It's time to kill the promise!
Genesis 22:1-14
It’s Time to kill the Promise
Could a more difficult command be given by even the cruelest of masters? Could a more terrifying test of faith be devised by even the most demanding of deities? Hardly! And yet, Abraham complies. He saddles his donkey, takes two young men and his son Isaac, and hits the road toward the place in the distance that God has shown him.
Over several days of travel, Abraham has time to think. The more he thinks about it, the less sense it makes. The thing that saved him was that he started acting on God’s command immediately!
This was God’s idea and promise that had been planted in his mind, and now God wanted to destroy the very source of it‘s fulfillment. Sacrifice, test - that’s fine; but to obey this command would mean starting over, - and Sarah is really old now. What about the feelings he had for his son - his entire future and everything that his life revolved around was tied up in that child. Well, God says I have to kill you now! How ironic that the miracle and promise that held the key to the entire future was now being asked to be sacrificed. God wouldn’t ask that - wouldn’t back up - or change his plan now that you’ve committed your whole life to it -
What about what Sarah would say - He wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of his life!
Abraham ponders -
Why can't my contact with God be pleasant and enjoyable?
How can I handle the horror I feel as I think about what is going to happen to my son?
Is there any way that I can find a peaceful way out of this?
How can I reconcile with my son before I ... before I ... before I ... have to kill him?
Abraham desperately wants to choose harmony over conflict.
And yet, despite his intense inner pain, Abraham remains faithful to God. He takes the wood for the burnt offering and lays it on his son Isaac, and he himself carries the fire and the knife. The two walk on together, and then Isaac innocently asks, "Father! ... where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" We can imagine the ache in his chest and the lump in his throat as he answers, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." Abraham is not conflicted with theological questions we might have in this situation. After all, what kind of a god would make such a request as this? Yet, for Abraham, God is God, and God is a God who will provide a "lamb for a burnt offering."
If God is God, it is clear that Abraham is Abraham. He is a father, and this is, as far as he knows, his only surviving son. Ishmael was gone, presumed dead, expelled into the desert with nothing but his mother, a bagel and a canteen of water. Now, Abraham has only Isaac left. What anguish! Abraham has to make a devilishly difficult decision, a conflicted choice that looks like it will lead to certain sorrow and despair in his life. He desperately wants harmony, but does not know how in the world he can achieve it while remaining faithful to God. So he makes the choice - the tough choice - of productive conflict, throwing his life into turmoil and sacrificing his immediate peace in order to gain peace in the long haul.
Abraham binds his son Isaac, lays him on the altar, on top of the wood, and clutching the knife in his hand, reaches out to kill his son. But an angel appears with a last-minute stay of execution, and announces that Abraham has passed the LORD's test of faithfulness. Abraham looks up to see a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns, and he sacrifices this beast in place of his son, discovering in a new and dramatic way that the LORD will, in fact, provide.
When peace paralyzes, a struggle can save. Often, as in this case, when conflict is chosen, God supplies a ram in the thicket, and the long-range results turn out well. Short-term harmony is attractive, but it is rarely a better choice than long-term productive conflict. If we behave in a way that is faithful to God and to each other, we can opt for constructive conflict, and trust that we will grow in productivity, relationships and spiritual well-being. The Lord will provide for us, as he helps us to grow into the people he wants us to be.
Harmony versus productive conflict. Peace versus struggle. Pleasure versus faithfulness. These are simple principles, but they are incredibly difficult to master, no doubt about it.
What decisions are you facing in your life? Are you being tempted to choose harmony over productive conflict? To pick peace instead of painful growth? Is your conflict being found
in an abusive relationship
in providing tough-love with a child
in confronting a friend with a sinful lifestyle?
God will be with you if you choose the tougher path, and will supply you with a ram in a thicket. If God is calling you to service, to obedience, or to greater faithfulness, God will challenge you - as he challenged Abraham - to trust him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You will discover that divinely sanctioned conflict does not lead to death and destruction, but rather to life and growth and new opportunity. The key to your next promise is really a knife
Your willingness to release the supernatural promises God has already given makes room for the new.
History shows us that it is struggles that can save us.
Citing historian Arnold J. Toynbee's book A Study of History, business consultant William Bridges makes the point that the great civilizations have risen to power not because of their advantages. No, not at all. Instead, they have flourished because they treated their disadvantages as challenges, to which they discovered creative responses.
"Toynbee shows, for example, that Athens rose to dominance in the classical world after its soil was depleted. Instead of being destroyed by that major setback, the Athenians treated it as a challenge to find a new way to participate actively in the economy of their day. Their creative response was to turn to the cultivation of olives, which could draw on much deeper water than could field crops. The Athenians rebuilt their economy around the export of olive oil, which further challenged them to build a merchant marine to transport it, a mining industry to create the coin to pay for goods, and pottery industry to build the vessels to contain the oil. New responses thus create new challenges at a lower level of the social organism. The depletion of the soil in Athens could have led to an easy peace, with the Athenians accepting the fate of poverty and powerlessness. But they chose instead the productive conflict that goes along with creating a new industry, and they became a world power.
God's command to sacrifice Isaac could have led to an easy peace, with Abraham abandoning the Lord and living a safe and unremarkable life with his little family. But he chose instead the productive conflict that goes along with faithfulness to God, and he became the father of a great nation.
The challenges of abusive relationships, tough-love and sinful lifestyles can lead to an easy peace, with people taking the path of denial and avoidance and minimal resistance. But for those who choose the productive conflict that goes along with doing God's will in love and justice, there can be life and growth and new opportunity.
The bottom line is this: When peace paralyzes, a struggle can save. When disadvantages dismay us, creative responses can create new hope. The Lord didn‘t bring you here to leave you. He is the one who brings us through productive conflict to a new and more abundant life.
It all has to do with allowing God to continue to work in our lives - even when it seems to contradict what He’s already done.
We can all identify with God birthing something supernatural in us, but the focus is and always must remain in Him. God is still interested in using barrenness. Adam was created from dust, Isaac out of old people, Samson came from a nameless woman, Rachel, Hanna, and Elizabeth were all barren.
PRAYER IS NOT BUILDING YOUR AGENDA AND THEN CONVINCING GOD TO BE PART OF IT.
Zechariah(John the Baptist’s dad)had been thinking about the baby and then an angel appeared and shut his mouth. When God gets ready to birth something, we all have a tendency to get together and name it. When the Hebrews named their babies, it meant something. The name said who he was and what he was going to do.
When Jesus was 12 - mom just assumed the thing she birthed would be like all the rest; she thought he was with the kinfolks. We can hold people in their past by assuming we know what God knows, He wants to do something new!
What happens if you just go along to get along? You know - you’ve got all the bases covered, and there’s nowhere for God to move. He still desires to work - but not according to your agenda!
1. God continues to work with us after we have experienced the supernatural.
2. The next level will involve a step of faith.
3. God’s plan always reveals things that are greater than we can imagine.