Faith, Trust,Obedience

Today's first wading, Gen. 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18, we are told the story God testing his servant Abraham.  He asks him to take his only begotten son to the land of Moriah and there "offer him up as a holocaust o a height that I will point out to you.  My initial reaction is one of horror!  Then I read on to realize that God was only testing his servant.  After Abraham had prepared the altar, bound his son, and was about to slaughter him, God intervenes, calling out: "'Abraham, Abraham!....Do not lay your hand on the boy...Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.' As Abraham looked about , he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.....[B]ecause you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly ad make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--all this because you obeyed my command."

Wow! What faith! What trust! What obedience!  You provided the ram for the holocaust! No way did you intend Abraham to kill his only begotten son!  But it seemed like it at first! I was appalled, Lord! Appalled! "How could you?" I asked myself!  And you really didn't! How truly you can say to a me: "My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your ways."

How many times when things get tough do I not lose faith and trust and, yes, obedience! How often do I not abandon going to the "Moriahs" that God asks me to go to, testing my faith, my trust, my obedience!  And how often I fail the test! I forget at those times who God really is--a God filled with compassion, love, mercy, a God who has got my back! He had a plan for a holocaust that would save me forever: His only begotten Son death and resurrection. As Jesus climbed the hill to Calvary carrying the wood, as Isaac carried the wood up the hill in the land of Moriah,  He was the lamb to be sacrificed. There was no other!  It was Jesus' obedience unto death, Jesus' trust in the Father unto death and into the resurrection, Jesus' love even through death that restores my obedience, my trust, my love of God. In Jesus' death, I, too, die; in His resurrection, I, too, rise to new life!