but where is the lamb?

Hit the mute button, and the drama of Genesis 22 begins like pulling on a favorite sweater: it's all comfortable familiarity. We watch as God speaks to Abraham, and Abraham prepares to sacrifice to God...we know these actors and this plot. We recognize the bundled kindling. The journey to an outlying location. The heavy clunk of stone on stone. It's all happened before. But one detail's missing. It burns in our minds. The servants must have wondered over it. Abraham must be consumed with it. 

Laurent de La Hyre (public domain) via wikimedia commons

But it's Isaac's young voice that speaks the words in the wide-open: where is the lamb? And we cringe with the irony. You see, we've not hit mute. We know Abraham knows. Knows God's promise: through Isaac... Knows God's command: offer up Isaac. The strongest contradiction. And the lamb for sacrifice? it's his son. And Isaac is his only. 

As the scenes change, we glimpse Abraham's faith. He assures the servants: "the lad and I will come back." He comforts Isaac, "God Himself will provide a lamb." But those words wisp away as we watch the altar take shape, the child strapped down, the knife raised...and the air around us stifles thick with how and why and what if and God can't require that. 

I mean, what if God requires what is dearest to us? 

What could possibly be worthy of our only? 

And what of God's promises in life's strong contradictions? 

...............................................................................

God will always keep His promise.

God gives a child then takes them away. Obedience brings persecution. A step of faith slams us into a wall of opposition. We long to "go into all the world" yet God-given responsibilities strap us home. We raise our children right and they go wrong. God invites me to pray and yet He does not give me my request. Life contradictions frustrate and discourage us. Cause us to doubt. To wonder, how can God say this yet do this?

Enter the promises of God. He has always kept them. And those not yet fulfilled? Hang secure on the hundreds that have been. No wind of contradiction can topple them. But what are promises in the midst of contradiction? They are lifelines. Statements from and about a sovereign God that offer a Divine perspective to our marred, dim understanding. Want to know what God is going to do? He will always do His promises. Abraham gets this. Hebrews 11 reveals he's not panicked by seeming contradiction. He's thinking God is able to raise (Isaac) up, even from the dead. He's imagining how God will keep His promise.

God is worthy of our only______. 

People offering up their 'onlys' is a recurring theme in Scripture. The prophet Elijah is given bread made from a widow's only cruise of oil and spot of flour. Hannah offers her only child to God's work. A woman casts in all that she has at the temple coffer. A boy offers Christ his only food. Scenes like these are flung far and wide through Scripture. And God is keenly aware of them. They're carefully recorded, poignant moments filled with vibrant details. When Christ is physically present? He points them out Himself. Faith is mixed with these offerings too. An assurance that what was receiving the offering was worthy of it. We find this in Genesis 22 as well. Abraham is willing to take this scene as far as he needs to. If his only son--his dearest possession-- must be offered, God was worthy of that offering. 

Why is He worthy? God's sacrifice makes Him worthy of sacrifice. His offering that enables us to drawn near to Him and be filled with Him. Reconciling us. working peace. giving eternal life. justified and sanctified. forgiven. Friends, all of my dearest, and best, and only's may be heaped at once upon an altar and set aflame before God and that light would be but a flicker-shadow to the brilliance of God's Son. Sacrificed for me.

Sometimes God will require the sacrifice of what is dearest to us. 

The drama of Genesis 22 has a thrilling climax and satisfying conclusion. An angel stays Abraham's hand. Isaac is delivered from certain death, and his father richly praised for his faith. But sometimes more than a willingness is required. There's a time when God required the sacrifice of someone's dearest. A Son. An Only. And though angels would have swooped to that rough-hewn wood slung deep in the warm earth, there would be no rescue from the sacrifice this time. We find a holy irony here too. For God is requiring the sacrifice of His own beloved. The one in whom He was well-pleased. A sacrifice made unto death, even the death of the cross. Sometimes, God will receive what we offer up to Him. 

There is great reward for great sacrifice. 

There will always be a "seeing thou has not withheld..." --a rich reward--when we offer precious things to God. Abraham receives the thrilling confirmation of God's covenant. Not only that, but in him will all nations of the earth be blessed. The scope of that blessing includes us! And because Christ was not withheld? God has highly exalted Him. Given Him a name above every name. And "Millions, dead, now live again, myriads follow in His train!" The gush of blessing from that sacrifice cannot be controlled. When we offer to God what we hold most dear, He glorifies Himself and pours out a blessing that cannot be measured. 

So friend? Give to God from your dearest coffers. The treasury of your 'onlys.' Your best hours, strength, and thoughts. Those possessions and loves you hold closest. Offer them with open hand. Holy and presentable. Like a spotless lamb lain limp on the altar. And by faith, understand this: God is keenly aware of that offering, and if He require it? The weight of your reward and the heaping glory to His name cannot be fathomed. 

Beth