Lately I have been spending time in the Bible reading the story of Abraham.  I have heard and known the gist of the story of Abraham going to sacrifice his son Isaac, but in my reading I was struck by the level of faith and obedience Abraham exercised in this encounter with God.

In Genesis 22:1 God calls out to Abraham, and his response is “Here I am.”  Abraham’s response shows how ready he was to do whatever God was calling him to do.  He was fully surrendered to the call.  Such a call is reminiscent of the call of the prophet Isaiah, and Samuel as a little boy. Isaiah the prophet responded to God’s call in Isaiah 6:8 with, “Here am I.  Send me!”

As a young boy Samuel thought the call of God was the priest Eli calling out to him from another room.  Samuel goes to Eli and says, “Here I am; you called me.” (1 Sam. 3:8)  Samuel went through this routine three times before Eli recognizes it is God calling Samuel.  When Samuel hears God’s fourth call, he responds with total surrender, recognizing the voice of the Lord, by saying, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Without knowing what God’s call would be, Abraham, Samuel, and Isaiah are ready to do the will of the Father.

After God calls Abraham, he then challenges Abraham to give up his most prized possession, his son, as a sacrifice to the Lord.  It must have been baffling for Abraham to hear this.  In the previous chapters of Abraham’s story we see how God had promised an everlasting covenant and the heir of the covenant blessing through Sara’s old and barren womb.  God told Abraham to give this yet unborn child the name Isaac.

The striking part of the story here is that Abraham has no objection or hesitation to the Lord’s call of sacrifice.  The text tells us in Gen.22:3 that Abraham got up early the very next morning to carry out the task God had given him.  He simply follows, and stays obedient to the call, without any debate between him and God.  Abraham certainly objected when the angel of the Lord told him Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed.  Abraham negotiated and pleaded with God to spare the cities, based on the number of the righteous who could be found there. 

Why did Abraham negotiate and plead for Sodom and Gomorrah, but not Isaac his most valued possession?  May I suggest it was because of Abraham’s belief in the promises of God.  This becomes quite clear when looking at Abraham’s response to Isaac’s question in Gen. 22:8.  Isaac had asked, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son.”  

Although there was no lamb to be seen, he was unwavering in his belief of the promises God had given him.  He had no doubt.  Abraham trusted the Lord in faith and obeyed in love.  There was a song I used to sing growing up based around trust and obedience.  Perhaps you sang it too.  It went, “trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.”

There are a few questions for application we need to wrestle with in regards to this story.  The first is what is your most valuable possession?  Do the words of God, or your possessions give you more assurance?  Secondly, how do we typically respond to God?  Is it as a servant ready to do his will, or are we master of the house?  Hopefully these questions will be helpful in identifying where Christ is calling you to grow in Him.