Readings:
Jeremiah 28:5-9;
Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18;
Romans 6:12-end;
Matthew 10: 40-end

Collect: 
Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Reflection - Living in Obedience

The Old Testament reading this week is from Genesis 22:1-14, which is a follow up to the last week’s reading where Abraham (on Sarah’s instigation) sent away his son Ishmael and his mother Hagar with a very heavy heart. In the reading for this week, Abraham was about to experience some of the pains that Hagar experienced when she was all alone in the desert with Ismael.

God told Abraham to take his only  son Isaac (this was factually correct at this point because Abraham would have had no clue if Ishmael survived after being sent away) to the land of Moriah and offer him there as burnt offering on the mountain. This was a very bizarre request as God was essentially breaking the promise he made to Abraham when he declared he will make Abraham a father of many nations; but how is this supposed to come to pass if he has no heir? But the bible recorded that Abraham obeyed God and rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took his son Isaac with him. One of the first things to note about Abraham’s conduct is that a true heart for God is marked by obedience because what indicate that we belong to God is doing what he asks of us even when the command is hard or difficult. 

When Abraham and his entourage were close to their destination, he asked his servants to wait behind with the donkey and he took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac while he carried the fire and the knife; hence, leaving the two of them to make the rest of the journey. I have wondered why Abraham asked his servants to wait behind, we will never know, but I have thought to myself that the reason for this may be because he was about to carry out an unreasonable and irrational act that may have led his servants to intervene or restrain him from carryout God’s instruction. Abraham essentially (in my view) separated himself from the distractions that may have stopped him from obeying God’s instruction. 

Just as Abraham did, we may sometime need to shut out distractions that may be an hindrance to our ability to obey God and the distractions can come in various shapes and sizes including unbelief, worldliness, busyness etc., but we must never allow anything to get in the way of obedience to God.

One of the impacts of God’s demand from Abraham was that the demand was going to cost him very dearly – and notice how the cost is kept constantly before Abraham, “…take your son, your only son, the son you love more than life itself, and offer him to me as a burnt offering”! yet Abraham never wavered. This is a reminder to us that our journey of faith can be costly sometime because we are required to make sacrifices like Abraham when we need to give up our Isaac (figuratively speaking). The question is what is God asking of us today? Are we willing to obey like Abraham without counting the cost? 

As they approached the mountain top, Isaac saw everything needed for burnt offering sacrifice apart from a lamb, the poor boy was forced to ask his father “where is the lamb for the offering” and the father responded, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." Abraham did not know all that was going to happen, but he went up that mountain expecting a miracle, and that is just what he received. This is a challenge to us as we journey with God to know that we don’t need to understand all of life and all the twists in the road, rather we should surrender ourselves unto God despite things that we cannot comprehend or costly demands our on time, talent, and resources. 

The life of Abraham was a life lived in total surrender to God – this is the life we are being called into as Christ’s disciples to live in total obedience without counting the cost. In Isaac, Abraham was willing to give God his very best and his all, I pray that the Lord will grant us grace to give him our best and all in Jesus’ name. 

Adedayo Adebiyi