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What it Means to Trust in God

(GENESIS 22:1-14)

Author Marshall Shelley writes in Leadership magazine:

“Even as a child, I loved to read, and I quickly learned that I would most likely be confused during the opening chapters of a novel. New characters were introduced. Disparate, seemingly random events took place. Subplots were complicated and didn’t seem to make any sense in relation to the main plot.”³

Confusion and questions are often raised when we read or hear the story from our Old Testament lesson this morning. Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And while God relents in the end, many wonder why God would even command such a thing. To ask a father to willingly kill his own son seems so out of character with the God we have come to know in the pages of the Bible.

It was way back in Genesis chapter twelve that God originally called Abraham in his old age, commanding him and his wife Sarah to head west to a land of God’s choosing. In Abraham’s obedience, God will make of him a great nation, even though he and Sarah are well past child-bearing years and have no children. God will fulfill that promise in the birth of their son Isaac. But it will be years in between God’s call of Abraham and the birth of Isaac. In the meantime both Abraham and Sarah attempt to force the fulfillment of God’s promise in several different ways, the most notable being Sarah giving her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham so that he might have a son with her. He will, and the child will be named Ishmael.

So while Abraham and Sarah have certainly shown their faithfulness, at times they have also demonstrated their faithlessness in dramatic ways. At times, Abraham does not trust God, but neither does God trust Abraham to be obedient when it counts. God’s command to Abraham in chapter 22 is for the purpose of finding out if Abraham’s faith can stand the difficult test.

As we listen to this story we shudder to think that anyone would dare sacrifice a child, but let us not forget that in our own world children’s lives are being sacrificed slowly by a rampant sex slave trade. There are parents in other parts of the world who, even as we speak, are selling their young children into forced prostitution—so much for human progress.

Even though the command to sacrifice Isaac sounds difficult to our ears, it really did not for Abraham. Abraham lived in a world where child sacrifice was not unknown. Abraham had contact with people who practiced religions where children were sacrificed. The fact that the Old Testament condemns such a practice demonstrates that it was happening. There is no doubt that Abraham was greatly grieved at the thought of losing his son whom he loved, but the practice itself was not unknown to him.

Abraham’s faith is anguished. Here we see that faith is serious business. Abraham not only has to trust God that God will fulfill his promise to make of Abraham a great nation, even though the one through whom the promise will be fulfilled (Isaac) will be killed. As I mentioned before, Abraham and Sarah tried to take matters into their own hands and fulfill the promise themselves. They were too impatient to wait on God and perhaps didn’t even believe God would keep his word at certain times in their lives. Now Abraham has to trust that God will keep his promise even without Isaac, and continue to have faith even in the midst of indescribable grief as he mourns the death of his son.

Just as Abraham is about to do what God commands, God speaks and tells him to relent, “But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place ‘The LORD will provide’;* as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided’ (22:11-14).

There is a kind of pop theology in certain churches which believes that if we have faith and are faithful, things will always go well in life. So when things go wrong, these folks wonder if God is punishing them or they don’t understand why God is allowing them to go through their anguish. We come to believe that the “normal” life is the “ideal” life.⁴ Perhaps we even come to believe that somehow we have a right to a life without risk, and life without disappointment. Perhaps that view is revealed in our societies’ propensity toward frivolous lawsuits. Perhaps we feel if something unfortunate happens to us, someone else must always be to blame.

But nowhere does the Bible ever tell us that faith will always mean smooth sailing. In fact, the biblical writers warn us of the opposite. They remind us that happenings and events will come our way that will test our faith. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that in life there is a time for everything. We may not want to mourn, but at some point we inevitably will. We may not want to die, but that too will come our way. We place our trust in God, not so we will avoid the tough times, but so we can get through the tough times. And we have to learn to trust God when, like Abraham, the moments of life make no sense. John Walton compares life and faith to a roller coaster:

“We cannot expect stability and security to define ‘normal’ because we live in a fallen world. ‘Normal’ is not the smooth, gliding monorail; it is the roller coaster with life’s ups and downs…. Unlike the monorail, which functions to take us somewhere, the roller coaster is designed with the ride in mind, not the destination.”

“Some people see the roller coaster as frightening; others call it exhilarating. What separates the two groups? The former, I suggest, not only fear the queasy stomach but experience anxiety that comes from feeling out of control and, above all, worry that the cars will not hold onto the tracks. In contrast, those who feel exhilarated welcome the thrill that comes from not being in control. If, however, they had sufficient reason to believe the car would fly off the tracks, that exhilaration would quickly be transformed to the fear of the first group.”⁵

We like to think that we are in control of our lives, and of course we need to take responsibility for our lives and our futures. We should buy insurance, we should save for retirement, but there is so much that comes to us that is beyond our control. The depth of our faith is not revealed in how we shape our present, but in how we live in the present, as we respond in faith to those things that come our way, over which we have no control. Abraham had no control over his situation, but he responded in faith even as he struggled and anguished. We too must trust in God. Faith is easy when life is good; faith is deepened when the circumstances of life leave us in a shambles.

I began my sermon with a quote from Marshall Shelley:

“Even as a child, I loved to read, and I quickly learned that I would most likely be confused during the opening chapters of a novel. New characters were introduced. Disparate, seemingly random events took place. Subplots were complicated and didn’t seem to make any sense in relation to the main plot.”

But what you do not know and I will now tell you is that Shelley wrote these words as he reflected on the deaths of two of his children. He writes further:

“But I learned to keep reading. Why? Because you know that the author, if he or she is good, will weave them all together by the end of the book. Eventually, each element will be meaningful.

At times, such faith has to be a conscious choice.

Even when I can’t explain why a chromosomal abnormality develops in my son, which prevents him from living on earth more than two minutes….

Even when I can’t fathom why our daughter has to endure two years of severe and profound retardation and continual seizures….

I choose to trust that before the book closes, the Author will make things clear.”⁶

When the tests of life come our way, God does not desire that we be miserable. Indeed, God hurts when we hurt. But what God desires of us when life tests our faith is that when we are forced outside of our comfort zones, we will learn that we have to trust in God in all things and in all times and in all places.

God wants to be able to say to each and every one of us, “Now I know that you trust me.”

PRAYER: O God, help us to trust in you with all our hearts and not rely on our own understanding. Walk with us on this journey of life and may we place our faith in you in all the times of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.