Love Not Withheld

"Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!" Psalm 66:20 

Genesis 22.  God instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son whom the Lord had given him.  Abraham, seemingly without question, took his son to the mountains of Moriah to follow God’s command.  When Isaac asked, “Where is the sheep for the burnt offering,” Abraham, who loved his only son deeply and achingly, replied that God would provide the sheep.

I can only imagine Isaac’s reaction when, after he finished building the altar for the sacrifice, Abraham tied Isaac down upon it and reached for his knife.  I cry just thinking about how Abraham was feeling inside to have to see, hear, and feel his son’s fear.  Did Isaac scream out?  The Bible doesn’t say.  One can only guess how old Isaac was at this time, but it's possible he was as young as 5 years old (though more likely he was in his teens.)  I can only imagine Abraham’s physical and emotional struggle as he greatly desired to obey God.  He knew that he must obey the Almighty God who had given him so much, yet the thought of killing Isaac threatened to irreparably shatter Abraham’s heart.

As we know, upon picking up the knife to kill Isaac, the angel of the Lord spoke to Abraham and told him not to touch the boy.  It was a test.  God provided a ram, caught in a thornbush, for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his only, beloved son.  The angel said, “Now I know that you truly fear God.  You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”

Here are the next few verses that complete the story:

Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the LORD will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” Then the angel of the LORD called again to Abraham from heaven. “This is what the LORD says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” (Gen 22:13-18)

Two things come to mind as I think about this scripture.  First, I don’t know God completely.  Of course, it’s impossible for me to know Him fully and deeply because He is Awesome God and I’m only human.  I know a bit about His love for me and others, how He does things, and His direction for my life.  However, it’s hard for me to understand why God would direct Abraham to do this to Isaac.  Didn’t God know what Abraham would do?  Was the test more for Abraham’s benefit?  To teach him something?  Maybe so.  There was no buffer between God and man at that time.  And God is completely perfect, holy, and just.   Abraham may have been building an altar to his son in his heart… and God may have needed Abraham to tear that idol down so he would be useful to Him in the future.  I understand this because Isaac was Abraham’s long-awaited, one-and-only miracle of a son… whom he loved very much.  He was a gift that very well may have taken Abraham’s eyes off of the Lord.  If so, Abraham would have become at least partially blind to the things of God, and possibly completely useless in the long run.  While walking Isaac up the mountain, Abraham would have had to make his choice.  By the time Isaac was on the altar, Abraham would have realized and demolished any false idols of the heart that he had built to his son.  This would have allowed him to obey God completely and wholeheartedly.  And that’s when God stepped in.

That’s one very real possibility.

And maybe it was for my benefit.  For the benefit of all people who would read Genesis 22.  I think this is true because of the second thing that came to mind as I read this scripture….

“You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”  Who else did not withhold His only Son? But God took Jesus right to the altar and did sacrifice Him.  And Jesus did die.  There was no other sacrifice provided to take Jesus’ place.  There was only “the Lamb of God who [took] away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).  Because of His deep, profound, aching love for us, God took His Son to the mountain and sacrificed Him for the undeserving masses of humanity.  Sin had come into man’s relationship with his Creator and broken it to pieces.  The Old Testament shows us that it is not possible for us to be worthy of that relationship by our own efforts.  But God wanted a close relationship with us.  He yearned for us to know Him because He made us… He made all of creation for us.  Everything from creation to now has been all about God’s desire to form deep relationships.  More to love.  And for us to love Him back.

So, that’s why God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain.  To show us how much He loves us.  And to give us a hint about the future… a foreshadowing of Christ.  I know I’ll never be worthy of that sacrifice, but I want to take part in that deep, intimate relationship God desires to have with me.  If that’s not mind-blowing, I don’t know what is.