4 July 2013 - hope never fails

4 July 2013 - hope never fails

I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”

Isaac is everything to Abraham.  He is the fulfillment of all of the promises that seemed impossible.  He is blessing to Abraham enduring beyond his own life.  Because of this he is more Abraham's future than Abraham's own life.  Asking for Isaac's life is as if the LORD is asking for him to give up all of his fulfilled hopes and dreams as sacrifice to the LORD.  But Abraham does not surrender his hope in the LORD.  He only surrenders his right to understand its fulfillment.  He reasons that God must even be able to raise Isaac from the dead to fulfill his promise (cf. Heb 11:9).  The LORD doesn't ask for Isaac's life because he wants it.  What he wants is for Abraham to have a heart like his own.  The LORD wants Abraham to put him first.  And just as God's heart gives us his only Son, whom he loves, so too does he wish to make Abraham's heart.

When we fear the LORD and put him first he is free to bless us.  This archetypal act of faith unleashes some of the greatest blessings in human history.

Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
“I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly

Note that the blessings don't ever stop with one isolated individual.  That isn't even their main locus.  God waits for faith to unleash his power in human history.  But once he unleashes it there are no boundaries to where it flows.  This is how the faith of his friends saves the paralytic.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,

The cry of the psalmist embodies this.  He asks the LORD to bless his people for the sake of the LORD's own glory.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name give glory
because of your kindness, because of your truth.

May we put the LORD first so that his power may be unleashed in us.  May we see it and give glory to God.

When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.