Theme:  surrendering to God that which is most precious or valuable to us.
Often times when a loved one is sick, we have no choice but to surrender our loved one into the hands of a loving God.  There is that time when you finally give the life of your mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, best friend, to God.  You open your hands and let them go, to die and be with Christ.  You surrender them into the hands of a loving God.

Today, we approach one of the most perplexing and puzzling of all stories in the Bible. It is the Old Testament story about Abraham and his son Isaac, and God asking Father Abraham to sacrifice his only son on an altar. To ask a father to sacrifice a son on an altar sounds barbaric, primitive, and cultic. This story is not only puzzling and perplexing but it is also one of the most profound stories in the whole Bible.

We cannot begin with the story for today in Genesis 22 about God testing Father Abraham. We need to begin the story at the beginning, in Genesis 12. I would like to retell some of the basic themes found in the Abraham/Isaac story.

We begin in Chapter 12 when Abraham was living down south in the land of Haran, today in the area that we know as Iraq.  God told Abraham to leave his family, to leave his homeland, to leave his flocks and fields, to leave his life long security in Haran and travel a thousand miles to the land of Palestine. Abraham was to leave Haran, based on the promises of God. Break

God promised Father Abraham three things:  (1) Family. God promised Abraham that he would have a great family. Father Abraham would become the father of populous nation, as numerous as the stars in the sky, as numerous as the sands in the sea. (2) Land. Father Abraham was to be given the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land rich with cattle and cows and camels, with fertile fields and fine fruit trees. (3) Divine Presence. Father Abraham was promised that God would be with him, would be his friend, would be a Divine Presence that guided and protected him day by day.

So Father Abraham left Haran, the security of Haran, the security of his family at Haran, the security his fields at Haran and traveled to a land and life that God had promised him. He obeyed God simply because he believed God. Father Abraham simply believed the promises of God, and that is what faith is: to simply believe the promises that God has made to us.

Immediately, God started fulfilling his promises. The promised land was as promised, flowing with milk and honey, cattle and cows and camels, with fertile fields and fine fruit trees. And Father Abraham met his bride to be, Sarah. Sarah was a beauty, a number ten, a “Miss Promised Land” in the beauty pageant. The name, Sarah, means princess and Sarah was a perfect princess. How Abraham and Sarah loved each other. How they enjoyed each other. For year after year, decade after decade. And soon the calendar years whirled by: days and months and years and decades rolled by quickly. And Abraham and Sarah discovered that they were growing older and older, too old to have children. Yet God had promised that Abraham would be a father of a great nation, but there were not any children born to this marriage.

One day, when God was out for a walk and Abraham and Sarah appeared to be too old to have children, God came up to Abraham and said, “It is time, Abraham. It is time that you can Sarah got pregnant.” Abraham laughed to himself. God asked, “Did you laugh, Abraham?” “O no, God, I did not laugh.” God continued his walk and found Sarah and said to Sarah, “It is time. It is time that you and Abraham got pregnant.” Sarah laughed to herself. God asked, “Did you laugh at me and my promises, Sarah?” “O no, Lord, I did not laugh at you and your promises.”

Well, that night, the Spirit of the Lord was in the tent with Abraham and Sarah in a special way, and miraculously, Sarah became pregnant. Sarah’s belly grew big and soon she gave birth to their son. Abraham laughed; Sarah laughed; they were both so happy. And so they named their son, “laughing boy” which means Isaac. Isaac was their “laughing boy,” their source of pure happiness.

How Father Abraham and Mother Sarah enjoyed their new little bundle of pleasure. They were like any older parents who have a child for the first time. They were doting, indulging, and spoiling the child as much as they could. They just couldn’t help themselves. Abraham and Sarah spoiled their child rotten. Isaac never had to do a lick of work around the tent because his parents did it for him.

Well, God sensed a problem was developing. God became nervous. God sensed that Father Abraham and Mother Sarah were more preoccupied with Isaac than with God. God sensed that this little bundle of pleasure had become the center of their lives instead of the Lord. The aging parents total fascination was the child rather than the Lord and the ways of the Lord.

So…God decided to put Abraham to the test. Yes, test. It is the same word that happened to Jesus in the wilderness when Satan tested Jesus to see what kind of person he was. The Lord ordered Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering. So Abraham obtained what he needed for this venture: a mule, two servants, wood, fire, and his son, Isaac. Off they set to the land called Moriah. Two days out into the wilderness, Abraham left the servants and the mules and proceeded alone with his son, the fire and the wood. Son Isaac asked his father, “Where is the offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide.”

Then came the third day. The wood was laid for a burnt offering and Abraham wrapped his son in a cord, as if son Isaac, that precious bundle of pleasure, would be the offering. Isaac wasn’t laughing any more and Abraham wasn’t laughing as he tied his son up to be the offering. Father Abraham tied his son up, laid him on the wood to be the offering, pulled out his knife to kill him. As Abraham raised his knife to kill the little boy, God’s angel from heaven shouted from heaven: “Don’t you touch that boy! Don’t you lay a hand on that child!’ For I now see that you love me more than anything else in the world.” Abraham cut his son loose. His son began laughing again and the father began laughing too.

Father Abraham heard the bleat of a ram and saw the ram caught by its horns in the thicket. He grabbed the ram and knew that the ram would be the offering. Abraham named that place where this incident occurred, The Lord Has Provided, because God had been faithful to his promises.

God will provide for you and me in all circumstances, no matter how bad, no matter how seemingly impossible, the Lord God will provide for us what we need. For that is the promise of the Lord.

We are invited to surrender our most precious possessions to God.

What was it that Abraham loved more than anything else in the world? I think it was Isaac. I believe that Abraham loved Isaac more than his wife, more than all his material possessions, more than life itself. My suspicion is that Isaac was the number one love of Abraham’s life. In the text for today, there came that time in Abraham’s life when he finally surrendered his son Isaac, to God. He surrendered his most valuable possession to God.

Often times, when a loved one is sick, we have no choice but to surrender our loved one into the hands of a loving God. Some of you surrender your dying mother, you surrender your dying father into the hands of God. There is that time when you finally give the life of your mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, friend, to God. You open you hands and let them go, to die and be with Christ. You surrender them into the hands of a loving God.

In conclusion, I ask you one question: What is your Isaac? What is your most valuable possession or possessions in this world? Your family? Your spouse? Your children? Your job? Your house? Your pleasures? What is your most valuable possession? Could it be that you have become preoccupied with those possessions, that those possessions have become the center of your life so that you no longer fear God? It just may be that God will say to you, “I believe that it is time that we take a walk and I will put you to the test to see what you love most in life.”

“What is Your Isaac” by Rev. Edward Markquart