Today’s Reading, Genesis 22-24
Focal Scripture: Genesis 22:12 “Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
One of the greatest joys in life is having children. They are a precious gift from the Lord. I don’t think we stop and think about this often enough. Our culture in the west has devalued children and their lives on a consistent basis. This is seen in how marriage is viewed and the attitude of abortion by many. What should be something that brings great joy, unfortunately, brings great dread for many. Why, you may ask? Because we don’t view this as a gift from God as we should. We view it as a burden.
In today’s reading Abraham is asked to offer up his son as a sacrifice. He prepares to go, prepares his son and even has faith to prepare for the future. When it comes time to follow through he starts the process. Then God interrupts and tells him that he has been faithful and even gave his son to God.
The purpose of today’s verse is to remind parents that our children do not belong to us, they belong to God. Abraham is on a see-saw ride with his faith. One moment he lacks faith and in another he demonstrates more faith than just about anyone. He knew that God gave him this son. He also knew that his son was a gift. Abraham is demonstrating that his child was entrusted to him but belonged to God.
As parents our challenge is to help our children grow in faith and in actions. It is also to see them free. We often are overbearing with our kids. We feel that we have to be there to fix everything that happens. Abraham is demonstrating that to help his faith grow and Isaac’s faith grow he had to surrender what he loved.
My challenge and your challenge is to build our children up and know that we need to give them to God. He is the greatest teacher and he will always make the right decision for them in his life. We need to surrender our claim on our children. We need to have faith in God the way Abraham did in this instance.
Abraham literally trusted God with Isaac’s life. He knew no matter what God had his son and would take care of him, even in an impossible situation.
Let’s learn from Abraham today and trust the Lord with our kids. We will be better and so will they.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Genesis 25-26
