Now is the Time to Worship

"I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love."
-Henry Ward Beecher

There is a passage in the Bible that is often completely misunderstood, made fun of and the like. It is the account of Abraham taking his son Isaac up the mountain as a sacrifice to the LORD. I read it totally different. Here I see a Father who had waited what seemed like an eternity to have a child willing to loose his greatest joy for honoring God.

Many say that Abraham was a freak or hateful and how dare God ask him to do such a thing. A God like that isn't worth any of my time say others. However, the request is to reveal Abraham's heart - not to take from him his life's treasure, his son. It is also to reveal how God feels in regards to when he gives up his son for many. Abraham is a man who loves God and desires to honor him with his life - all of it.

My favorite part is highlighted in purple. Here I read that Abraham was willing to take his son, but knew that God would provide the sacrifice in his son's place. All the while he is waiting, though he continues to tie his son to the altar - God breaks the heartbreak for Abraham and the fear for Isaac and provides a sacrifice. God is overwhelmed by Abraham's faithfulness.

I always wonder about Isaac and what he thought. Following his father, knowing they had everything but the sacrifice and his father just repeating, "God will provide the sacrifice." Then having his own father bind him and tie him, raising a knife! The look they must have shared eye to eye, the please Isaac must have made. No doubt this moment sharply pointed to where he was in his heart with trusting God to really provide that sacrifice. No doubt he humanly would have questioned his Father.

Oh if only the account could go on! Could you imagine the worshipful heart that resounded within Abraham as he sacrificed the ram? If I were Isaac this would be the day where I came to know the Lord as my deliverer, my provider and my awesome God. I would know exactly what my Father's relationship with God was. I would ask God to help me to understand the crazy and fearful moment I just experienced and to walk me down the mountain.

Here - read it for yourselves:

(Genesis 22) 1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.

12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram ^[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

In Christ,

Elizabeth