Faith Strong Enough for the Unthinkable

In several places in the bible God has been faithful and never went back on his word, he is all knowing, all powerful and his love is unconditional. Jesus died for us! Have you thought about how significant that is? Is your faith strong enough to do that? Could you die for God? Could you sacrifice your own child for God? Don’t be quick to answer that question! That’s a deep and important question to really think about. Picture it in your mind…. some evil man comes up to you with a gun and tells you to deny Christ or he will shoot you. Let’s say you bravely so no, so instead he points it to your child, your 3 year old beautiful baby girl is staring at you with fear in her eyes. You can save her but you have to deny Christ, you have to deny God! What would you do?

I know that was a very unthinkable thing that could happen right? But it does happen more than you would think. Could your faith hold up to that kind of unthinkable situation? Matthew 10:33 says “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” So Jesus is telling his people if they chose to turn away from God and deny Jesus then Jesus will not be there to intercede for us when we are placed in front of God on judgment day, and without Jesus we will forever be separated from God in heaven.

This got me thinking about Abraham and Isaac. Those of you who grew up going to Sunday school know what story I’m talking about, you can find this story in Genesis 22. Reading this story again as a mother ,and with more biblical understanding than I had as a new Christian, this story struck my soul in a whole different way. I cried reading this today! The amount of faith present in Abraham and Issac, as well as the foreshadowing to God sacrificing his son for us, is absolutely astounding. We know Abraham for always having faith in God and trusting but Abraham never showed faith like he did in Genesis 22. Him and his wife Sarah both had faulted their faith in the beginning, even after God had made his promises very clear to them.

Lets start with Gods first promise he made to Abraham when he was still called Abram in Genesis 12: 1-3 ” 1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and cure him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” God made it clear to Abram that he was important and that God was going to bless him and protect him. But when they had to travel through Egypt, Abram’s faith in God faltered. He lies to the Pharaoh and conceals from the Egyptians that Sarai is his wife because he fears they will kill him and take his wife due to her beauty. The Pharaoh does try to take Sarai as his wife because he thinks that Abram is her brother and not her husband. Because of Abrams lie, Pharaoh and his house were plagued. God kept his promise, but Abram let his faith falter, causing problems that could have been avoided if he would have trusted God.

Then Abraham faltered again when God reiterated his promise to Abraham In Genesis 15. Abraham didn’t understand how God was going to reward him when he was childless. But God promises him again that his heir will come from his own seed. “….Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be.” You would think that God reminding him again about his promise that Abraham would trust in God, but no, him and his wife Sarai lose faith and Sarai gives her handmaid Hagar to Abraham to bear him a child. Hagar does bear him a child but this is not the child that God had promised.

In Genesis 17 God makes his covenant with Abram and a third time God tells Abram “2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” With this covenant Abram is given a new name of Abraham and Sarai was given the new name of Sarah. They both were faithful servants to God, but both had faltered just as we all do. In Genesis 18: 1-15 Sarah laughs at the message from God when they are told that Sarah was going to have a baby. They were both very old and Sarah was past her prime to have a child, so the notion seemed ridiculous to her. But nothing is impossible for God! And God did exactly as he said and in Genesis 21 Sarah gave birth to her son Isaac whom God was going to fulfill his covenant through.

You may think, why did they keep going their own way instead of just trusting God? Would you have? They wouldn’t have dealt with the issues with the Pharaoh or the stress and jealousy of the handmaid and her child. They would have saved themselves from pain and others from the pain of their actions as well. But they grew in their faith and trust in God through these moments, which leads us to the ultimate test of faith. This test of faith was one I didn’t think of in such depth until today, and reading Genesis 22 just showed to me once again how absolutely amazing our God is, how Abraham has grown in his faith, and how amazingly strong that faith in God was!

In Genesis 22 God tempts Abraham “2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of,“. Do you understand what you’re reading? God is telling Abraham to go kill the son whom he said he was going to use to multiply the nation! God is telling Abraham to take the son he loves more than anything, the son he thought he would never have, his good and wonderful son, and sacrifice him to God as a burnt offering. As well as traveling 3 days to do this task…… I would have had questions, wouldn’t you?

“Wait God I thought you were building a nation with this son?” “Wait God he’s my only son that I love?” “Wait God Please there has to be a better way!!!!” That’s not what Abraham did though, not only did Abraham not even question God, he got up early in the morning the next day to gather everything he need, two of his young men and Isaac to go do exactly what God had told him. Wow…. just Wow! On the third day they finally arrived not far off from their destination.

OK, so they made it to their destination, now Abraham is going to beg God to change his mind, right? No…. Abraham has so much faith in God’s promises he doesn’t hesitate to tell the two young men he brought with him to wait and that they would both return when they are done worshiping God. Then Abraham lays the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s back for him to carry up the hill to the place where they are doing the offering. As they walk Isaac only asks one question through this whole process “7…Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” and Abraham tells him “8…My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” You would think more questions would come from Isaac after they had built the alter and laid the wood in order, or you definitely would think Isaac would fight and struggle with his father as he bound Isaac and laid him on the alter right on top of the wood. Isaac was a obedient son, he wasn’t perfect, but he trusted his father and knew that anything Abraham would do would be because God asked him to, so when Abraham took his knife out and raised to to slay his son, Isaac said nothing.

Thank God in that moment an angel of the Lord called from the heavens and told Abraham to not lay a hand on Isaac. And God did exactly what Abraham said he would, he provided a ram caught in a thicket to be offered to him as a burnt offering instead of Isaac. There is so much to unpack in this situation! God tested Abraham to see if he trusted God enough to fulfill his promise, even in the most unreasonable situation, an unthinkable situation. Abraham failed in earlier tests, but because he grew in his faith, he began to trust and obey God more.

Abraham didn’t know God was going to stop him through one of his angels, he had no idea what the end outcome was going to be other than he knew God would keep his promise. In Hebrews 11:17-19 it says “17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” Abraham knew his family line would continue through Isaac even if God had to raise him from the dead. Now in this time this was unheard of, we don’t hear any stories of God raising anyone from the dead until Jesus steps in. That is faith that God can do absolutely anything, and even though he wasn’t sure what God would do, he had enough fear and faith in God to no longer falter, but trust that God is worth praise and will always keep his promises.

God has promised us eternal life through Christ. Abraham’s test was a direct picture of God’s sacrifice! Abraham was asked to offer up his only son that he loved so much as a burnt offering to God. He had to travel 3 days to get to Moriah, very close to where God will offer up his own son, Jesus. Isaac has to carry the wood he is to lay on his own back up the hill, just as Jesus had to carry the cross. But there was no ram to replace Jesus, there was no angel to yell stop….. Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice that could wash an eternity of sins across the world. God saved Isaac and sacrificed his own son instead, because nothing we could do would ever be enough to clean away our sins so we can be with God, no only God can do that. Jesus endured pain, heart ache, and suffering for us to spend eternity with him.

So is your faith strong enough for the unthinkable? Could you die for your faith? Could you stare your child in the eyes and watch them die for your faith? How deep does your love and trust in Christ go? Christians today find Christ in convenience not in sacrifice, but he’s supposed to be our life….We are supposed to choose him above all others. He made the ultimate sacrifice for us all and we belly ache about life being too hard. Luke 14: 26-27 ” If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethern, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannont be my desciple.” This doesn’t mean that you have to actually hate everyone, God is saying that you cannot be bound by these things, that you have to be able to turn away from all of those you love to fulfill his will. God is asking for commitment, as a follower of Christ you may be presented with a situation where you have to give up your possessions, even your most dear possessions to truly be his disciple. You may be asked to do the unthinkable.

You may think that you will never be presented with a situation like this. Most of you, that are reading this, live in a place where you are mostly free to be followers of Christ. You may get made fun of or talked down to, but your life isn’t being threatened….Yet! The day may come when you are in a situation that many in other countries face everyday. There are so many men, women and children who have been killed because they refuse to deny our heavenly father and I know those people are praising God in heaven. Its making its way here, the devil has crept his way into churches all over the world making small changes that are unnoticeable to those who don’t spend time in Gods word…… The threats will come though, Satan will get bold and may be asking you in some way or another whether its at the end of a barrel or a birthday party, deny your God or lose your friends, your family, or your own life. Will you choose this world out of fear and lack of faith? or will you choose ever lasting life with Christ Jesus our Lord?

I’d love to hear your thoughts… Please subscribe and comment what your thoughts are about this.

God Bless,

Covering Christian Mom