After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Genesis 22:1-14 “Arriving at the Altar”
Several weeks ago we embarked on a journey with Abraham and Sarah. Their story begins when God calls Abraham to leave his country, his home, and his extended family to go with God to a land that God has promised. God calls and Abraham says “yes”. God says go and without any questions Abraham goes. When he sets off he is apparently full of trust in God and God’s promises. As he moves from place to place, Abraham’s trust in God is tested again and again.
Over the course of Abraham’s forty-year journey with God, his faith in God waxes and wanes. Abraham acts out of impatience and fear. He has acts precipitously and makes a mess of things. He endangers himself and others as we saw in the story of Hagar and Ishmael a couple of weeks ago. And through it all, God is faithful. God is patient and attentive to Abraham’s movements. God co-operates with him bringing grace and goodness out of Abraham’s own failed attempts to control his life and circumstance. But, it is also the case that Abraham acts courageously and for the good of others. When God planned to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the evil there, Abraham argued with God. He didn’t argue just a little. He argued vigorously and doggedly, and didn’t stop arguing until he convinced God to withhold the destruction. Abraham is no shrinking violet. He is not a puppet in God’s hands.
What we see in the life of Abraham is that it isn’t the journey across physical geography that most trips him up. It’s the complex geography of his heart that is hardest to navigate through all the twists and turns of his journey. He both wants to be in control of his own life AND he wants to trust God with his life. He wants to offer himself, to hand himself over into the hands of God, and he wants to keep a pretty tight grip on things. Maybe you know the daily struggle to trust God’s presence, promise, and provision even when it feels as though God is absent, not keeping promise, and not providing what you need. God creates us with the ability to think, feel, and act; to change our own and other people’s situations. We are not puppets on a string. The challenge is to know when and how to take initiative. When and how to get busy, figure it out, take charge, get it done, and when to be patient with God and attentive to God’s movements. Some of us are “get it done” kind of people. Some of us are “wait and see” kind of people. But all of us are trying to balance our competing desires to trust God with our lives and to be in control.
So here we are, forty years into Abraham’s journey, when God asks him to offer up Isaac, the son who was finally born to Sarah and Abraham in their old age after much struggle and pain. This is the son that God promised. This is the son that God gave them. Isaac is the embodied sign that God may be slow, but God is faithful. God provides.
We are told that God is testing Abraham. And no matter how often I engage this story, my first response is always a mix of upset and questioning. I wonder, why would God do this? Would God do this? I wonder, does God do this to us? And I wonder: exactly what would it look like for Abraham to pass this test? What would it look like for him to fail the test? When we get to the end of the story, what can we say? Did he pass or did he fail? Stay with me here.
Maybe when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, God expects him to argue. Maybe God wants him to say “no, I will not do it. He is the son of your promise and I will preserve his life because I know that you are a God who protects and preserves life.” Maybe this is what God wants Abraham to do. Maybe this is the way to pass the test. By fighting for this one human life as he had previously fought to save the whole populations of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But Abraham doesn’t argue. He doesn’t express fear. He doesn’t try to take control. He simply says: “Here I am,” hears what God is asking, and prepares for the trip. Gathers the wood. Calls the servants. Takes his son Isaac, along with the fire and the knife. So if God had expected Abraham to resist and refuse to go through with it, then Abraham has failed this test. And what is happening now is that Abraham is testing God. Abraham is testing God’s faithfulness. The question now becomes: will God pass Abraham’s test?
Now, let’s say the opposite. Let’s say the way Abraham passes the test is to proceed as God has asked. After years of struggling to trust himself and his family to God Abraham responds by moving forward as God has asked with absolute faith and trust that God will provide. He doesn’t know what or how God will provide. But his years of experience with God have convinced Abraham that God is good and gracious and will provide what is needed. When Abraham tells the servants to wait while he and Isaac go up the mount to worship and then says, “we will come back to you,” he believes what he says. When Isaac asks his father what they will sacrifice on the altar, Abraham answers: “God will provide,” and he believes what he says. And even as Abraham passes the test by placing total trust in God, the truth is that God’s promise to provide is now tested by Abraham’s trust.
I think Abraham could have argued with God and refused to do what God asked, and it would have been okay. I think God would have been pleased with Abraham if he had argued for the moral imperative never to take a human life. I believe Abraham could have passed the test in this way.
But when I see Abraham in his old age arriving at this altar on the top of Mt. Moriah and placing his beloved son there, I see a father who has journeyed and wrestled with God for years. For years he has hung in there with God. Fearfully. Impatiently. Joyfully. Sceptically. Courageously. Outspokenly. Silently. And for years God has hung in there with him, keeping promise, making provision. And Abraham finally arrives at this place where he offers himself, he surrenders his life and his loves, his desires and dreams, he hands himself over into the hands of God who he has found to be good and gracious, faithful and worthy of trust. Maybe next week he’ll argue with God or act in fear, but today, he rests in God’s presence, promise and provision.
Does God test us? Life tests us. Other people test us. We test ourselves. This pandemic tests us. Racism tests us. Politics tests us. And when we respond to God’s call by saying, “Here I am,” time and again; when we commit to live out God’s way of love, peace, and justice; when we commit to follow the way of Jesus in total trust of God, in gracious self-giving and sacrificial living, this commitment tests us. Every day the commitment to love God, self, and neighbor as God loves us, tests us. We could say that in this indirect way, God does test us. And with our actions, our choices, our responses, we test God. This is the journey we are on together with God. We walk through dark valleys. We climb steep mountains. We arrive at the altar again and again. We are invited again and again to trust that God is present, keeping promise, and providing what we need. And old Abraham stands as witness that handing ourselves over into the hands of God, surrendering our lives to God isn’t easy. But it is the way to find rest and peace through all the twists and turns of our journeys