Faith, Gotta Have It: Only One Like Him “Take now your son, your only son….Isaac.” Genesis 22:2 Genesis 22:4-6; Hebrews 11:8 I still get chills when I read Genesis 22. I have a son, Patrick, is my first born son, and also my oldest child. God never asked me to sacrifice Patrick. From a human standpoint, from father to son, Abraham is being asked to make a horrific sacrifice. But there’s more here. Isaac is the son of promise. Through Isaac God’s promise that Abraham will become the “father of a great nation” is going to be fulfilled. So if you’re with me here, you know the question: How can Abraham kill Isaac and still be the father of a great nation? Abraham not only has to kill his son, but it also looks as if he will lose the promise. That’s because Isaac was Abraham’s “only son” (Genesis 22:1,12,16). Now Abraham already had a son named Ishmael. But Isaac was Abraham’s “only begotten” son…his unique, one-of-a-kind son. Does that sound familiar? Who else is called the “only begotten Son”? It’s Jesus Christ. We are sons of God, but Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God because He’s deity. Isaac is a type of Christ, so it’s not as if Abraham can say, “Well, I’m going to kill Isaac, but I still have Ishmael.” No, the promises were only through Isaac. Just like if Jesus is not the Savior, we are in trouble because God doesn’t have another unique Son. So this is an awesome test. I doubt if any of us will ever face one of this magnitude in our lives. How was Abraham able to do it? His faith gave him confidence in God’s love and wisdom. Let me make an observation. Some of us measure our spirituality by how much we give to God of our time, energy, money, whatever. But spirituality is really measured by how much you keep for yourself. Jesus said the widow gave more with her two coins than the rich gave, because they were just tossing God a tip (Mark 12:41-44). They kept the big wads in their wallets. But the widow kept nothing back. Neither did Abraham. You can’t “sort of” kill your son! What’s the dearest thing you have? What if God asked for it? That’s the test He asks some of His kids to pass. Posted by David Coleman of The DC Ministry “Sharing the Gospel.”
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 09:27:45 +0000
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