Will You Put Your Promise on the Altar of Obedience?

Genesis 22:12

1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)

¹² Then he said, Lay not thine hand upon the child, neither do anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing for my sake thou hast not spared thine only son.

 

This passage has struck me in the past week. God has given me promises that, like Abraham, have yet to come to pass. Eventually Abraham's promise from God was accomplished, and his son Isaac was born. Yet the most confusing thing happened next: God wanted Abraham to give Isaac back to God.

 

Abraham now had his one and only direct heir, a promise from God fulfilled, and now the Lord wanted the promise to be returned?

 

Wow. Abraham, the man of faith, simply obeyed God. And what heartache he must have had as he prepared to sacrifice his only son to the One who gave him to him. I know that some of us today have been given a promise.

 

Some of us have come so close to obtaining what God had said He would give. I know what God said to me, and affirmed to me through many prophetic confirmations. He promised me a new wife. And yet, such a promise is so close, and so far. I have gone through some pains and heart aches through the past while and in the midst of it, God has recently asked me: "Would you put what I promised you on the altar for me?" And because I was already in the process of doing so, I said "yes Lord." With pain and difficulty, I have been choosing to obey God over obtaining the promise. That is what this Genesis account boils down to. It is the principal of making sure God is still first in our hearts.

 

This verse from Genesis 22 shows me, and all of us, that God was actually just testing to see what was number one in Abraham's heart. Was it the promise God gave? Or was it God Himself (with or without the promise given)? In the end, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son because Abraham had proven himself to be completely obedient, willing to hold nothing back from God. This is where the Lord Jesus is taking me. It is my journey so far, and there has been much positive growth.

 

I am prepared to keep choosing Jesus over my desire to obtain His promise. It is His full intent to give it. When, I will not know- perhaps for a long time yet. But we must be prepared not to love the promise more than the promise maker. He is faithful to fulfill His word, just trust and obey Him. Abraham's historic event as seen here was a foreshadowing of the greatest event of history: God the Father did not spare His Perfect Son Jesus. He laid Him on the altar for all of us - you and me - that we may be free and cleansed from sin. How faithful and wonderful He is to us! God is willing to do the very thing He asked Abraham to do! Jesus was obedient to the death. Now He is raised from the dead, and alive forevermore. Awesome.

 

Blessings

~Pastor Curtis