By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son. Hebrews 11:17
The promise God made, and the reciprocal commitments Abraham returned, define the infinite, omniscient and omnipresent character of the Creator of all things and His intimacy with mankind. Abraham and God entered into a covenant relationship. They didn’t just meet and shake hands, they did things that mattered and would always remind us of God’s mountain moving love. An exchange of first born sons is part of covenant making. So, God asked Abraham for the son He had given Sarah and her husband in their post child bearing years.
Obedience was the promise Abraham returned to God. When God called, Abraham answered and from that moment forward, Isaac was as good as dead to him, but it was a long walk up the mountain. Isaac asked, “Where is the sacrifice father?” Abraham replied, “God will provide.” God did furnish a sacrifice and it was not Isaac. The covenant was sealed. Many thousand years later, God gave His only Son to complete this blessing to all who would believe.
Faith is not a moment in time. It is a life’s choice to never turn back. God didn’t need to know Abraham was ‘all in’, Abraham and Isaac did and we needed to know the end of the story. Obedience, faith in action, won! And it always will. The end.
Love,
Gretchen