Outside of God's Blessing?

 “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.””

(‭‭Genesis‬ ‭22‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

There’s no question that the promises, given to us by God, are incredible. They’re fantastic. They sound almost too good to be true. 

After all, who wouldn’t want their sins forgiven? Who wouldn’t want the blessing of life everlasting in God’s presence? And who wouldn’t want to be delivered from the devil?

For this reason, as we hear God’s promises, we receive them eagerly. We receive them with joy. And we look forward to their fulfillment.

However, as we live here in this world, we often feel that we’re outside of God’s blessing. We feel that, perhaps, God has changed his mind. Our circumstances seem to suggest that we’re under his judgment rather than his blessing.

I’m sure that Abraham felt this way in the passage above. God, after all, had given him a wonderful promise. He’d promised Abraham a son, an heir. He’d promised that his descendents would possess the land of Canaan. And he promised that the entire would be blessed through him.

Even though he was old, and even though Sarah was well past the age of child bearing, God gave to them a son. And Abraham was told that it was through this child that his offspring would be named. It was through this child that God’s promises would be fulfilled.

God, then, called on Abraham to do something that would, seemingly, undermine this promise. He called him to sacrifice this child. He called on him to offer him as a burnt offering to the Lord. 

How would Abraham become a great nation without Isaac? How would his descendents inherit the land of Canaan? And how would the world be blessed through him?

Had God lied to him? Had God changed his mind? Was God removing from Abraham the blessing he’d both granted and promised?

While we can’t say with certainty what was going through Abraham’s mind, this is what would’ve been going through mine if I were in his shoes. Yet, that being said, Abraham went through with it. He demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice Isaac according to God’s instructions.

How could he do so? This is answered for us in Hebrews 11. Starting in verse 17, of that chapter, we read: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

Even though God’s command seemed to contradict or to undermine his promise, Abraham believed it anyway. He reasoned that, even if he went through with it, God was able to raise the dead. God was able to keep his promise in spite of the way things outwardly looked.

And the same, you see, is true for us. No matter how things may seem, God is able to keep his promise. Although we may not see or understand what he’s doing, or what he will do, we can believe that he is faithful.