Trusting God Above All

Read Genesis 22:2

Why do you think God waited until now to test Abraham? Notice how he says “your only son, Isaac.” In the previous chapter God told Abraham that he should cast out Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness where God would care for them.

Ishmael is no longer around, if he had been Abraham may have been able to take some comfort in the fact he had Ishmael as a backup plan. But God put him into a situation where he had to completely rely upon him.

God has already made him cast out one son, now he asks him to sacrifice his other son. God is bringing Abraham to the end of himself. To the point where most would say “no God, enough is enough. I can’t go any further, I can’t do this anymore.”

Here is where God reveals the truly amazing work he has done in Abraham’s heart. Abraham desperately desired an offspring, a legacy, but Ishmael was the result of him seeking to attain those things for himself. He loved the promise God had given to him more than God himself.

But now God has brought him to a point, done such a work on his heart, that he loves God even above the son that he was promised by God that would inherit the promises. No longer were the promises and the gifts of God his greatest delight and treasure, no it was God himself.

God will lead all Christians through times where we will be called to sacrifice things for his sake, and it is on those times that the true state of our hearts are revealed, where we see what we truly love. But also God in his grace shows us something in the sacrifice, that the reward on the other side far outweighs everything we have lost.

Abraham ascended the mountain with a deep love for his son and a deep love for God. He came back with those things, but also a deep understanding that God loved him too. God did not call him to sacrifice his son for no reason, in the end he spared his son, providing a lamb in his place and confirming again to him the certainty of the promises he had given him many decades before.

We will be led through these times of sacrifice and pain for a good reason, that we might gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the God who loves us. This is worth the loss of all earthly things, just as Paul says.

Philippians 3:8 (ESV)
⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Knowing Christ is worth the loss of everything, God will make sure of it.