08/30/2022
🤔Mystery in the Bible
Do You Know the Mystery Behind God’s Command to Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac?
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When Abraham was a hundred years old, God gave him a son, Isaac. This was God’s authority and power. But after Isaac grew up, God commanded Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering to God. Why did God do this?
📖God says, “When Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son, were his actions seen by God? They were. The entire process—from the start, when God asked that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, to when Abraham actually raised his knife to slay his son—showed God the heart of Abraham, and regardless of his former foolishness, ignorance, and misunderstanding of God, at that time Abraham’s heart for God was true, and honest, and he truly was going to return Isaac, the son given to him by God, back to God. In him, God saw obedience, the very obedience that He desired.
“To man, God does much that is incomprehensible and even unbelievable. When God wishes to orchestrate someone, this orchestration is often at odds with man’s notions and incomprehensible to him, yet it is precisely this dissonance and incomprehensibility that are God’s trial and test of man. Abraham, meanwhile, was able to demonstrate obedience to God within himself, which was the most fundamental condition of his being able to satisfy God’s requirement. Only then, when Abraham was able to obey God’s requirement, when he offered up Isaac, did God truly feel reassurance and approval toward mankind—toward Abraham, whom He had chosen. Only then was God sure that this person whom He had chosen was an indispensable leader who could undertake His promise and His subsequent management plan. Though it was but a trial and a test, God felt gratified, He felt man’s love for Him, and He felt comforted by man as never before. At the moment that Abraham lifted up his knife to slay Isaac, did God stop him? God did not let Abraham sacrifice Isaac, for God simply had no intention of taking Isaac’s life. Thus, God stopped Abraham just in time. For God, Abraham’s obedience had already passed the test, what he did was sufficient, and God had already seen the outcome of what He intended to do. Was this outcome satisfactory to God? It can be said that this outcome was satisfactory to God, that it was what God wanted, and was what God had longed to see. Is this true? Although, in different contexts, God uses different ways of testing each person, in Abraham God saw what He wanted, He saw that Abraham’s heart was true, and that his obedience was unconditional. It was precisely this ‘unconditional’ that God desired.”
From God’s words, we can understand: God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, certainly not because He wanted Abraham to kill his son, but rather because He wanted to use this command to test Abraham, to see whether Abraham would truly trust in and obey God. Abraham’s son Isaac was given to him when he was one hundred years old, so we can imagine how much he loved his son. Yet when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham didn’t complain to God, nor did he ask Him to explain His reasons, even though his heart was aching. Abraham knew Isaac was a gift from God. If God now wanted him to make a sacrifice, Abraham knew he must obey. Thus without hesitation, Abraham took Isaac to the place where burnt offerings were made. He raised his knife ready to slay Isaac. However, God saw Abraham’s sincerity and obedience, so at that moment, He stopped him, gave him His blessings, and promised that his descendants would become a great nation. From God’s blessing of and promise to Abraham, we can see the delight God feels when people are sincere toward Him. He is delighted when people come before Him without conditions, and worship and obey Him without demanding something in return.
What other inspirations can we gain from this? Although God does things incomprehensible to us, there are His intentions behind them. When we encounter things that do not conform to our notions, if we don’t complain, but obey the Creator as created beings, and stand witness for God, then we can be accepted by God.
