JESSE TREE (December 5)

I have provided a children's version of this story here.  But for you, take a moment to reflect on this question.  What would it be like to give up your only son?  What kind of God would do that?

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Adult Devotional - Day 5:  Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19)

[this is a reworking of an earlier  post]

This story captivated me as a child as it threw my mind in perpetual circles.  How could God ask him to do such a thing?  Why on earth?  He would never!  God is supposed to LOVE the little children!   

How could THIS be God’s will?  ...But, then again, he IS God, and God can DO anything, WILL anything…his ways are higher than I can know...   

But wait... does this mean that my good God could legitimately command someone to do this?  What about how God hates child sacrifice?   

And around my mind would whirl another time…  

I’m glad I was told this story as a child because it challenged my faith.  It drew me to search deeply.  It plunged me into prayer.  I asked God question after question.  It brought me wonder. 

As I approached adulthood this story began to raise new questions for me.  What was Abraham’s responsibility in this situation?  Was it to his son or to God?  What did it mean for him to be a parent? 

The story begins like this…

Abraham had waited for such a long time for God to give him a son. 

How many know his longing?  How many have waited along with him, unsure if they will ever know the blessing of a child?   Some are waiting even now.

The boy, Isaac, meant everything to him.  Looking at his little guy surely reminded him of God’s faithfulness, promises fulfilled in God’s time, and of the future promises yet to be fulfilled.   But God’s command couldn’t have been clearer:  “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you (Genesis 22:2).”   

And now, walking up the hill I imagine he pulled out all those videotapes of Isaac’s life and replayed them – relived them like it was just yesterday.  He recalled his birth – awaited 15 years!  What joy!  I imagine that he remembered the laughter at the idea of this impossible child, and how over and over again Isaac had brought them and others such laughter. 

Did Abraham wonder at God’s request?  Did he pray for God to change his expectation?  Did he imagine his role as a father meant to bring Isaac the maximum amount of happiness possible in life?  To protect him from pain at all costs?  Or was parenthood something else entirely?   Did he understand his role as father to guide his child into becoming the person God imaged him to be? To walk the path of faithfulness in God’s will, whatever that was?   What did it mean to him to be Isaac’s father? 

There was no sign that God would change his mind or provide another way out. 

No sign at all. 

And yet, he was able to say simply to his servants “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”  WE will come back to you.  What kind of faith did he have?  How did he walk that path, placing the wood for the burnt offering on his son, carrying the fire and the knife himself, the two of them going on together?  What happened in the heart of this father when he heard his son ask “Father…where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  From where did he find the strength to say, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”  Did he know his God so well as to have confidence that he wouldn’t go through with this? Because of the promises made before he was born?   ^“My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year?” 

Or was Isaac the lamb he was talking about? 

This is what God said.  He was to sacrifice his only son – Isaac – as a burnt offering. 

What kind of faith kept his feet walking the path to the place God had told him about, where he built an altar, arranged the wood on it, bound his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.  With what strength did he reach out his hand and take the knife to slay his son? 

In this moment did he remember the penalty for sin was death – a death that each of us rightly deserves – that justice demands – that every life, ANY life is a gift? 

It was an act of grace when the Angel of the Lord called out to him and told him not to harm the boy.  It was an act of mercy when he provided that ram in the thicket.  God’s response tells us that this test of faith proved that Abraham feared God – it was because he did not withhold his son.  Indeed, he would not have.

As I write, this story resonates more powerfully with me because it was eight years ago today that we met our first son.  We named him Isaac as we marveled at the faith of Abraham.  His name is a reminder to me that he is not my possession.  No.  He is entrusted to me – by God – to raise him to fulfill his God-given purpose, whatever that may be.  And, what if God asks him to glorify Himself by giving his life – as a sacrificial offering in some way?  If that time comes, will I still be able to hold onto him with an open hand?  Will I lead him down the right path?  Or will I clench my fingers down around him and refuse to let him go?  Will I remember whose child he is?

Will I remember that the God who said to Abraham “Take your only Son…Take your Isaac, the only true son of yours, the son whom you love, and do you love me more?”(1) is the same One True God who gave the Greatest Gift of His only begotten Son, the Son whom HE loved? 

This time it was not Abraham, it was the YAHWEH, Creator of the Universe – God the Father – who sent his son to earth, and it was God the Son who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, wrapping himself in the helpless human flesh of an infant, living the life of a child, a boy, a man, a son whom God loved, with whom he was well pleased.  The Father walked hand in hand with his little boy, Jesus, as they climbed the hill toward his own sacrifice upon the altar of the cross.  Along the way this Son, like Isaac,  turned to his Father and asked is there some other way?  Please?  Send another lamb?  But not my will…  

Isaac carried the wood, like Jesus would one day.  And just as we deserve to lay down our lives as an offering for sin, again God keeps his word.  He provides a lamb.  We, each of us, are in desperate need of this gift!     

This location where Isaac once lay, Mount Moriah, "would one day become the building ground of God's temple, would one day be in sight of Jesus as he dies Isaac's place.   
Abraham aptly renames it 'the Lord Provides.'"  Jehovah Jireh.(1) 

I, the child on the altar, meant for death, hear a rustling in the bushes:  It is the promised Christmas Child who is the lamb sacrificed instead of me.

Children's Version

Questions to Inspire Family Discussion:

1. Why is death a punishment that we all deserve?
2. Has there ever been a person who lived without sin?
3. Who is the only person who has not deserved to die?
4. Think back to the story.  Are there similarities that you see between Isaac in this story and Jesus?  Are there similarities between God and Abraham?  
5. In the story of our own lives, who deserves to be on the altar?  Who is the ram that God has sent to die in our place?
6. How has God provided for you in your life? 

Pray together:
Lord, we thank you that we need not lay our lives on the altar, but that Jesus is coming to die in our place!  He has bought us at a price.  We are so grateful for our new life in him – this second chance at life.  Help us to become like him, and live a life of love and obedience to God.  May he be seen in us this Advent season.

Sing together:

I Lay My Sins on Jesus (lyrics and tune)
If you have a hymnal you could sing the original a capella.

Psalm 22 (Llangloffan) - Seedbed Psalter

Psalm 22 (Jason Silver)

Lamb of God - Twila Paris

(1) Adapted/Quoted from Dec 5 installment of Ann Voskamp's version of the Jesse Tree (aholyexperience.com)