Our readings today include one of the most disturbing accounts in all of Scripture: Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac as an offering to God. It's inconceivable that God would ask this of a person, and I do not understand the demand in the story. But in the end, God stops Abraham from going through with it, and provides a substitute ram for the offering instead. Because of that experience, Abraham called the place "The Lord Will Provide". The Psalm echoes the sentiment, reminding the reader that the Lord has never forsaken those who seek him. Abraham was truly one who sought to follow the will of God.
Sometimes following God seems to make little sense. But when you seek him with your whole heart and your whole being, you will be surprised at how God finds you. Seeking and following the will of God makes no sense only to the one who does not seek and does not follow. May you always be a seeker!
Readings: Genesis 20:1-22:24; Matthew 7:15-29; Psalm 9:1-12a; Proverbs 2:16-22
Jeff, it's comforting to know this scripture is disturbing to you, because it disturbed me also. Every time I read the story of God testing Abraham in this way, I find it very hard to understand. It seems that God would know Abraham's heart and mind to be faithful to God. I can't help but wonder what was going on in Isaac's mind when his father raised the knife. Abraham was definitely more obedient than me. Jane
ReplyDeleteI echo what Jane said. This is a distrubing passage to read and I love how you put it at the end of your blog post "May you always be a seeker!"
ReplyDeleteThank you, Donna. And Jane, that is a very thought-provoking idea-- I wonder how a filmmaker would tell that story from Isaac's perspective, and how would that change the relationship he had with his father going forward? Do you think he slept a little lighter?
ReplyDeleteIf we limit ourselves by saying, "I would follow God wherever he called me, but I couldn't do that," what does that say about our faith? And yet, WHO in their right mind could even contemplate doing sacrificing their own children? I'm with y'all - why on earth would God ask that of Abraham? And, he had already promised Abraham the descendants, so Abraham shouldn't have needed to "pass a test." And, Jeff, I'm not sure I would ever trust my parent again if I found myself bound and lying on the sacrificial bonfire, so to speak. I just don't get this one.
ReplyDeleteAnother Ray Vanderlaan word picture to share: You may remember seeing the word "wadi" in the bible. It is a dry river bed. In the desert, the wadis are mostly dry, but when the rains come in the mountains, the water can come rushing down and into the plains, flooding the wadis in a moment's notice. In fact, RVL says, the most common cause of death in the desert is not dehydration, as one might think, but is drowning. Shepherd get down in the wadis because sometimes there are pockets of water that haven't evaporated, and they get caught up when the rains come and flood the plains. When the wadi is dry, it is filled with sand - dried dirt left over from the passage of the flood waters. The deserts themselves for the most part are hardscrabble - rocky and dry, but not sand dunes. So, when Jesus says the foolish man builds his house on sand, the picture the natives get is a house built inside a wadi. Of course, it will fall away when the rains come. No one would be dumb enough to do that, so the foolishness really comes out in the illustration.