January 8th, 21

Something unthinkable is being asked of Abraham. He is being asked to offer his one and only son that he loves, as a sacrifice, on the mountain.  As some kind of test of obedience.  It’s unthinkable. Then again maybe it wasn’t all together unthinkable, maybe it was entirely conceivable. This culture, and Many cultures throughout time have had the practice of offering the blood of a human, to pacify, or appease, or court the favor of an angry or capricious god.

Abraham knows this, he knows that this is what the gods of his culture and this world so often require. But Abraham also knows this.  That God, the God he serves, the God who called him to follow him, who promised him a son, nad made good on that promise even at his ripe old age, this God who he had learned to walk with and trust, was not like the gods of this world.  He is not bloodthirsty. He is not distant and capricious, he is not angry and ready to pounce.  

This is what other people believe about god, but not Abraham, he believed that God is good.  

The god who is named on this mountain Jahova Jira he is the one who meets us in our need, in our shame, in our barren places. He is not like other God’s he does not require you to provide for, to spill out, an atoning sacrifice to make you right with God, to set the your world right with him.  No, God has another way. He doesn’t kill his son. The son, offers himself and is killed by humanity, not his father.  And through this offering of his life, he overtakes the evil one, he cancels the debt, he wins the victory for you and for the sins of the world, he defeats the powers of sin and darkness once and for all. 

You are loved!