MY THOUGHTS ON ABRAHAM

It seems to me that Abraham often gets berated unjustly for his behavior in conjunction with the ‘almost’ sacrifice of his son. I think perhaps because the ones who question it, don’t understand the whole relationship between God and Abraham.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was not the same as the gods worshiped by the surrounding peoples of his day, nor does He hold any resemblance to the gods that are so adamantly worshiped in our day. Unlike the gods of the pagans, God did not require human sacrifice. He did not require the placing of their children upon altars in order to appease Himself.

The God with whom Abraham walked called Abraham His friend. It's not something you will hear said about the relationship between any of the other so-called gods and their followers. God walked with Abraham just as He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, just as Jesus walked with His disciples. Do you remember when Jesus was speaking with His disciples and He said, ‘I no longer call you my servants, I call you my friends’?

This was not some ‘far off’ god. This was not some vicious angry god who made you walk a fine line, who made you offer up sacrifices to appease His anger in the same way as the other so-called gods. This God walked with Abraham as with a friend. This God spoke to Abraham face to face.

What happened that day on that mountain, where Abraham was to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, was so much more than it seems on the surface. This was Abraham’s friend, the friend who had promised him this son in his old age. This was the friend who had told him that his descendants would be as the stars in the sky, too many to number. Abraham knew this God. He knew that God’s word was His bond. Somehow he knew that God would fulfill that promise and that He would do it through Isaac just as He had said.God had made it clear when he sent Hagar away with Ishmael, when He said, ‘listen to what Sarah says, for it will be from Isaac that I fulfill this promise’. Abraham may not have understood exactly how, but he knew God well enough to know that His word was good.

The way I see it, what happened on that mountain was a kind of pact, rather like becoming blood brothers. God tested Abraham to see if he really believed in His promises. Of course, the test was really for Abraham’s benefit. God already knew the outcome. He was not surprised by what happened that day anymore than He has ever been surprised by anything.

This compact between two friends was as if God was asking, ‘Do you love me more than you love these? Am I the God of your life? Are you willing to give up the person that is dearest to you for the sake of our friendship? Does our relationship take precedence over everything else in your life?’As I said previously, of course God knew the answer beforehand. He knew the answer from the day he called Abraham to walk with Him. He knew the answer from all eternity.

But Abraham needed to know the answer. Like the pact between blood brothers, God was saying, ‘I am going to cut myself deeply. Are you willing to do the same? I am going to give up, sacrifice my son for your sake. Are you willing to give up your son for mine?’ Knowing full well that it would never be required of Abraham, but that He, God would follow through with His promise and do exactly that.

It was a promise that God would provide the ultimate sacrifice. A promise that the very blood of God himself would be spilt in order to pay the debt for the sin of every human being that has ever, or will ever live, because the spilling of animals blood was just a shadow of what was to come on that self-same hill when Jesus Christ was offered up as the once and for all sacrifice to redeem all of mankind.

Like Abraham, we are all asked the same question by God, ‘Are you willing to give up everything in order to follow me? Are you willing to walk away from it all in order to have a relationship with me?’ In the end, if the answer is ‘yes’, God will restore to us everything that we have given up and more, but if the answer is ‘no’, we will end up losing it all, most importantly our relationship with Him. - © Rachel Whelan Sept 2010