This week I'm studying the passage in Genesis where Abraham is given the order to sacrifice his son Isaac. It's a troubling story. Christians like to think of it as a prefiguring of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (God's only son) -- but it seems like a different story to me.
Isaac is a small child; Jesus is a grown man. Isaac is being led to this by a father who does not give him a choice; Jesus goes to the cross of his own volition, knowing that he could pass it up if he chose to do so. In some ways perhaps Jesus has more in common with Abraham than Isaac. Abraham and Jesus both had a choice to make: to obey God's challenge or to walk away from it.
How many of us have similar challenges? Do we recognize them when we receive them, or are we so adept at following our own agendas that we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear? More often than not I am afraid that I am "Helen Keller" -- without sight or hearing -- when it comes to recognizing the sacrifices that God is calling me to make. It's not about obedience, it's about obliviousness!
Can't wait to see if I am able to see and hear God's leading this week. Want to look with me?
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