Jesus Isn't Decaf (By Naomi Meyers)

It is completely unthinkable.  Who does that, anyway?  Who makes someone wait until their twilight years to have a long-desired child then asks them to sacrifice him on an altar like some animal?  It boggles our minds.  Thousands of years later, just reading the account of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a rock altar up the side of a mountain when he had plenty of sheep and goats available puts our backs up on Abraham’s behalf.  Even though we know the end of the story, we feel indignant.  We think it unfair.  

How must Abraham have felt?  For years he and Sarah had prayed for a child. They’d waited.  Nothing happened. Slowly but surely, they gave up hope. They were old. They were tired. Even the voice of God announcing the soon arrival of a child, failed to sway their skepticism. Sarah laughed. Abraham probably wanted to laugh too. Who has children at 90 and 100 years old?  But it happened. The long desired, long-awaited, promised child with the wife he loved finally came. Isaac was born. The descendant to give them all those promised descendants had come. Things were finally coming together. (Genesis 18:1-15, Genesis 21:1-7)

Then God threw a curveball.  He sent Abraham into Moriah, up on a mountain with one express purpose–sacrifice Isaac.  What? God spent all this time making miracles happen to give Abraham and Sarah a son–to sacrifice?  Really?  Again, even knowing the outcome, we sit in astounded incredulity.  Abraham must have been astounded too, yet there is no Biblical record of any words spoken to God about the command.  There is only a record of obedience.  Abraham is silent.  

Stoically and silently, Abraham readies for the journey. A donkey. Two servants. Wood.  Isaac. They travel for three days. Three days over which no words are significant enough to be recorded. Abraham is verbally silent. But he’s human. It is safe to say his internal conversation was spectacular. Why was this happening? Had he somehow disobeyed God? Had he misunderstood something? What about that nation God was going to establish through Isaac?  How would that happen if Isaac was dead? What about those promises, those covenants?  Would God keep them? And, most importantly, was obedience really better when it was calling him to sacrifice his beloved, long awaited, only son ? 

Clearly, the only question we know Abraham answered was that obedience to God is always better. No matter the sacrifice. No matter the pain. No matter that you can’t see the next step. Remaining faithful to God is most important. That knowledge is why he’s making this trek when he wants to stay home and pretend God never invited him up this fateful mountain. Finally, Abraham leaves the servants and donkey to wait, takes Isaac, and heads up the mountain even further.  

If Abraham was waiting for God to stop him, he was disappointed. It is apparently God’s turn to be silent.  When he came to the place of sacrifice, Abraham built the altar.  I wonder how long it took him to build it.  My humanity would have made me take my time. Maybe Abraham was the same.  It couldn’t take forever, though.  Once the altar is built, he stacks the wood, ties up his son, and places him on top of the wood.  How heart-wrenching would that be?  Imagine the questions Isaac was asking.  He’d already deduced there was no sacrifice.  As the ropes were tied around his body, was he crying out, “Why are you doing this, Daddy? Please don’t do this! Don’t you love me?” 

As the questions from his son reverberate across the mountain, echoing the questions Abraham has been asking God for the last three days, he hardens his breaking heart, allows himself one last long look at Isaac atop the altar, takes a deep breath, raises his knife high in the air…and then it comes. Thank God, it comes! The reason he’s been keeping his mouth shut and his ears open.  The angel of the Lord says, “Abraham! Don’t kill your son! You have proven your faithfulness!” (Genesis 22:1-13)

As I sigh in relief at the outcome of the story, I find myself asking, what if Abraham hadn’t been listening for God to speak? What if Abraham had been weeping, wailing, cursing the circumstances, throwing a tantrum over the unfairness of the situation and making too much noise to hear God’s voice? What if Abraham had been too bogged down in anger, grief, and justifiable pain that he hadn’t been able to hear God speak? We should know the answer to these questions. We do it all the time.  

The things God asks of us are not always pleasing. Some of them are just plain hard.  Sometimes God asks us to leave everything we know and start out on a journey we can’t explain. It is painful. It is difficult. If we allow ourselves to get caught up in the angry self-pity we think we deserve, we’ll be so busy lashing out that we miss it when He speaks. That could be disastrous. If Abraham had been too wrapped in self-pity to hear God speak, he would have killed his son as a sacrifice. The stakes are just as great for us. Possibly greater. We could be sacrificing our souls. 

Faithful obedience to God is more than grudgingly doing what God asks. It is not whining compliance. It is consistent plodding. Staying the course. Quietly seeing it through until the voice of God says otherwise. It probably won’t be easy. It will absolutely be worth it. Obedience to God always is. Ask Abraham. He’s done it before. There was a previous trek across miles of foreign country to get to a Promised Land he’d heard of only from God’s lips. No matter what else he might have thought, wanted, or hoped, Abraham packed his camels, left everything familiar and familial behind and started walking. Quietly. (Genesis 12:1-9)

In a world that encourages us to verbally express ourselves with no regard for others or God, it behooves us to take a page from Genesis–Abraham’s story–and be quiet. Obey God, even when you don’t understand, when it seems diametrically opposed to what you thought, or hoped, He was doing.  And while obeying, be quiet. Listen for Him to speak, because He will speak.  Words of love. (Jeremiah 31:3) Words of courage. (John 16:33) Words of direction. (Psalm 32:8) Words of rest and peace. (Psalm 37:1-7)   

The Psalmist says, “Be still and know that I am God.”  (Psalm 46:10)  Calm down.  Stop ranting and raving. Stop whining and wailing. Take a deep breath. Be quiet, even if you don’t feel like it. Obey. And while you are obeying, listen. God may be silent, but He is still there. (Deut. 31:6) God has not gone on vacation. He has not left you alone while He walks the beaches of Tahiti. (Psalm 37:25,28) God is right beside you as you struggle to do His will, even when you don’t understand it. (I Chronicles 28:20) And He’s fixing to speak. There is nothing you are doing, wanting, or dreaming that is more important than hearing God speak. And what will you sacrifice if you fail to hear Him when He does?