Here I am

Genesis 22:1-18

“Here I am”I was reading my devotional this morning and these words from Abraham jumped out at me. God called his name and this was Abraham’s response, before he knew that God was going to ask him to sacrifice the most precious thing in his life – in fact, the very thing that God promised to him that earlier, Abraham laughed in spite that God could give a child to a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman.

But here he was, with the promise of God, Isaac, living breathing and playing in his household. Not just one child, but the promise of an entire nation of people – and unbeknownst to Abraham – the entire earth to be blessed and part of his progeny. Yet God had a sobering command to Abraham’s humble response:

"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."

Unbelievable. It’s easy enough to believe in God and his loving-kindness when he gives us the things we desire most. Its hard as hell when seemingly in the next breath, he asks us to sacrifice it to him. In Abraham’s case, God calls for sacrifice in a very literal fashion.

I don’t know how Abraham got up that next morning to carry out the Lord’s will. However, I think that the example of his faith lies in his words – Here I am – meaning ready and willing in my mind. Abraham knows who he is and what he is in relation to God, a servant, dust from dust and earth from earth yet set apart for God’s will. Even when he responds to Isaac calling him we see this simplicity of being and humility carried over: "Here I am, my son." When the angel called Abraham’s name just as he was about to bring the knife down on his son – Abraham’s response again “Here I am,” after which, he heard the blessing from God that set his heart free.

I might be reading too much into it, but I see humility, love and faith in the simplicity of these words. When Isaac asks where the lamb is that is to be sacrificed – in what could have been a moment of irreconcilable heartbreak for Abraham and dissolution of his resolve, we see a faithful response "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.”

To me, that is the real turning point in the story. Can we make a profession of faith in God when the situation seems 100% completely illogical in which to do so? Can we have that kind resolve to know that God knows what he is doing, and to trust that the voice that brought us to our current heartbreak is the voice of the God that loves us more than we can comprehend?

I wish I could speak from experience on that one but I can’t. And I think that is why Abraham has made such an indelible expression on the consciousness of all mankind. His example truly is a blessing to us because it brought God into our lives in the most radical way.

I was listening to Micheal Ramsden the other day and he was talking about his conversion to Christianity. He asked a myriad of questions to those holding the meeting as he was still on the fence and despite his intellectual objections his main point of contention came down to this: he described himself as being perfectly happy where he was as a non-Christian as one would be just wading about in the shallow end of a pool. He made the analogy that by asking him to believe in God and follow him instead of his own goals and desires, they were asking him to get out of the warm shallow end of the pool, walk all the way around, and jump into the deep end when he didn’t even know if he could swim. The person answered his question with the fact that he had been in the deep end for 13 years and he hadn’t drowned yet.

The rigors of our faith can be quite frightening, especially when we feel we have been set up to be let down by God as Abraham had every single right to feel. Yet again, Abraham did not know, nor got to see in his life on earth the goodness that God had in store for him. Do you think he would be amazed at the great nations that came out of Isaac and Ishmael? Not to talk of the millions of Christians all over the world that are heirs through him in faith? I need to take the blessings of God more seriously, because if those from the past could see what became of their faithfulness when they were making that decision, well then it wouldn’t be faith would it? But the results are there.

“Here I am,” said Abraham, and as a result, here each and every one of us are.