Abraham and Isaac

There is a story in the Old Testament that I really like.  The story of Abraham and Isaac.  You can find it in Genesis 17-22.  But I will summarize it here as well.  Abraham and his wife were too old to have children.  God promised them a son long after the time in their lives when they would have expected to have children.  God also promised that their son would be the beginning of a lineage of many nations that would be God's people.  Eventually, this actually happened and both Abraham and Sarah were amazed.  Abraham and Sarah now had one son.  They knew they would not have other children, so they loved Isaac dearly.

Then, God came to Abraham and told Abraham to sacrifice his son just as he would normally sacrifice a lamb.  Abraham was an obedient and Godly man, so he proceeded to take Isaac to the location chosen by God.  Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, he was stopped by the angel of the Lord.  Abraham then found a ram caught in the bushes that he could sacrifice to his son.

In many ways, this story is similar to the story of Easter.  Isaac was already dead in Abraham's mind, because Abraham knew that he needed to follow God.  He also knew that God had promised that Isaac would have many descendants, so while Abraham did not know how God was going to fulfill His promise, Abraham did know that it would be fulfilled.  In the same way, Jesus' followers did not know how Jesus was going to fulfill his promises, but they knew that they would be fulfilled, because He was the messiah.  My thoughts were on these parallels yesterday as I enjoyed an Easter dinner and time with my family.

Today, my mind moves to how the story of Abraham and Isaac relates to my life.  I know that God has a plan for me that is much greater than anything I would ever be able to even imagine.  I don't know how this plan is going to happen, which terrifies me.  I like to have plans.  However, I do know that His plans will come to fruition, just as they did with Jesus and Abraham.  I also know that God's goal is not to make me happy.  I'm sure that Abraham was not happy when God asked him to sacrifice his son.  But I also know that it worked out in the end.  God may ask me to give up parts of myself.  He may ask me to give up friends and relationships.  He will ask me to give up bad habits.  Again, His goal is not to make me happy.  However, he does want what is best for me.  He asks me to be holy.  To be separate from the world.

As a baby, I tried to eat dog food.  My parents have informed me that they stopped me whenever I tried to get into the dog food.  I'm sure that at the time, I was not happy with them.  I could not see that dog food was not the best thing for me.  I did not know that there were things that tasted better and would be of better nutritional content.  In the same way, I still cannot see the whole picture that God can.  When I say that He does not want me to be happy, I say that because I know that what He does in my life may not seem like the best thing for me when it is happening.  However, I do know that His Plan is better for my life than my plan is.

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo