Good morning. He was the biggest thing in his father’s life. He had been born through miraculous intervention because both of his parents were very elderly, his mother well beyond her childbearing years. He was a promise of God, but a promise that had taken decades to be fulfilled. Eventually, this delay caused his parents give up hope. But God is always faithful even though His timing is not always in accordance with our own. Sarah, in her 90’s, became pregnant with Abraham’s child, the promised son.
There was plenty of drama along the way. Both Sarah and Abraham, due to their impatience with God, acted impetuously and the result was chaos and heartache. But when God deemed the time to be right, Isaac was born. We don’t read much about his early years and behavior but by the time he was in his early teens we read that he was a faithful and obedient son.
We read of the quality of Abraham’s faith in Genesis 22:3-8. God had commanded him to take his son, the son of God’s promise, to a specific place and offer him up on an altar of sacrifice. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
What follows is Abraham’s obedient actions, and God’s intervention before the knife plunged into Isaac’s heart. But what I wanted to share as a thought for today is the heart of worship on the part of Abraham.
When we enter into worship we offer to God our songs, our prayers, a message from God’s Word, and a spirit of fellowship. All of these are pleasing to God and vital for our own spiritual well-being.
But consider the worship of Abraham. In humble obedience and fierce faith, he offered to God his beloved son as an act of faithful worship.
Abraham was willing to offer to God in worship the most dear and important part of himself. We read of this in Hebrews 11, and we are told that this was accounted to Abraham as righteousness.
As you worship God today consider what you may be holding back and what you are willing to entrust to Him. Give your all to God in worship!
Vern