Give It Up

Give It Up

Genesis 22:1-19 (HCSB)

Would you consider yourself a pretty faithful person?  I don’t mean in the spiritual sense, but just in everyday life.  For example, I am pretty faithful to the San Francisco 49ers.  I like other teams, but I will always pull for the 49ers over anybody else…especially over the Cowboys. 

Let’s take a moment to rate how devoted you are to certain things.  Now, you need to be honest.  Don’t rate yourself based on how faithful you think you should be, but how faithful you truly are to the following.  Use the 1 to 10 scales below with 1 being not very faithful and 10 being very faithful.

Family	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
Spouse	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
Job	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
Favorite TV Show	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
Sports Team(s)	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
Working Out	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10
Morning Coffee	1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10

Were you totally honest?  Did you rate any of those a 10?  Did some get a higher rating than they probably should have?

The thing is, we all have something outside of the obvious ones of God, family, spouse and job that we would rate pretty high on the scale.  We probably don’t think too much about being so devoted to something outside of the obvious, but when we look at it on paper it seems pretty silly we are so devoted and faithful to a certain football team, TV show or whatever it may be.  Do you give God that much devotion?  Is your faithfulness to Him so solid you would have to write in an 11 on the scale?

Our story is one I think is told quite a bit, but usually glanced over when it comes to what we can really pull out of these scriptures.  Our story is probably used to teach about being faithful to God almost 100% of the time it is told.  I want to take the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son one step further.

Story Time:

Abraham has recently had the son God promised him.  He already has a son through Sarah’s servant, Haggar, who is named Ishmael.  However, God promised him a son born from Sarah.  This son is named Isaac.  Abraham now has a son, tons of riches and a lot of cattle and flocks.  God has truly blessed Abraham.

God now wants to see how faithful Abraham is to Him after all that has gone on in his life.  God asks what seems to be the unimaginable, the impossible, the “you have got to be joking!”  God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  What?!  (Who by the way is Abraham’s only son through his wife, Sarah?!)  The son God promised him?!  The son who is supposed to give Abraham tons and tons of descendants?! 

Now I have to be honest.  You would probably throw this book away if I weren’t.  What would I do if God asked me to sacrifice one or both of my daughters?  I don’t know.  I really don’t.  I will touch more on my thoughts and feelings on this later.

But what amazes me is Abraham’s response.  In verse 2 of Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, and then in verse 3 (The very next verse!) Abraham basically says, “Ok.”  I am amazed by Abraham’s actions.  The Bible, at least in Genesis 22, doesn’t talk about what Abraham’s full reaction was to God.  Did he argue this notion?  He certainly did when God looked at destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, so you would think he might not be shy to challenge God here.  After the story we are going to look at this aspect of Abraham’s faith.

So the next day Abraham gets up and with his son, Isaac, and two servants heads off to the place God told him to go to for the sacrifice; a three day journey.  When they get close, Abraham tells his servants to stay back with the donkey while he and Isaac go off to worship.  Now I don’t know if this is another indication of Abraham’s faith or not, but he also tells his servants that when they are done worshiping, “we’ll come back to you.”  Something we will look at after the story, but I wanted you to begin thinking about now.

Now Isaac is no dummy.  He has watched and probably been a part of many sacrifices with his father.  Sacrifice of animals was very big part of worshiping God.  Isaac questions his father about all that they have for the sacrifice.  They have the fire and the wood, but Isaac asks where the lamb is for the burnt offering.  I think again we see Abraham’s faith in his response to Isaac that God will provide the lamb.  Little did Isaac know that he was going to be the one on top of the altar.

They arrive at the place God told Abraham about and Abraham builds the altar.  He then ties up Isaac, places him on the altar and takes out his knife to offer his son.  In that moment an Angel of the Lord calls out and tells Abraham not to kill his son.  The angel says, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him.  For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me” (Genesis 22:12).  Abraham then sees a ram caught in a thicket and uses it instead of his son as the sacrifice.

Our story ends with the Angel speaking to Abraham one more time.  The Angel delivers and reaffirms the blessing and promise Abraham has been told about his descendants.  In verses 15-18 it says,

“Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, ‘By myself I have sworn,’ this is the Lord’s declaration: ‘Because you have done this thing and not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.  Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies.  And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed My command.’”

In a nutshell…your family and their families and their families will be really huge and really awesome!

My Thoughts:

I have always wondered what was going in Isaac’s head during all of this.  Did he fight back when his dad started to tie him up?  Did he scream for help?  Did he receive emotional scars for life because of this?  We don’t really know, and the Bible doesn’t say.  So by the lack of information, it looks like Isaac went along with all that was happening.  I think that now puts the question out there of how much faith Isaac may have had in his father.  Did he see so much faith towards God in his father that he put the same amount of faith into Abraham?  I personally like to hold to this line of thinking to use as example of how much impact a father has and should have on his children.  How a father is supposed to lead his family and raise his children by and through faith in God.

Obviously this story is about the faith that Abraham has in God, but I think sometimes that is all we say about it.  We brush over this story as just an example of great faith placed in God, but what about some of the other details in this story?  Like the fact he was about to kill his own son!  Like how Abraham seemed to not argue against this request from God!

I mean we are talking about potentially having to kill your own child.  Could you willingly do it if God asked you to?  How is it that Abraham seems so content with carrying out this request?  Did he challenge God’s motives when asked to sacrifice his son?  Was he in emotional turmoil over having to carry out this action?  Did he struggle with thoughts of disobeying God and not killing his own son?  As far as we know all of that could have happened, but the Bible just doesn’t mention it.  The other possibility is Abraham acted just the way the scriptures make it seem...cool, calm and collected.

I actually think it was a little of both, and here is why.  If you have your Bible, flip over to the book of Hebrews.  If you have your smart phone, then open up your Bible app.  Or if you are one of those people that have it all memorized, then I envy you. Hebrews 11:17-19 says,

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.  He received the promises and he was offering his unique son, the one it had been said about, your seed will be traced through Isaac.  He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead, and as an illustration, he received him back.”

Abraham truly believed God would bring Isaac back to life if the whole sacrifice played out to the end.  I think it is safe to assume that even with the amount of deep faith he was placing in God, he was also struggling with the having to raise a knife against his own son.  Don’t forget, Abraham was still a human.  He was a father who had waited a very long time to have a child.  He was just like me and you…well sort of.  Ask yourself this question and take God out of the picture for a moment, would you be able to kill your own child?  No way!  Of course we wouldn’t be able to take the life of somebody we love so dearly.  Ok, let me ask the question again, but this time with God back in the mix.  If God asked you to sacrifice your child, would you do it?

Does you answer come as quickly as it did the first time, or do you stop to think about it a little? I have two daughters who I love very much.  They are very important to me.  There is nothing I wouldn’t do for them.  Except eat cinnamon.  I can’t stand cinnamon.  But I hope my girls love me enough to never ask me to eat cinnamon.  Anyway, my daughters are my world and I can’t even begin to imagine God asking me to sacrifice one or both of them.  So if I am being honest, I honestly don’t know what I would do.

I think the real question God is asking us here, is what are you willing to sacrifice for Me?  What are you willing to give up for Me?  That seems like easy questions.  We are probably thinking, “Of course I would give that up if God asked me to.”  But I don’t think what God may ask you to sacrifice for Him is going to be as simple as eliminating Double Stuffed Oreos from your diet.  It will be what He feels is getting more value or importance than He is from you.

When God asks you to give up something for Him, it won’t be easy.

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you think Abraham handled God asking him to sacrifice his son?
2. Why do you think God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and not something else?
3. No wrong answer here, but what would you do if God asked you to sacrifice your child?
4. Why do you think God asks us to let go and/or get rid of things from our life?
5. Do you think God today would ask us to sacrifice our child?  Yes or No?  If yes, in what way?
6. What is it that God may be asking you sacrifice?
7. On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard does it feel to give it up? 
8. One last thing…make sure you end in prayer.