Meditation
 
ULTIMATE SURRENDER        Dr. Joseph Stowell
 
Take now your son, your only son, whom you love… Genesis 22:2 NASB
 
I’ve always been fascinated by the requirement God made of Abraham when He asked him to sacrifice his son as an act of obedient worship (Genesis 22:1-2).
 
From Abraham’s perspective, this was an unreasonably wrenching request. God had already asked Abraham to leave the security of his affluent surroundings to travel to a distant land where He would give him a son.
 
This son was to become the father of a great nation through whom all the earth would be blessed. Isaac embodied the heartbeat of what God had planned for Abraham and the whole reason Abraham had left Ur of the Chaldeans in the first place (Genesis 11:27-31; 12:1-5).
 
And, if that weren’t enough, this was the miracle child, born to Sarah after she was too old to conceive (Genesis 21:7). Yet God was now asking Abraham to place this son whom he loved on an altar of sacrifice.
 
In an unprecedented stroke of unflinching obedience, Abraham agreed. So unshaken was his confidence in God that he believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead if necessary (Hebrews 11:17-19). But as he lifted the knife with trembling hands, God stopped him and provided a substitute sacrifice (Genesis 22:10-14). It was a test.
 
Would Abraham love the gift more than the Giver? Would the center of Abraham’s affections be his son or his God? Abraham lived in a Canaanite civilization that practiced child sacrifice as the supreme expression of consecration to gods of wood and stone.
 
Would Abraham be willing to love the true God with the dedication pagans felt toward their gods? He passed the test! He had more confidence in the promises of the provider than in the pleasure of the provision.
 
There will be times that we face similar tests. These tests will prove how loosely we hold what God has supplied. When God requires a dearly held commodity, will you give it up for Him? Could your money be His? Could your children be sacrificed to the front line of global evangelism if they were called? Could He have your business? Could He have your heart?