Lessons from Isaac’s Binding

If you’ve read many of my blogs, you may have ascertained that I relish in the contrary view. Often in staff meetings, I might play the Devil’s Advocate against my own proposals to make sure they are robust. Likewise, views of scripture that challenge the Sunday-School, simplistic, milk-faith interpretations make me go deeper in who I believe God is. Recently reading about Abraham has done the same thing. Who God picks seems to be the ones who need God more: childless Abram and Hannah, second-sons Isaac and Jacob, and younger sons Joseph and David and Solomon, strangers without families like Moses in Pharoah’s court (later in Jethro’s Midian) and the Moabitess Ruth.

Isaac’s story of his binding by Abraham as a test of faith can be viewed in contrary ways. Similar to Abraham’s questioning of God before the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah. This incident is viewed most often as an argument with God to try and save the two cities; I enjoy the perspective, perhaps more likely, that it’s Abraham’s way of interviewing God on His perspective on sin and justice—“Would You destroy them even if there are fifty righteous men there?” Perhaps the binding of Isaac is not a test of Abraham’s faith but Abraham’s test of God. We tend to view it as God wondering about Abraham’s faith. Did he trust God enough to sacrifice the sign of the blessing that meant he would be the father of nations? Would he unquestioningly travel a far distance, as a very old man, climb a mountain and bind his son and then kill him without knowing for certain that God would provide another son? There are clues that Abraham’s faith allowed him to carry through with the command: “We will return” the servants are told when the two set off from the base of the mountain; “The Lord will provide a sheep” Abraham answers Isaac’s query about the missing element for a burnt offering.

Genesis 22 starts with “...God tested Abraham’s faith”. His faith has already been tested: leaving Ur, Haran, trusting God to provide for a son even though he and Sarah are beyond middle-age. It seems if God is testing Abraham, Abraham is just as likely to test God’s promise. “Okay, Lord, you provided this son who seems to be THE sign of that the blessing/promise has arrived. You’re asking me to sacrifice him and I’ll call your bluff because I don’t think Sarah and I have it in us to have another child. I have rarely hesitated in other calls to action You’ve given, so I won’t now either.” The Lord made a covenant with Abraham and holds Himself to making it happen. Abraham is looking forward to seeing how He will do it.

Sinning is Fun?

In a recent leadership summit, the closing speaker polled the audience as to who thought ‘sinning was fun’. If anyone answered no, he postulated that the person either ‘did it’ incorrectly or was lying. I would say that anyone who thinks ‘sinning is fun’...never sinned to an extreme...was oblivious to the hurt they inflicted on others who were ‘in the way’ of the ‘fun’ and maybe the person was sociopathic...or really wasn’t committing a sin except in the eyes of church doctrine, not scripture.

Paul lists them out in Galatians 5.19-21:

...sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.

I suppose you could say some of the lustful pleasures, the drunkenness and wild parties are fun. Who had fun the morning after if taken beyond moderation? The rest of the sins surely aren’t fun. When did anyone have ‘fun’ during outbursts of anger, hostility, quarreling, dissension and division?

Mercy and Salvation

Oh, woe for us! “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when He judges you.” (James 2.13) Similar to Christ’s teaching on what to pray or how to pray—“...forgive us in same way, to the same extent we forgive others...”—this implies that if we’re not merciful, we will not receive any mercy. Or anyone else who doesn’t show mercy will not receive mercy. Only the merciful will receive mercy. “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy,” according to Y’shua the Christ (Matthew 5.7).

How do you show mercy, that is not punishing someone who deserves punishment? [In case you’re confused about the difference between grace and mercy: grace is receiving a ‘reward’ or blessing you haven’t earned while mercy is not getting the punishment you deserve for a wrongdoing you’ve committed.] When someone else insults you, how often do you respond in thought or word with an insult? When someone else manipulates the system or the bosses so that they appear more promotable or worthy of a pay increase than you, how often are you seeking ways to sabotage them or ‘bring out the truth’ about their inability or political nature? How often do you gossip maliciously such that you’ve damaged someone else’s reputation in order to look better yourself—and you’re probably only gossiping about a perceived enemy?

You’ve have been given great mercy. Extend some to others.