17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his[d] enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Abraham, what is on the other side? Isaac, what is on the other side? And by the way, What is on the other side of this day for you and I?
Abraham has lived a long life. He is well into his one-hundreds of life. He has experienced the grace of God for so long. Two things have characterized his years following God:
- He has walked by faith since the day the Lord called Him to salvation and to service, Genesis 12-15.
He was not perfect, Genesis 16-18. But he was progressing day by day.
- He waited in faith for 25 years for the fulfillment of God’s promise of a son.
Genesis 15 through 21 walks us through those years. One might ask, what more could God do in this man’s life? One would conclude, this is a mega faith guy. But there was more to the story.
In Genesis 22, Abraham is in a war of faith.
The man who waited in faith and received the promise of God (Romans 4:25-32) is not in a war with his faith. He is being asked to give to God his only son. The son of promise.
Read the lines very carefully here:
God is going to test you in the areas of what is most important to you. God will always ask for the most important thing in your life. The question is, “Will you give it?”
Abraham crossed over to the other side of amazing faith in giving everything to God. When he did, he discovered that God has already provided everything he and his son needed to be victorious on the other side.
Jesus is our lamb, John 1:29; I Peter 1:19; and Romans 5:12. Jesus is the reward for a life of sacrifice and Jesus is the Redeemer who sacrificed everything for us.
The question for our moment is this: “Is He worth the sacrifice on this side to get to the other side of where He is?”
Abraham’s answer: “Yes.” What will be our answer today?