"Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. 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 22:1-2) Can you even imagine how this command of God must have hit Abraham? I would have probably responded, "You want me to do what?!" I have two grown sons, and I cannot fathom how I could sacrifice one of them at God's command. I would have immediately questioned whether that command actually came from God. Maybe Satan was imitating God's voice. That command is completely beyond reason!

But the very next verse says, "Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. . . . he set out for the place God had told him about." Abraham didn't beg for more time or wait for a confirmation that it was indeed a command from God. He just obeyed.

Unquestioning faith leads to unconditional obedience. The writer of Hebrews sheds some light on this text when he writes, "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. . . . Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." (Hebrews 11:17,19) Abraham was so sure of God's promise that through Isaac he would have descendents as many as the stars in the heavens (Genesis 15:4-5, 17:19), that he trusted God to somehow resurrect Isaac if he did obey God's command and sacrifice him on an altar.

Abraham had the knife in his hand ready to offer Isaac when an angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven not to lay a hand on the boy, for "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Genesis 22:12)

Is there any command of God that you would consider "unreasonable?" How about Romans 12:1-2? "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Unquestioning faith leads to unconditional obedience.

 Well, our Journey Through the Bible is underway, and I'm looking forward to all the exciting places we will visit and the people we will come to know better. I hope this blog site will be a good place to interact on your observations and insights throughout the journey. Looking toward this Sunday's message, "Paradise Lost," you will be reading Genesis 1-4. These chapters set the foundation for the entire Bible. If you are not on solid footing as far as the creation account is concerned, you will have trouble with much of the rest of God's Word. Here are some comments by Rubel Shelly in his book, Genesis: The Beginnings of Faith, about these crucial first chapters of Genesis.

     "Ideas have consequences. And few ideas have more far-reaching consequences than one's view of the opening lines of the Bible. If the stories of the creation and fall are not historical in your mind, you have pulled the single thread that unravels the entire fabric of the Word of God. . . . Here is the opening sentence of the Bible: 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' Here is the opening sentence of Carl Sagan's Cosmos: 'The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be.' The former puts humanity on a search for truth, meaning, and ethical behavior; it grounds a worldview that demands we find answers outside ourselves and live in time with a view toward eternity. The latter rejects theism as an outmoded faith and seeks to define all value and meaning in relation to mankind in this present world; it grounds a worldview that dismisses the supernatural as nonsensical. . . .If Genesis isn't true, everything that follows in the Bible is suspect. There is no reason to believe in or prepare for a future life." (Rubel Shelly, Genesis: The Beginnings of Faith,: College Press Publishing Co., 1997, p. 10)

I look forward to fleshing out this and other important "begninnings" from Genesis 1-4 this Sunday. Hope to see you in worship!