Abraham and Isaac Genesis 22- Submission

Submission  and obedience. Ah those often most difficult of subjects for us ( well women...ok ME) . I have read and re read the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22  (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%2022&version=NKJV).  Reading it recently  I thought about the act of giving up a child. Could I do that? I struggle with even giving up a place in line.

Yet Abraham at 100+ awakes one morning to the incredible command to sacrifice his only son. The son he and Sarah had been waiting for for so long... waiting obediently and faithfully. The more I thought about this Isaac had to have been about 10 or 12 ( bible scholars please correct me if I am wrong)-- old enough to leave the safety of his mother and camp, old enough to carry the wood up the mountain for the sacrifice. So this means the age where a parent stops seeing the baby in the face of your child and you start seeing the future--- the child's accomplishments, weddings, grandchildren. 

So here is  Abraham seeing the answered promise from all these years of allegiance to God's Will. And yet Abraham answers "Here I am" and  went to give up the most precious thing he had of this world, his most wonderful earthly possession... his son. The Bible doesn't tell us what Abraham thought ( please read the passages for yourself) it simply relates the story of Abraham's slow walk of faith up a mountain, to a known sacrifice. The Bible doesn't tell us if Abraham went willingly or wept as he went. He simply went,  trusting that the God that had provided and protected would do so again.  Hebrews 11:17.

The Faith of the Patriarchs Hebrews 11

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”^[d] 19 concluding that God was able to raisehim up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

This willingness to Trust God created and nurtured the obedience of Abraham's Heart. We are given this story in the bible to understand more of GOD. Not that THE LORD  would cruelly require our children like some pagan god but to show us not until we are willing to give up the things holding us in this world ( Matthew 16:24) will we truly understand what HE is offering us.. all of HIMSELF. 

Abraham and Isaac: Genesis 22

His Voice, like a thunderclap,

commanded the impossible.

At dawn, the servants load the camels.

Sarah looks at me, silent yet full of questions.             

                You are the Lord, the One True God. I will follow.

Isaac, all of twelve, with laughing eyes,

helps me bundle the wood.

He teases the servants about our adventure.

They smile at him and tousle his black woolly hair.

All who see him smile.

Lord, You are Generous. I will follow.

Three days to Mt Moriah.

Three days to fill my heart with the song of Isaac’s laughter.

Three days to fill my eyes with the sight of his face,

the face that echoes my own with eyes so like Sarah’s.

The mountain comes too soon.

Lord, You are Good. I will follow.

We leave the servants.

I am old and gnarled

like the wood

I now place on his shoulders.

Isaac carries it easily,

scrambling up the slope

like a young goat.

Lord, You are Strength. I will follow.

The knife is heavy,

in my hand

and the smoke from the coals

burns my eyes.

               

                Lord, You are Mercy. I will follow.

Isaac questions me,

with a joke on his lips.

He thinks I  have forgotten 

what we will need.

He waits for me

with smiling deference.

Lord, You are Steadfast. I will follow.

I climb stiffly.

I am so old now.

If he fights me,

I may not be able to hold him.

I may not want to.

I place each piece of wood slowly

deliberately on the altar.

Can I add minutes to this day?

Can I add seconds to this moment?

Lord, You are Forgiveness. I will follow.

My hands shake.

My breath is old and ragged in my ears.

I dare not see the face of my child

as I wind the rope around his hands.

Yet Isaac’s hands are steady.

His breath as gentle as a lamb.

Calm and willing he is led to the altar.

                Lord, You are Faithful. I will follow

The knife is so heavy as I lift it.

I look down at Isaac.

I am blinded

by his obedience

And love.

The love of a Son for a Father.

The love for me.

My Son,

My Isaac knows his duty.

He has always known.

His faith is great.

His heart so full of love.

The Voice calls me out.

My voice is strong when I answer.

Yet my arms tremble

With what I am about to do.

                Here I am Lord! Here I am.

The sacrifice is pardoned.

A substitute provided.

My hand is staid.

I can breathe again.

I free my Isaac,

then free the life of the Ram

onto the altar.

Lord, You are Provision. I will follow.

I hold my son again.

His heartbeat is the song

of Love

of Promise,

of Covenant Fulfilled.

You are the Lord, the One True God. I will follow.