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In my reading this week, I came across the story of the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham in Genesis. In my margin, I found a note I had scribbled sometime before:

Do I trust in the promises of God,

            Or do I trust God Himself?

 Isaac represented all God had promised to Abraham about the future; Abraham had been clearly told that Isaac was the child of the promise, and was to be his heir. And now, Abraham was being asked to give all that up. In addition to all the purely human issue of a father sacrificing a child, Abraham was faced with a splitting of ways. He could deny the instruction, and hold on to the “promissory note” that Isaac was “the child of the promise” and trust that the promise could be trusted and relied on. Or he could take that promissory note, take all the promises God had made to him, take Isaac, and lay it all on the altar, and give it up as an act of worship and obedience.

He chose to trust God Himself, to value God even more than he valued the promises of God.

When I went to Grandma’s house, she gave me good things. Did I value Grandma because I got the good things, or were the things especially good because they came from Grandma?

May I too value Him who delights to give all things far above any of the good things He gives.

Amen