Read: Genesis 22
Offer [Isaac] there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains. (v. 2)
Singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson says that in living the Christian life, “we try to believe what is not meant to be understood.” All of us feel the weight of that truth sometimes. We know that God is there, but the light can be hard to see.
That’s what we encounter in Genesis 22. “After these things,” verse 1 tells us, “God tested Abraham.” After God’s promise to bring generations from him even in his old age, after fulfilling his covenant by providing a son named Isaac, God asks Abraham to do the impossible: to take his only son to the mountains of Moriah and sacrifice him there “as a burnt offering” (v. 2).
Like Abraham, God sometimes calls us to ascend the mountain of testing. He may ask us to pile the wood of the sacrifice upon the very thing we hoped and yearned for. He may ask us to take the way where the light is dim and all we can say in our doubting and fear is, “God will provide” (v. 8). But God tests in order to redeem, and if we have the faith to lay even our dearest affections on the altar before him, he is faithful to provide. For Abraham, it was “a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns” (v. 13). For us, it is another innocent lamb lifted up on a mountain to die. Jesus, the lamb of God, took our place upon the altar at Mount Calvary. We can place all our hope in him.
As you pray, surrender your hopes to God and offer your dreams to him.
Justin Kuiper is a student from Holland, MI, studying English literature at Hope College. His own writing explores the many intersections of faith, storytelling, and the created order. Justin is a life-long soccer fan and plays on the Hope College soccer team.
