sacrifice

Obedience is Key

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In Chapter 22 of Genesis, God wanted to see where Abraham’s heart was, so He asked Abraham to take the thing that he loved most, his promised son, and offer him as a burnt offering. Now this had to have seemed crazy because the Lord did not call for human sacrifice as some other foreign nations had practiced. That was not part of His plan, it was not how he operated or asked for sacrifices to be, so it must have seemed odd that God would all of a sudden ask for this. And to ask for it for the son that He had promised Abraham. To ask Abraham to sacrifice the very thing he had been waiting YEARS, if not a lifetime to get, must have been a hard thing to grasp. Even though it did not make sense, Abraham knew the Lord’s voice, he had seen God come through and keep His promises, and Abraham had seen what happens to nations that were disobedient and pursued evil acts (we’re looking at you Sodom and Gomorrah!), so Abraham packed up what was needed and took his son Isaac up towards the mountain to make a burnt offering to the Lord.

After three days of traveling, Isaac spoke up and basically said “Hey dad… are we missing something? I see the things to make a fire and an alter, but where is the offering? How is this thing going to work?” Isaac must have been used to burnt offerings and alters as they were probably a normal part of his family’s life, so he knew there should have been a lamb with them for this sacrifice, but a lamb he did not see and that must have been peculiar. Abraham told his son not to worry because God would provide an offering. I cannot begin to imagine what was going through either of their minds as they traveled together on this journey.

Once they had gotten to the spot that the Lord had told them to go, Abraham built an alter and laid his son down on it, ready to make the sacrifice. Before anything happened, an Angel of the Lord spoke from heaven to say “STOP!”. The angel told Abraham that he had been faithful, that he feared the Lord and was obedient. Then Abraham saw that there was a ram in the bush right by them to use as an offering and Abraham knew that the Lord had provided.

Then the Angel called to Abraham again and said that he was blessed and that God would multiply his descendants like the stars in the sky and that his lineage would possess the cities of his enemies. All of this was because Abrahma was obedient even when it did not make sense.

God gives us many things in life: gifts, blessings, skills, talents, jobs, friend, family, resources, etc. How would we respond if He told us to sacrifice those things? To give them up freely, with no promise of a return? God is the one who gave them to us in the first place, and as Abraham tells us, He is a God of provision. He is also the God of all creation, He literally made everything that exists – including you and me. Would He not call us to do something if it was not good for us?

Be encouraged, God loves you! And if He asked you to do something that seems impossible, that does not make sense, that might even be a little scary (or A LOT scary), remember that He will meet you in that place and will provide all that you need every step of the way. Listen for His voice and trust when you hear it.

M for Murder

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Genesis chapter 4 is the first chapter that begins outside of the Garden. In chapter 3, we saw man disobey God and be dealt the consequence of having to leave the Garden, but with a promise – that woman would birth a son who would crush the serpent under foot. In the first verse of chapter 4, we see that Eve bars a son named Cain and she thanks the Lord for him. She also gives birth to a son named Abel. For 2 adults who never had a childhood, having 2 boys must have been challenging.

Now the text let’s us know that these sons were different from one another. The first born, Cain, tilled the ground. Basically, he grew crops from the ground. And Abel was a shepherd, he had to care for animals. Aside from that, their jobs, they had the same upbringing, the same parents, the same environment, the same everything.

After some time, each boy brought an offering to God. Cain brought some of the fruit that he had grown and Abel brought the first of his flock as an offering. Now it doesn’t say why, but God had regard for Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. So Cain got angry.

It was probably jealousy and anger and a bunch of complicated emotions that Cain didn’t know how to deal with. Cain, it would seem, felt less than because God had no regard for his offering. I have been in those positions before where you see other people getting the praise or the rewards that you want and you feel less than. Sometimes that jealousy and anger drives you to great lengths to get that which you desire. Now desire in itself isn’t always bad, but the lengths to which you go to achieve it is usually where we get ourselves into trouble. For Cain, it drove him to kill his brother.

Before that happened, God spoke with Cain. He asked him why he was angry and tried to give him some advice. Did Cain listen? No. He was consumed by his anger at that point. So many times when we are angry, we can’t hear the voice of reason around us. We just want to be right, or to have things be what we deem as “fair”, or just generally want things to go our way. To have humility and say, I was wrong, let me try again could stop this angry train from going off the tracks, but too many times that’s not the path we seek.

So Cain calls his brother out into the field and kills him.

Cain becomes the first murderer and has to deal with his own guilt and the consequences. Initially when God asks Cain where Abel is, Cain tries to say “I don’t know, am I in charge of him”? But God calls him out and tells Cain that He knows what he did. So he tells Cain that he is going to be cursed and have to wander the Earth as a fugitive. Cain fears for his life, but the Lord marks him and tells him that if anyone kills him, they will be punished 7 times worse. And God puts a mark on Cain so everyone will know. Then Cain leaves the presence of God.

Now the interesting thing to me is that the text says that Cain left the presence of the Lord. I don’t recall in the previous verses God saying that Cain couldn’t be with God anymore or talk to him or anything, it just said that he was going to be a wanderer. Isn’t that usually what happens though? We do something wrong, we receive the consequences and then we run away from God. What would have happened if Cain had said that he messed up, that he sinned, that he was sorry and that he didn’t want to leave God’s side. What would have happened if he had asked God for help to become a better person?

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. The rest of the chapter tells us of the family tree of Cain and of the new family tree of Adam and Eve. It shows us that life goes on. It doesn’t mean that Adam and Eve weren’t still grieving the loss of Abel or weren’t still mad at Cain. It just means that they didn’t let those feeling paralyze them in their tracks.

Sometimes we get so down on ourselves that it drives us to inaction. But here’s the thing, life goes on. Cain had to deal with the consequences of his sin, but he also birthed a city and was a father to those that have livestock, that play music, that are blacksmiths. Even when we feel at our worst, we can still produce good things.