Genesis
19-22; Psalm 6
*Click here to read these passages.
First
I have to mention that I love how God takes care of Hagar and Ishmael in
chapter 21. Even though Sarah went
against God’s plan, He still had mercy.
He still blessed her with the child he had promised, but He also took
care of and blessed Hagar and Ishmael.
It says that God was with the boy as he grew up, and God said, “I will
make him into a great nation.” It
reminds me of Gungor’s song “You make beautiful things out of us.”
The
big take away from today’s reading for me was chapter 22, a gut-wrenching, hard
to fathom story where we once again see the great faith of Abraham. It left me wondering…Why and how could
God ask him to do this? How in the
world did Abraham follow God in this?
Abraham
knew God had promised to give him descendants through Isaac, and he believed in
that promise. There are a couple
verses that seem to show that Abraham believed that Isaac would somehow still
be okay. In verse 5 he tells his
servant, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Then he answers Isaac in verse 8, “God
himself will provide the lamb for the offering.” As it says in Hebrews 11:19, “Abraham reasoned that God could
raise the dead.” Wow. Could I ever have that kind of faith?
Now
back to why and how God could ask this of Abraham. The Bible tells us that God tested Abraham. I can’t help but think that God was
also pointing us to the future, to God’s only son. Jesus, His only son, was the ultimate sacrifice.
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