be-musings

At Bible Study not too long ago we studied Abraham and the promise of many children. Here's a promise that seemed like a joke, because he and Sarah were OLD and without children. Being people who figured they would help God out, or maybe wondering if God literally meant the two of them together would conceive they made arrangements for Abraham to impregnate Hagar. After many more years of no "fruit" from God's promise Sarah finally became pregnant and gave birth to a son. A promised one.
We could all understand this story from an emotional and analytical perspective. But where it derailed a bit was the part where God told Abraham to take Isaac up to the mountain and sacrifice him on an alter. Many people, Christians and non-Christians have difficulty with this request. How could God tell someone to kill their son...and more, how could a father intend to do it? In the story we find out that at the moment of the knife being raised in preparation for thrusting God delivered a sacrifice animal to replace Isaac and told Abraham to stop. Fine...it's good that God stopped everything because it redeems our faith in His goodness or lack of weirdness. But what would God's motivation have been in this strange request? I'm not a scholar, so I don't know the real answer to that. Scholars don't even know. But I have an opinion to share which impacts our lives (no big surprise there).
Abraham and Sarah laughed at the messengers when they said she would bear a child. They doubted whether or not they heard the message or the terminology details correctly. Maybe it was just Abraham who would father the child and he would joint he family that Sarah shared. Yeah, that would work. Let's make that happen, God willing. Sounds like some of the logic we use from time to time. Sometimes we have a hard time believing God or that we have understood Him correctly so we make subtle and convenient changes in what we have heard. It's not new; it's as old as the snake talking to Eve in the garden. Then God affirms His word by delivering on it. Behold Isaac. This child had nothing to do with Abraham and Sarah. It was only God, since it had been proven for many years that Abraham and Sarah could not conceive.
The promise had taken root. Then God asked Abraham to remove the promise. Something he had probably become sure of was no longer to be counted on. He couldn't fix the problem it would create. God would have to do that again. It would either remove his faith or root it deep. On his own he was powerless. A promise once made, not seen, substitute attempted (which turned ugly), the promise fulfilled, and God showing him that He is the only one Abraham can truly hope in. Maybe that's the message to me. God is the only one. Not the promise, not the object that appears to be the fulfillment of the promise, but the promiser.