Promise & Sacrifice

This past Saturday, I spent some time in the scriptures preparing for Sunday nights youth group. Since the beginning of September we’v e been gradually moving through the key stories of scripture. This last Sunday we covered the story of Abraham and Isaac. I will confess that when I first cracked open my Bible to prepare, I went in with a lousy attitude. I had wrongly assumed that since I had read and heard sermons preached on this story that I couldn’t learn anything new. But as I studied the story in depth, God revealed such an amazing insight. I realized that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice the very thing God had promised him. If I were in Abraham’s shoes I would have contested and most likely refused. But Abraham obeyed and trusted God, even though God’s command may have been at least perplexing and at the worst utterly heartbreaking. But the simple truth I realized in my reading of this story is that God wanted Abraham’s relationship with Him not to merely be rooted in blessing, but in complete faith and trust in Him. Think of an earthly father that showers his child with all sorts of gifts, but never builds any sort of trusting relationship with his child. God loves us enough to give us blessings, but also to pursue a trusting relationship with us, and having that relationship requires personal sacrifice. As I read this story and came to that realization, I had goosebumps. I learned that God wants our relationship with him to be rooted in faith and trust, not just blessing. More importantly, I re-learned that God will give us new insights into the stories we read in scripture, no matter how many times we’ve read them. We just need to be open to it.