As many of you know by now, our family regularly enjoys Friday Pizza and Movie Night. Even now that the kids are grown and gone, Dale and I make our cauliflower crust pizzas after work on Friday evenings and watch a movie or an episode or two from whichever television series we’re following. An all-time Brown Family favorite movie is Finding Nemo. In the opening scene, a darling orange and white clownfish named Marlin and his wife, Coral, live happily in a brand new anemone home along the Great Barrier Reef. Not only does it offer gorgeous views in every direction, but it is quite spacious, which is important as the couple are about to become parents, waiting for their many eggs to hatch. Marlin looks over at Coral, quite proud of himself at securing such a beautiful home for their growing family and asks, “Did your man deliver or did your man deliver?” Coral grins and agrees, “My man delivered.”
Have you ever experienced a spiritual victory, a high mountaintop, where you have witnessed first-hand the mighty and awesome strength of our great God? I have. I remember 16 years ago, Dale coming home from his weekly trip to DC, sitting me down and saying, “I think we are supposed to move to DC.” God had already been preparing me for this very thing, and we saw, over the following months, God tearing down one obstacle after another. Everything from where we would live to where our kids would go to school, God simply handed to us. I began referring to Him as “My God Who Delivers!”
And then the first days of school came. Did I mention that I had homeschooled our children for 13 years while living in Georgia? We were settled into our home, the kids were gone for most of the day to public school, Dale was at work, and I was all alone. It didn’t take me long to forget all that God had done for me and my mind and trust began to wander. I had always been my children’s teacher and over time, that had become my identity. I was lonely, listless, without purpose. I wish I could say that I clung tighter in faith to My God Who Delivers, but that was not what happened. Instead, I flung myself into ridding Northern Virginia of all dark chocolate and peanut butter!
In today’s reading, we see God deliver on His promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah. Even in their old age, when it shouldn’t have been possible, yet here is Sarah nursing her son. Eventually, God asks Abraham the hardest question yet. Will God continue to deliver? Will He provide? Let’s read and find out!
Read Genesis 21-22:19
It’s taken decades, but finally Abraham and Sarah are holding the promised baby, Isaac, in their arms! It is so exciting, except that Isaac isn’t Abraham’s only son. Remember, Sarah gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to her husband in hopes of building a family through her; perhaps to help God’s promise along? Well, Ishmael is now around 17-years-old and his dad is throwing a huge party to celebrate baby half-brother Isaac’s weaning. I imagine teenage Ishmael thought, “Are you kidding me? A celebration because he can eat regular food now? This is ridiculous!” He obviously didn’t keep these thoughts to himself, much like his mother when she discovered she was pregnant and her mistress, Sarah, couldn’t conceive. And similarly, Sarah saw Ishmael’s incredulous attitude, heard his mocking laugh and said, “That’s it! I won’t have this punk kid living under my tent another day!”
This puts Abraham in a pickle, as Ishmael had been his world until three years ago, when the promised child was born. But God promises Abraham that He will take care of Ishmael and actually make a great nation from him. Abraham loads Hagar and Ishmael down with as much food and water as they could carry and sends them away…he wouldn’t see this son again. He loved Ishmael deeply, but was asked to sacrifice their relationship in order to make peace with Sarah.
Many years later, God came to Abraham and tested his love for his son, Isaac, and his priorities. “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (Gen 22:2) What is God asking? To place Isaac on an altar to God and kill him? Remember, this wasn’t the first time Abraham was asked to sacrifice, to release a son to the Lord’s care. And so, he and Isaac gathered materials for the fire and followed God up to Mount Moriah. Isaac had been with his father before when He built an altar and offered sacrifices to the Lord God, but something important was missing this time. And when Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the sacrifice, Abraham confidently replied, “Jehovah Jireh,” Hebrew for “The Lord Himself Will Provide.”
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said, ‘Your offspring will be traced through Isaac.’ He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.” (Heb 11:17-19)
Sing O Day of Peace (see page 38 for lyrics)
Reflect
Imagine the faith required of Abraham to move forward in obedience and willingly sacrifice his son. And what about Isaac? What great faith he possessed to obey his father and climb up onto the altar of sacrifice, assuming that he was about to be killed, yet trusting that The Lord will provide.
Is there anything that God has challenged you to relinquish control over and trust Him to provide?
Pray and rejoice for the peace that is ours with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the access to God’s grace that causes us to stand in this evil day but most importantly the hope of the glory of God, which is produced and refined through affliction, endurance and proven character. And “this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (from Romans 5:1-5)
