In Touch - Feb. 7, 2008

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2008 Feb 07

In Touch Daily Devotional
by Dr. Charles Stanley

February 7, 2008 – Abraham’s Sacrifice – Genesis 22

Abraham faced one of the greatest tests of obedience recorded in the Bible: God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. It’s hard to imagine the confusion and pain this request must have caused. However, Abraham obeyed willingly and promptly. His response teaches important lessons about yielding to God.

• Obedience often collides with reason. God had promised Abraham descendants too numerous to count, but He then asked for the father of those descendants to be sacrificed. In spite of the strangeness of the command, Abraham trusted God to keep His promise and so set out to obey (Hebrews 11:18-19).

• Obedience means leaving the consequences to God. Abraham had no idea how the promise could be fulfilled if Isaac was dead. But his words and actions indicate he believed in divine sovereignty. When Abraham took the boy to Mount Moriah, he told his servants, “. . . I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). He didn’t say, “I will return” but expressed that both would come back. Abraham went to the holy place, determined to obey. At the same time, he fully expected that the Lord would somehow preserve Isaac in order to keep His pledge. God did this by providing a ram in the boy’s place (vv. 13-14).

The Lord already knows how His children will respond to tests of obedience. He challenges people because He wants them to know the truth about how well they submit. A believer’s willingness to obey (or disobey) reveals the state of his or her commitment to God.

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