Reflections on Genesis 22

Genesis 22 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Some years later God decided to test Abraham, so he spoke to him. Abraham answered, "Here I am, LORD."
   
2. The LORD said, "Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar."
   
3. So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go.
   
4. Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place.
   
5. He told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back."
   
6. Abraham put the wood on Isaac's shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along,
   
7. Isaac said, "Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" "My son," Abraham answered, "God will provide the lamb." The two of them walked on, and
   
8. (SEE 22:7)
   
9. when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood.
   
10. He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son.
    
11. But the LORD's angel shouted from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am!" he answered.
    
12. "Don't hurt the boy or harm him in any way!" the angel said. "Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son."
    
13. Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.
    
14. Abraham named that place "The LORD Will Provide." And even now people say, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
    
15. The LORD's angel called out from heaven a second time:
    
16. You were willing to offer the LORD your only son, and so he makes you this solemn promise,
    
17. "I will bless you and give you such a large family, that someday your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand along the beach. They will defeat their enemies and take over the cities where their enemies live.
    
18. You have obeyed me, and so you and your descendants will be a blessing to all nations on earth."
    
19. Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him, and they returned to Abraham's home in Beersheba.
    
20. Abraham's brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons. Uz was their first-born, Buz was next, and then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram, their other five sons were: Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah.
    
21. (SEE 22:20)
    
22. (SEE 22:20)
    
23. (SEE 22:20)
    
24. Nahor also had another wife. Her name was Reumah, and she had four sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
    
    

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    We might be inclined to question Abraham's faith on the two occasions when he was less than honest by passing off his wife as only his sister to protect himself and when he took the matter of having a son into his own hands by sleeping with his wife's handmaid. But the account of chapter 22 earns him the title "father of our faith" if nothing else in his faith journey rises to that level, though I think much does.
    
    For over 20 years Abraham had waited for the promised child from God to be given to him. Then miraculously, Sarah conceived and gave birth well beyond her child-bearing years. Now this child had been with the couple several years and was precious to them. In fact, the first use of the word love in scripture is used here in 22:2 in connection with Abraham's love for Isaac. It was in this context that God gave Abraham his ultimate test. The years of waiting had been a considerable test in themselves, but the test in this account was much greater. The test was this: "Take your son," He said, "your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (22:2) For whatever reason, Abraham did not question God. Years before when God had promised to bless him greatly with many descendants, Abraham had raised the question of being childless. But now that God was asking him to give up that child, he seemingly raised no question. Maybe it was the fulfillment of receiving that promised child that solidified his faith so that he no longer questioned God's instructions.
    
    When Abraham reached the destination where the sacrifice was to be made and left his servants to take Isaac with him to make the sacrifice, he evidently had no doubt that both he and Isaac would return from the sacrifice, for he said to the servants, "The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we'll come back to you." (22:5) When Isaac questioned his father about the lamb for the offering, Abraham told him "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." (22:8) The writer of Hebrews said of Abraham in regard to this account, "He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead." (Heb 11:19) Abraham didn't know what God had in mind, but he had no doubt that God would in some way return Isaac to him, whether by providing another sacrifice or by raising him from the dead once he was made the sacrifice.  I would call this extreme faith. In those circumstances I might mouth the words, "God will provide," but I am not confident I could or would have taken action to do what God asked.
    
    What God do we worship when we believe of Him only what our minds are willing or capable of believing? It is not God the Creator of the universe we are believing if our faith does not attribute to Him any possibility. Yes, I know that a piece of the puzzle is not only believing that He CAN do anything but also that He WILL do anything on our behalf. But in that instance, though we may have come to accept God's power, we have not yet grasped God's love.