The offering of Isaac - Genesis22

Gen22
In Gen 21:11 it said that Abraham was greatly distressed.
It's interesting that in Gen 22 although the content is greatly distressing to us readers, it didn't seem to bother Abraham any more. There wasn't a word I can find that mentioned his mental or emotional state.
Gen22:1 "Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham..." A test is usually done when a student has finished his study, he has learned all his lessons, and the teacher put the test in to see if he really has learned or not. And in the end we found that Abraham has learned his lesson well and God was happy with the result.
So what was this test about?
To me the bottom line for this test is to see if Abraham is a whole person without Isaac.
To us the test can be are we whole without our achievements, purposes or dreams,etc...anything that describe and define who we are in the world.
I remember years ago a well known counsellor said this. He said his defining moment in his life was when God said to him, "I don't need your help, I give you a ministry because that will make you happy. But I don't really need you to do anything for me." That gave him a huge freedom.
It seems that everyone has this huge drive in them to achieve, to help save the world...
It's true that we're born with a purpose to fulfill, and without fulfilling that purpose we feel somewhat falling short.But does God need us to fulfil and achieve for Him? Not really. He can just show up and save the whole world in a minute, or do something like He did to Paul, make everyone blind and reveal Himself to everyone and the great commission will be fulfilled.
Does He really need us to help Him out? No. He just wants us to obey.
With this in mind, then even if you fail, it's still OK. Even if it means to take Isaac away, it's OK. Even if it means that there will be no descendants, no future generations, it's still OK. Cause worst of all, even if everyone died, God can always make another Adam and start all over again, can't He? He didn't need Abraham to help Him multiply and cover the earth.
If our worth comes from having to achieve, having to help God out, then we're not whole in Him and we're not free. We're still bound up by this purpose, in other words, the purpose, God's promise is still our idol.
Only a whole person can obey and sacrifice Isaac on the altar without winging, complaining and fighting; Only a whole person can rise up when he can't understand why his prayer didn't get answered; only a whole person can see the bigger picture in the midst of tragedy; only a whole person can still sing praises to God when his world is falling apart; only a whole person understands that the achievement in heaven can look totally different to achievement on earth...

Abimelech -- Genisis 20

Gen20
Abraham was very disheartened by the scene of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Up until now, he had had plenty encounters with God, but no miracles yet. Plenty promises, but no actions of God. He'd done all he thought was right concerning this promise and calling, he'd done all he could to facilitate that call, but the result was very little. All he'd seen was barreness, destruction, and total failure. He was disappointed. He couldn't believe himself, believe God any more. He wanted to give up and walk away. He returned to the place(Negev)once he fell, and decided to seek the world's council, to do what everyone else did, and to "get a life". Although he just had a great encounter with God, and more so, the Lord had just promised him that "this time next year" He'd return and fulfil His promise, Abraham couldn't believe that it's God any more. He had been disappointed way too many times to set himself once more for faith.
But interestingly, God frustrated Abraham's plan again of his attempt to compromise with the world, and what's more, He gave him a little sign-- He called him "prophet"(v7). V17 "Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children."
Doesn't God have a sense of humour.... Abraham couldn't twist God's arm to give him a child at the time he wanted, but when he prayed, other people responded and had children!
God restored Abraham's faith in a very gentle and loving way. He knew how hard it was for Abraham.... 25 years, He didn't act. Abraham had a world of reasons to question, to doubt, to be frustrated, to be angry, to laugh at himself, to walk away....he's just tired, he's exhausted in this faith walk. And God had cried with Abraham all the way.
It's like, watching your baby child going through surgery. You know your baby will cry and suffer, but you have to do it. But when the surgery's complete, and baby's all weak, you just want to greet him, and feed him so that he can restore healing and strength.
Abraham communicated to God that he's finished with this faith business. And God smiled: this is exactly what I want, that you admit the end to yourself.
To that end, God's surgery in Abraham is finished. He's got rid of this tumor of self-righteousness, and now He can get on with real life.

Lot -Genisis 19

Gen19
Lot speaks to me of the family members of the righteous.
There are Christians who will answer God's call and follow God all the way through. But there're also Christians, especially the people who are around those "on fire" sort of Christians, family members, friends, relatives...
They respond to the call of salvation, but they fail to respond to the higher calling of their lives.
When choices come their way, they choose the valley, the easy way, the obvious, common sense way. They don't have the passion to give all their lives for God.
They soon find that the people they're involved with are corrupt people. People with no moral standards. Their lives are full of confusion: they're tempted with worldly temptations but they still keep their moral convictions. They're struggling to make a living at the gate of the city.
It's remarkable that Lot managed to keep his daughters pure in the sinful city.
In the end Lot survived at the place called Zoar, meaning small. He survived the fire of the Hell, but he only lived a small life.
But nevertheless, God's favour and grace extends to the family of the righteousness.
In Ruth 1, we find that Ruth actually came from Moab, so Ruth is a descendant of Lot. By some strange coincidence, Ruth was united back into a family of the Israelites, and she became part of the bloodline family of Jesus. Interesting hey!

Lot could have chosen to rejoin Abraham in the mountains, and if that happened, his daughters would have a high chance of marrying Isaac.
But instead, he chose to hide himself in a cave. He wouldn't face his failure and shame of the past and let go. He couldn't forgive himself. As a result, he passed the shame on to his daughters.
That reminds me of a lot of the preachers' parents or family. They could join the great blessings that their family members have inherited, but rather they decide to isolate themselves and hide in a cave. God still extends grace to them, but they're missing out so much in life, and their children miss out so much blessings.

Sodom and Gomorrah -Genisis 18

Interesting that when the Lord revisisted Abraham, confirming His promise again, and before Isaac was born, He had a job to do: some serious destroying and killing.
I find the same pattern elsewhere: each time before a significant new generation emerged, there's a massive killing and destroying...
Noah, the flood; Isaac, Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses, lots of baby boys were killed;David, Judges 20(massive killing); Jesus, all the boys under two were killed; Paul, Steven and lots of other persecuted Christians...
So, if in your world you suddenly see lots of unbelievable, abnormal failure and destroy, that might be a sign indicating the new breakthrough is just around the corner.

Ishmael -Genesis 16

I don't know if this is theologically correct. Please advice me if it's not.Anyway I'll just say what I think.
I thought I understood Abraham and Ishmael before, but today some new thoughts came to my mind that totally revolutionized my way of thinking and understanding.
First of all, Abraham taking his wife's maid is culturally acceptable for that time. Rachel and Leah's maids could be an example, also David and Solomon all had concubines. Moses' law wasn't yet available. In this sense it's not a sin.
Abraham and Sarah lived a purpose driven life. Sarah went on an extra mile to see the promise fulfilled. It was a sacrifice for her to give her maid to her husband. The result? They had Ishmael, and it's interesting what the name means: "God listens." In other words, it means that's a prayer answered.
Let's see what's God's promise in the first place..."I'll make you a great nation"(12:2)"descendants like the stars"(15:5)
Did Ishmael fulfill God's promise? He actually did. He became a big nation. His descendants were like the stars.
Did God reject Hagar and Ishmael? No. He sent His angels to comfort them and gave them promises, on one condition though, they must go back and submit.(16:9)
What happened in the end? Ephesians 2:14-18 "He made both groups into one" Does Isaac's descendants today and Ishmael's descendants today have the same chances of salvation and blessings through Christ? Does God love us and the Iraqi people the same?

In Chapter 15 verse 6,"Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Abraham believed what the Lord said was gonna happen. And that was his righteousness. This was before today's chapter.But how was it to happen? It actually showed us two ways: one is by supernatural encounter, and one is by action.

Maybe I'll use some examples. Say speaking in tongues. You can get it in a supernatural way, God just did it to you in a miraculous way, and you had a supernatural, spectacular experience. That's awesome. Some people decide that they would wait for that moment to happen....they could end up waiting for 20 years. But there's also another way of getting it... you step out in faith by making some sound, by moving your lips and tongue....and you'll get it straight away.I've witnessed hundreds of people getting the tongues in this way I know it works. But it starts with human effort,and it's less spectacular. But in the end? Both were filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Benny Hinn's meetings, at first they were waiting for supernatural healings to happen, but gradually they encourage more people to actively getting involved in the healing process, by trying to move, trying to stand up...etc.
Joyce Meyer once said, that she was so afraid that she'd miss God's perfect will that she dared not do anything. But God said to her, that "if you miss me, I'll find you."

If purpose driven life, fulfilling God's promise and calling only involves waiting for God to show up, then why do we need to have Phil Baker's books on how to succeed in life?
Like it or not, today's western churches are mostly following the principles of Ishmael. By passionately follow our dreams, by taking actions, by trying new ways, making sacrifices, go the extra miles...by making it happen. And of course, by submission, following the principles and guidelines.
And most of the time, after the Ishmaels, God will add to us the Isaacs as well.
In a nutshell, Ishmael speaks of human effort, and also answered prayers. It's not God's perfect will, not His perfect method of doing things, but if we're persistent enough, we pray hard enough, the prayer still gets answered. We might get into some troubles, some people might not like the way it happened as it's less spectacular, but in the end we still get the result and God will help us out with the problems we created.

We can't drive out Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham and Sarah did. But an angel found them and told them to go back! I don't know how Sarah reacted when she saw Hagar again...."hey I thought I just got rid of you..."
Have you found yourself saying things like..."this is too hard, what have I done? what have I got myself into? Can I just abort mission? Why do I have to continue with this journey?"
Somehow I believe God wants us to have both: Isaacs are for our blessings, but Ishmaels are for our character, our growth. Maybe that's why God didn't show up in this case until Ishmael's already a teenager.
All we want is Isaac. But maybe God is more interested in our character and our growth in maturity. There's a saying, "Our gifts can't take us where our character can't sustain."

Sooooo, has your Ishmael grown up yet? If he's still a toddler, you know you still got a few years to go then....

In other words, a modern term, Isaac is just a new level of annointing and blessing. We start with Ishmael, and we'll encounter Isaac along the way.
We can't control God, but we can control ourselves. We can't determine when Isaac's gonna come, but we can determine when to start with Ishmael. We're waiting for Isaac, but God's waiting for Ishmael to be born and grow up; Brian Houston taught a few weeks ago,"to be faithful with your hand to fulfill what's in your heart." If we're responsible for the present, then God will take care of the future; We do what we can, even if we can't, we still can by making sacrifice, by getting help, then God will fulfil what we can't. Ishmael is actually a stepping stone for us to get to Isaac. The sooner we start, the better we get at raising Ishmael, the sooner Isaac will come.

Faith -Gen15

Gen15
Abram started to question God. He's trying to compromise his faith with reality.

Faith is the gap between what God can do and what he can do, between who God is and who himself is and how to cope with the difference between the two.

As his journey went on, the gap got bigger and bigger. Time after time Abram was trying to reduce God down to his level, and time after time God's training him to come up to His level.

Faith is not trying harder. Abram tried and tried until he could try no longer. All his life God's trying to teach him that A+F=G
A can't be enlarged, and G can't be reduced.

v6"Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness."

War in Sodom and Gomorrah - Gen14

Gen14:2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Brisha king of Gomorrah...

Althought it's a place that's well watered, there's no peace, there's war, constant war.
We might have friends or relatives that have chosen to go there, a modern day name for Sodom and Gomorrah can be a pub, casino, red light area, or simply a place that's just outside God's calling: career, interest, addictions, relationships,etc. And they've lost the battle, and become slaves to drugs, sex, alcohol, different drives,etc.

Gen14 "14When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained me, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit...16 He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people."

People who follow God's calling can actually have the strength and power to help the people who are lost to get out of their bondage again. They're the hope to the lost.

Idols, letting go and choices - Genisis 13

Gen13
Before we can respond to God's promise and calling in our lives, there has to be times of seperation, of dealing with idols: things that we hold dear, things that are important to us, things that we love, but things that will take our eyes off the Lord.

Ray Macauley said, if you have a calling in your life, you're ruined for everything else.

It's hard to let go, especially the things we're letting go define part of who we are on earth. But the promise is:"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life."(Matt19:29)

There's this lyrics of a song that I so love: "The things that You take away, You'll replace them with Yourself."

It makes a whole world of differences in making choises when we add eternity into our perspectives. The things that we see with flesh eyes and the things we can see with eternity point of view can be so dramatically different. Lot chose Sodom and Gomorah, the land that was green and florishing in the eyes for the moment. But Abram chose the mountains, the land that's barren for the eyes, and even though throughout his whole lifetime he could only see a tiny glimpse of the result of his choices, what a blessed man he is now in heaven!

Unclean animals - Acts 10

Acts 10:15 Again a voice came to him a second time,"what God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."

Up until now, to eat unclean animals had been unheard of as acceptable.
We tend to put God in our various boxes and question, judge God with our own value system. But God can work outside of our value system, even though at times it can look so wrong.
God told Abraham to kill Isaac. How wrong can that be? God sacrificed His only son Himself. Would a human do that under any moral value?
We can't judge God. We have to say that His ways are higher than our ways and He's not bound by any kind of boxes.

Conversion of Paul -Acts 9

Acts 9
I've always wondered what caused Paul to have such a dramatic conversion, what kind of inheritance he's got that gave him such favour with God. Can God convert my unsaved friend or loved ones like that?
Reading this passage again I was reminded of a story Merilyn Hicky told. There's this lady who wants her daughter to go to Bible college and become a missionary. Then the daughter was raped and murdered. The Lord told the lady to forgive the murderer and to send him a Bible. It was very hard for her to do so but she obeyed. Then later the murderer got saved and brought lots of people to salvation in prison, and the lady actually funded him to go to the Bible college and he became a missionary in place of her daughter.

This story made me think that the cause of Paul's conversion is because of Stephen's martyr and his prayer:"Lord, do not hold this sin against them!". The Lord answered his prayer by raising one of his persecuters in place of him.

Divine moments - Acts 8

Acts 8:26
There're moments in life that are ordained. We think they're accidental but in fact they're orchestrated.
The people in our lives, the places we're at, the things happened to us...they're all well planned beyond our understanding.
It's so comforting to know that God is in control of everything and He never loses control.

Stumblings -Gen12

What a beautiful and exciting moment it was when God revealed His calling and promise to Abram!
Have you experienced a moment like this in your life? You shall never,ever let it go!

I guess for many times Abraham and Sarah must have thought that because they sinned, then God changed His mind and took His promise back and caused Sarai to be barren. Anyway Abram even gave Sarai away to be someone else' wife. How bizzar is that!
It's comforting to know that we don't have to be perfect to be worthy of being called. God's promise and faithfulness will not change because we stumble along the way. We can be so ridiculously wrong, and God can still remain faithful. It reminds me of psalm23:4"Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Without the plague in Pharaoh's house, Abram might have never got his wife back, let alone be the father of the nations.

Frustrations -Gen11

A lot of the times things didn't go as we expected, and we started to rebuke the devil or blame ourselves for not trying harder.

In the tower of Babel, they set up their goal, drew a perfect plan, and they started to work hard toward their goal. They believed in unity and they believed in themselves. This is just like the secular life coaching schemes. But they missed one thing: is this purpose a God given purpose? In the end God intervened and frustrated the plan so He could join the journey of these people.

From Shem all the way to Abram, nothing seemed to go wrong. They had their sons, and the first born son carried the records of the generations down. But then something went wrong: Gen11:30 "Sarai was barren; She had no child." At the time, she must have felt shameful or not capable enough to even produce a child. But no, it's part of God's plan...He wanted to join in. He wanted to be the real father of Isaac, that's why the record of the genealogy of Jesus only started with Abraham, (Matt1), not from Noah, not Adam.

Have you met frustration in your journey with God? You've tried everything, and it's not working for you? Think again, it might be a sign that God wants to it Himself.

Tower of Babel -Genisis 10

Gen 10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; ...10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and....

Every talented, gifted, capable, mighty man or woman has a tendency to build something for his own glory, to build a business, career, ministry that's just like Babel. It can look awesome for a while, but then, when the Lord decides to come down and do something about it, there's nothing can stand against that, and the Babel will not last into eternity.

So if we're building something that's by our own strength and effort, there' nothing to be boasted about, even though it might look glorious for the moment. But if we build something by God's power and calling, even though it can look insignificant like just a small child as Isaac, (Abraham didn't look successful at his time), but God will sustain it and it will last into eternity.