We must always remember Abraham who waited sooooooooo long for the promised son. He took a few detours as he struggled to believe that God would come through. But finally, the son. The son of the promise. Isaac. Thank you, God!
But no, God! How can you ask that of Abraham? Take his son, his only son and sacrifice him. Kill him?! Why?! It makes no sense!
What would you have done?
We know what Abraham did.
He took his precious, cherished, promised boy to the mountain . . . with the wood and the fire and the knife. He said to his servants,
“Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.
We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
~ Gen. 22:5
We know from Hebrews 11:19, Abraham fully believed God would ask him to kill his son. We also know from this verse, Abraham fully believed God would then raise Isaac from the dead and they would return home together. After worshipping God.
I asked the Lord for a word for this year. As I sat waiting to hear one morning, the word Worship came to me. Hmmm. Worship. I began debating with myself whether I liked this word or not. Oops. Not the wisest way to receive from the Almighty God.
But “worship” is kind of dull, don’t you think? Someone I know had “sparkle” for her word last year. My mom received “giddy up” for 2014. Those are fun words, full of life and smiles. I mean, don’t you just giggle a bit when you hear those words?
But, Worship. Worship doesn’t make me giggle. It doesn’t make me laugh. It isn’t a fun word. But it is a holy word. A heavenly word. It makes me bow down. It makes me lift my hands. It makes me take seriously the One who created me, and loves me, and has a plan for my life that will be for my good and His glory. The One who calls me to Himself every moment of every day.
As I settled in with this new word, I was curious to find where it was first used in scripture. And what do you know. The very first time the word “worship” is used in God’s word . . . Abraham is heading off with his precious Isaac to kill him, to watch God raise him from the dead, and then to worship the One True Living God.
As followers of Jesus, we are commanded to worship the One who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light. The One who saves us from our sin and God’s wrath to live as co-heirs with Christ forever. The One who gives us Hope and Mercy and Grace.
So, we worship. We worship in the seasons of fruit and goodwill. We worship in the seasons of barrenness and loneliness. We worship as God says “Right” and we are screaming “Left.”
We worship as He asks us to sacrifice the very thing He gave us as a promise.
And if we sacrifice it, will He bring it back to life? We don’t know. We can’t know.
But we worship anyway.
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