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'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'
(Genesis 22:2)
Is there something in your life which is very precious to you? Something you perhaps waited a long time for, or something you worked really hard over - something you put in many hours to obtain, or something you prayed and prayed for - and now it seems the Lord is asking you to give it up?
Maybe it was something God had promised you He would provide. Or maybe you never had a direct promise from God, but you trusted Him for it - you believed He could give it to you - and He did.
But now...all your hopes and plans for the future are being dashed. The situation seems impossible. What are you to do?
Let us look at this account of Abraham - a man we read about in the Old Testament. A man who was said to have had great faith and was the 'friend' of God.
You may be very familiar with this account - one in which we read of God commanding Abraham to go on a three day journey with his son Isaac to a specific mountain.
Isaac was the son which God had promised to give Abraham and he had waited many, many years for - until his wife was too old to naturally have children - and then God miraculously enabled her to conceive.
Now God was telling Abraham to take this precious, long awaited, much prayed over son, Isaac and do something which Abraham would have found utterly abhorrent and strange - offer him up to God as a sacrifice.
Kill him.
We don't read what Abraham's thoughts were. We are only told his immediate obedient actions and his answer to Isaac when he asked where the sacrifice was. Isaac was obviously familiar with the practice of offering up a lamb or goat to God, and on asking where it was Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering'. And we don't read the further thoughts of Isaac. We are just told, 'so they went both of them together'.
Was Abraham's forehead covered in sweat as he thought of what he had to do?
Was his heart going up to God in agony silently pleading that he would not have to give up this beloved son, this precious son willingly climbing at his side?
Did he look at his son, trying to remember his every feature, and notice how young he was, notice his sweet trust, think of the short years they had enjoyed together, the memories?
Was he silently arguing with God that he was asking him to do something wrong?
But we also wonder if Abraham was instead filled with complete peace and trust in what God was asking him to do. Having experienced the long wait for Isaac but seen that God kept His promises, he fully believed that God would still keep that promise - that Isaac, who had not yet married and provided grandchildren was going to be the beginning of a multitude of descendants. Hebrews 11 tells us that he believed that God could bring Isaac back to life again.
Do you know something of this struggle or peace in this thing which God appears to be asking you to give up?
We may be dwelling on all that we are to give up, and agonising over it, pleading the promise of it that the Lord may have given you, or perhaps you are in complete God given peace and trust in God over the matter.
At the moment you are continuing together, you still have this person, this hope, this life, but there is going to come a time when God will say, 'give it to me'.
God knows your struggle, your pain. Such was God's love for His children that He gave up His beloved, precious Son, Jesus. And here we have the fullest meaning of the name Abraham gave this scene of sacrifice and offering, 'Jehovah-Jireh'. God's provision of His own dear Son as a sacrifice and Saviour in place of His children, so that they may have eternal life instead of the deserved eternal death for their sins.
Having tied Isaac up and put him on top of the alter he had built, Abraham picked up the knife to plunge into his precious son, when God stopped him.
'Abraham, Abraham...Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not witheld thy son, thine only son from me' (Genesis 22:11-12)
As Abraham looked up he saw a ram, caught by its horns in the brambles behind, which he was then able to use for the offering - God had provided a substitute. Hence, Abraham called the place, 'Jehovah-Jireh', The LORD will provide.
When I began writing these thoughts I had particularly noticed how this provision was a substitute. My husband and I have often encouraged each other that 'the Lord will provide' things that we have needed - whether providential or spiritual. But when we look at the complete account God's provision to Abraham was a substitutionary provision - something perfectly suitable in the place of Isaac.
Does this alter how we view the circumstances of what the Lord is asking us to give up?
Although no less precious, does it bring us to think, that this precious thing has to be given up before God will provide? Even if it is something in which our hopes for the outcome of a promise are all centred in.
Missionary and writer, Elisabeth Elliot often referred to 'laying it on the alter' in her writings. I particularly remember this in relation to her great love for Jim Elliot and the prospect of having to remain single.
She wasn't to remain single. God did give her and Jim to each other, before she had to lay him on the alter again - this time in her loss of him when speared to death. The substitute - God Himself, as she kept agonising in her great loss, 'laying him on the alter', turning to God and receiving His comfort and love.
What hopes do you need to relinquish to receive God's peace and rest? What precious desires need to be given up to receive something more precious - more of knowing God Himself?
Dear reader, whatever painful path you may be in at the moment, may you be helped to relinquish it, to let it go, to lay it before God, to give it up to Him, to trust and obey that He does not make any mistakes, and that He will be your Jehovah-Jireh.
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