Sense and Nonsense

"Then God said, '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 (NIV)

The most written about story in the Hebrew Bible is the story of how God called on Abraham to offer up his son as a sacrifice.

From one point of view, this story is nonsense.

I'm not a heretic for making such a statement. My comment is that we can't make sense of it.

It's one thing to say something doesn't make sense, and quite another to dismiss the story as nonsense.

When God called on Abraham to slay his son, Abraham couldn't make sense of what was happening.

God promised Abraham that through his son Isaac the whole world would be blessed. But when God called on Abraham to slay his son, Isaac didn't have any children. How then could Isaac's descendants bless the entire world if he died before having any children?

Abraham was forced into a situation that he couldn't possibly make any sense of.

The promise of God required Isaac to live, marry and produce children, but the command of God to slay his son made the promise of God null and void.

We sometimes face the same kind of senseless situation that Abraham was in—although not to the same extreme. God promised to care for us but we lost our job, our home and our health.

Why has God promised one thing and delivered something else? What kind of care is that?

When Abraham obeyed the command to slay Isaac, he knew he risked losing God's promise but obeyed God with what He called on him to do. He trusted that God knew what He was doing when he didn't have any idea what that was.

When your life isn't making any sense, keep walking with the Lord in spite of your confusion—regardless of your ignorance.

Somewhere between the command to sacrifice Isaac and the altar where he was to be slain, Abraham sensed that if his beloved son died he would be raised from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19).

It was those agonizing moments between receiving the command—and the realization that God might raise the dead—that caused such grief.

If you're in a time of uncertainty like Abraham's, do what he did.

He obeyed God.

He trusted God and he worshipped God. Do the same and eventually the Lord will give you victory over the problem. In that day the "nonsense" will make sense.

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