READ: Genesis 22:2 NLT
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
This is an incredibly tough story to cope with. My wife Sue and I have three children. The thought of offering one of them as a sacrifice is beyond my power to comprehend. I really struggle with every part of it. What is incredible to me is that Abraham agreed to do exactly what God had asked him to do, terrible as it sounded. I feel sure that if I had been Abraham I would have assumed that I had misheard God or eaten too much cheese or spent too much time in the sun. Not Abraham. God told him to offer his precious son, Isaac, as a sacrifice and off he set.
This story tells me a great deal about Abraham’s faith. He was absolutely convinced that God could be trusted, and that if God called him to do this hideous thing then it must be for the best. That’s amazing faith. No wonder that Abraham was seen as the father of faith. He set the benchmark. To everyone’s complete relief God didn’t actually ask Abraham to kill Isaac, but he took him right up to the point where Abraham had the knife in his hand and was just about to do the dreadful deed. Abraham had no doubt that God knew exactly what he was doing.
Abraham wasn’t perfect, but he trusted God because he knew that the One who had led him on this incredible adventure of faith would stand by him, whatever happened. Imperfect as we are God also invites us to set off on the journey of faith. And like Abraham we can be absolutely sure that God will not let us down.
QUESTION: Are you willing to trust God whatever he asks you to do?
PRAYER: Thank you, loving Lord, that you can be completely trusted, even when you ask me to do things which seem really hard at the time. Amen.

Released on 19 Jan 2021