Imagine, if you will, being Abraham with a long awaited son, Isaac, and then asked to sacrifice that son on a request from God. What would be your thoughts? Would they be ones of total acceptance? If they are, you would ascribe to Abraham the level that is above a natural human. Abraham was human just as we are. If it was me, my thoughts would be ones of fear, disbelief, confusion, even wondering if God is truly a God of love and a God that cares for us. It would seem that God had asked something that goes against all that I would have known about God. This is the same God that spoke against human sacrifice, and yet here he is asking for one. This is the God that promised a son, and that through this son, a nation would be born and that this son was the son of the promise that had been given years before and the son that was born to an old man and an old woman. None of this would make sense. But at the same time, knowing God had a plan and a purpose for this so that His overarching design for the universe. Would you be as confident as Abraham that maybe, just maybe, God would raise the son of promise from the dead. He had some sort of thought of God hopefully intervening when he told the others of the party that accompanied him that he and Isaac would go to the mountain and both return. Imagine the fear flowing through Abraham. It must have been huge. But, despite the fear and despite all the emotions and lack of 'logic', Abraham obeyed. Would you have done the same? Would you have ran? Now remember, Abraham did not know what the outcome would be. We can read the story and have the advantage of knowing the outcome. While the story turned out well and Isaac lived and Abraham was relieved of the fear, it can teach us all a lesson. What lesson is that? The lesson of obeying and trusting God no matter what our own emotions are telling us.
Sometimes God asks us to do things that makes no sense to us and brings fear and lots of emotions that do not make sense. Maybe God has asked you to sacrifice your job, or your car, or house or_________________ (fill in the blank). What did you do? Did you trust Him to take care of you? Did you run away? What did you do?
We like Abraham do not have the advantage of knowing the end of the story. Our emotions run wild, while in our hearts we can either feel betrayed or know that God is in control and will come through. It is not an easy thing when one finds themselves in a place of total trust in God but our emotions try and convince us to try something or to give up or even convince us to reject God altogether. The best we can do is to push through the fear. Once again I will quote from Frank Herbert's
Dune. In the series there is a group of women, a sisterhood, that developed away to overcome fear. They would quote to themselves the following:
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing......Only I will remain." It makes sense, but I would like to change the last phrase for those of us who follow after God. I would change it to say "
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. ..... I will face my fear with God. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing......Only God will remain."
Only with God and his help can we conquer the fear that comes our way. Fear is a mind-killer, but with God our sanity, mind, and spiritual lives will survive. Knowing these things will not make facing fear any easier, but it is a way to lean on Someone besides ourselves. I leave you this verse. Think on it Meditate on it, and let God help you face your fear. "Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim my purposes for you long ago? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!" Isaiah 44:8 NLT
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