These reflections are based on the story of God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and then his command to sacrifice a ram instead. The story is found in Genesis 22:1-14.
It is not uncommon for someone who is currently undergoing a health challenge or a relationship struggle to say something like, “it is difficult to go through but then God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, right?” More directly to the point some will express outright that God is testing them that the unfortunate circumstance of their present condition is due to some kind of test of faithfulness. I confess I am uncomfortable with this line of thinking because I don’t believe that God picks us randomly to test to see if we are faithful enough for God. I don’t believe that God says “I’m going to give that one cancer to see if she will keep her faith in me.” As we leave the story of God, Abraham and Isaac we hear those words, but our first encounter this story confronts us with a God who tests and who tests faithfulness at the deepest levels. To understand this story is a challenge. To embrace it as part of our faith is an even greater challenge; how are we to understand this story of a God who tests and a God who provides? There are no easy answers, but it is here for us to deal with, it is a part of our inheritance of faith. God commands Abraham to present his son on the altar as a sacrifice. We might argue that God had no intention of Abraham actually sacrificing his son, but wanted to see if Abraham loved God enough to do what was asked of him. Abraham didn’t know what the outcome would be, he had to deal with his own decision as to what to do in regards to what God was asking him to do. Will Abraham obey God and make the decision to offer his son on the altar? He chooses to make this act of faith, this sacrifice. It is a choice that slaps us in the face, that pushes us back a few steps – how could anyone …, but let’s stick with the story. It is only after Abraham demonstrates his willingness to sacrifice what is dear to him that God intervenes and supplies a substitute sacrifice in Isaac’s place. Abraham still makes a sacrifice, but God has provided the means (the ram) for the sacrifice. It was only when Abraham placed his ultimate trust in God, when he decided to do what he believed God was asking him to do, that he was able to see that God would even provide what he (Abraham) was supposed to offer, to sacrifice. Perhaps the ram was there the whole time, we don’t know and it really doesn’t take away the fundamental choice Abraham faced: was he willing to remain faithful in all things, to give up even that which was most dear to him to follow our God?
Let’s stop and think about this for a minute. Do we believe in a God who asks us to make sacrifices all the time? Does God test us? To think that God is testing us because we’re not strong enough yet or haven’t learned something yet means that we don’t have to believe that God will provide – no matter what! But let us pay attention to this story, the test is not some adverse circumstance that comes our way, the test is the voluntary giving up of something that is most dear to Abraham. What if the tests God sends our way are the same thing, to test the extent we are willing to go to love God, to follow God, to believe in God’s promises? This changes the nature of our thinking doesn’t it? Rather than some trial to endure, God’s tests are tests of our willingness to go beyond ourselves and into God’s love. In its most basic form it is the sacrifice of giving up what we want in order to choose what God wants. We sacrifice what would make our lives better, more comfortable, easier, more immediately pleasing and choose to do what will grow God’s way, God’s love, God’s blessings for all of us.
There’s no way of sugar-coating the fact that few if any of us could do what Abraham did; that kind of radical faith and trust is not easily come by. In fact, we sin and turn away from the God who blesses us and toward our self interests. The good news is that like Abraham’s ram, God has provided the means of our returning to God’s good graces. Jesus (notice how many times Jesus is referred to as the lamb) was the sacrifice on our behalf to God. Through his death and resurrection, we are redeemed, restored, offered salvation. Through Jesus, God has provided for our ultimate needs. If we believe this to be true, why is it then that we find it so difficult to place that kind of trust in the promises of God? Time and time again, the bible reminds us that God will provide for us and yet, unlike Abraham, we are unable to raise our eyes above what we perceive that God is asking us to sacrifice and therefore are blind to what God has already provided us or is about to provide for us. Even if the ways of death seem inevitable and certain, this story tells us that God’s steadfast love will prevail and it tells us that God will provide. What gets in our way of believing this?
