The Cost of Service!

I remember reading the Bible to my then 6 year old. A bedtime ritual we had. That night’s story happened to fall on Abraham and Isaac found in Genesis 22. After we read it and said our prayers I could tell that my son was troubled, but he said nothing. I kissed him and started for the door and he said: “Daddy?” I turned around and he asked; “Why did the dad want to kill his son?

What do you say?

How do you explain the concept of obedience to God that supersedes the love for your family, to a six year old?

I did the best I could… (All the while fervently praying for the right words) and it seemed to satisfy him because when I was done he said; Ok Daddy, kissed me and rolled over to go to sleep.

He got it… all of it. He understood the horror of what Abraham was going to do… and why he was going to do it, but how many of us get it?

Have you ever really thought about what Abraham had to do… what he did? I doubt camping with dad was ever going to be the same again. There wasn’t a whole lot of detail in those moments before the intended sacrifice, but it doesn’t take much imagination to figure it out. The Bible says Isaac was questioning him along the way as to where the sacrificial animal was. And it also says; “Abraham bound him.” So I don’t think Isaac was a willing sacrifice, he was a young teenager and fully aware of his circumstances… He was probably freaking out that his dad was intending to kill him. Put yourself in Abrahams shoes, imagine his breaking heart as he bound his son, whom I am sure he loved more than his own life (I know I love my children that way) as Isaac was screaming, struggling and crying with a look of fear and bewilderment in his eyes while his father methodically began to take his life. I would have been weeping uncontrollably every step of the way! And the price God demanded of him did not stop there. I doubt Abraham was truthful with Sarah about his intentions for this very special camping trip… What God asked him to do not only broke his heart because of what he had to do to his son, but upon returning to the inevitable confrontation with Sarah, he lost both his wife (Sarah) and his son (Isaac). At the end of Chapter 22 we see that Abraham stayed in Bersheeba, Genesis 22:19. And at the beginning of Chapter 23 we see that Sarah was living in and died in Kiriath Arba Genesis 23:2 , which is about 20 miles south of Bersheeba. And that Isaac was living in the Negev in Beer Lahai Roi, which is about another 30 miles south of where his mother lived in Kiriath Arba… but after dad went and got Isaac a wife he didn’t go back to dad, but instead went to live where his mother had been, in her tents (she had her own residence) instead of with dad in Bersheeba, Genesis 24:62-67. And when dad (Abraham) died it says that he and Ishmael buried him with Sarah and that he was living in Beer Lahai Roi, Genesis 25:7-12. If you follow the bouncing ball between all of these verses you will see that the price Abraham paid for his obedience to God was everything that he loved on this earth.

Abraham was blessed by God again after Sarah… In Chapter 25 it says he took another wife and that he went on to have another dozen or so kids, but…

… Was it worth it?

He is the father of the Islamic and both the Jewish and Christian faiths. He is the beginning of all that we know of God…

It makes me wonder; and sheds new light on Luke 14:26. How serious was Jesus when he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple..

Does God demand all of us… even if he never requires it? I would tell you unequivocally that the answer is yes.

So where does that leave you?

If God asked the same of you, how would you respond? Where do your loyalties lie?

I fear that in these last days… be it years, months, weeks or days, that each of us that calls our selves “Christian” will be faced with this looming question. We are once again going to face what the Christians in Nero’s gardens faced, persecution… are you ready? Do you really believe what you say you believe? Are you willing to put yours or your families life on the line to prove it?

I will close with the true story of a tight rope walker.

This gentleman had many times walked a tight rope over the Niagara Falls, and on this occasion after walking the span he asked the audience if they thought he could do it pushing a wheel barrel with a sack of potatoes in it. The crowd responded with cheers of encouragement, because they knew he could. When he reached the other side he asked the crowd if they thought he could do it again while pushing a man… they responded with even louder cheers of encouragement… until he started looking for volunteer’s…

So I ask again. How about you?

Will you climb into Gods wheel barrel, or are you just one of the crowd that is caught up in the moment?