God With You In Times of Trial

Genesis 22

Answering God's call is not always as easy as it sounds.  When we are called we are sometimes; no, often tested.  We often lament the fact that our confirmands fall away right after they affirm their baptisms.  We rarely see them.  Well, here is the deal as I see it.  God has called them to serve him.  They make promises that they're not really ready to keep.  But, God hears their promises and he helps them keep them.  To do this, there seems to be a need for testing, for refining by fire.  And eventually (when they are much older), they are ready to keep the promises they made as young people.  A few come back within a year or so after confirmation for private confession.  It is difficult for me not to smile during some of these times.  Yes, I feel their pain and their frustrations, even their anger.  But, something I know from years of my own falling away and that is that God can and is using these times to help grow their faith in Him.  I smile in the knowledge that God is with them.  In 20 or 30 years, these children of God will look back and will be able to say with confidence that God works all things for the good for those who love him.

I have to confess the story of Abraham's willingness to answer God's call to sacrifice his son, his only son, on the mountain makes me a little anxious.  We know though, from the reading, that God did not intend to have Isaac put to death - he was testing Abraham's obedience to him.

This "only son" language in this chapter causes me a little pause as well.  We also know from previous chapters that Abraham exiled his first-born, Ishmael and his mother, but to never acknowledge this son?  What was that all about?  Traditions from generations before us are sometimes difficult to understand.  But, on that mountaintop, Abraham was willing to do God's will by sacrificing his "only son."  God interceded by providing a lamb for the slaughter.  The lamb died and Isaac lived.

On a hilltop, many generations later, God did not withhold his own "only begotten son." Jesus was the sacrificial lamb - God's only son who died that we might live.

As God calls you to follow and to serve him, know this:  that God is with you. Even when you even when you think you've messed up royally, he is guiding you through the mess.  He has promised you life, through his only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, our Lord, the Sacrificial Lamb.