that he did truly fear him. We have all heard the sermons. “Yes, what is your Isaac? Will you lay it down? Life is about being fully surrendered. Will you give it all?” But what about Isaac’s point of view. Isn’t Isaac a foreshadowing of another Son that we are called to be exactly like? It probably wouldn't hurt to pay some attention to the one who was actually ON the alter? I mean think about it. You wake up one morning. Dad takes you on a long trip. You think everything is normal. Wait. Dad forgot part of the sacrifice. Weird! But hey, he is old after all. Strange though he doesn’t seem worried about it. Then you find out you ARE the sacrifice. That is NOT my idea of a good day. I’m sure Isaac could have outrun Abraham any day. His young strong body could have fought the old one that was now tying him up preventing him from going anywhere. Why didn’t Isaac run? He could have. He could have said, “This is the most crazy thing I have ever heard. I’m done with this. Dad, you have truly lost your mind. This isn’t God and even if it is, why serve a God like this?”
Yet despite the fact that Isaac could have boycotted the whole deal, he chose to stay. He chose to allow himself to be bound. He chose to lie on the alter. He chose to watch the knife go up. And he chose to DO NOTHING but let it all happen. Aren’t you even a bit curious what was going through his mind in that moment?
Maybe he thought....
“So dad has always said that I am the heir to the promise. Why is he killing me? This makes Absolutely NO. SENSE. with ANYTHING that dad has said about who I am or about who God is and furthermore this is not like dad at all. Everything dad has ever said is completely contrary to this. This is not the way the story ends. At least, so I have been told. Either dad was way wrong or I completely didn’t understand what he said growing up or this is a set up. If it is a set up, I’m giving up a lot here to find out.”
Or maybe he was thinking...
“I’m never going to see mom again. I’m never going to see dad ever again. This is the end. This is how I die.”
Or maybe...
“Seeing my dad kill me actually hurts more than the thought of dying. He won’t save me. I know it. He loves God too much. Nope. I am expendable at this point. I thought dads were supposed to come through for their kids. But apparently, my dad is not that kind of dad. The pain of seeing the person I respect the most destroy me hurts more than the idea of dying itself.”
Or maybe...
“How much is this really going to hurt anyways? I know it’s going to. I knew where this was going when he started tying me up. I knew what I was doing when I let him. Or did I? This is it. There is no going back now. The knife is already in the air. It’s too late. There is no way to be saved. I’m pass the point of no return. Goodbye life”
But perhaps, just perhaps, somehow, the faith that Abraham lived out every day of his life was somehow dropped in Isaac’s heart over those years as a kid and maybe what he really thought was...
“If God is really who I have heard that He is, then there has to be a way out of this. There WILL either be a substitute or a dead body brought back to life. But I am not afraid to be sacrificed because I too have a faith in a God who will not lie. If I was born from parents too old to have kids, than I can truly be brought back to life. The God of my dad is MY God too and I am willing to lay my life on an alter and watch myself be destroyed by the one I love the most because I know in whom I have believed. I stake my life on the promises of God....LITERALLY. I profess a faith that says, I will gladly allow the one I love most to put me on an alter and slay me because I know he must. For I too love the God that he loves and I know he must do this. I may be the heir but I am not the King of all Kings. He must always come first, even if I forever lay on an alter watching knives hang above my head. And yes the reality is the knife may indeed come down. The pain will be great and I will lose everything. But I find that I truly love someone more than my father. I love my God and I will be the heir he desires or the sacrifice he longs for. I will not run. I will not fight. I will gladly lay down my life. I trust in my God. I trust that my father hears my God. Here I am. Slay me!”
Oh for that kind of faith.
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