God Honors His Promises by Maxie Dunnam

In my last article, celebrating Father’s Day, I began boldly. Let’s keep it clear. As Chrstians we are to be like our Father. I can’t leave that claim without at least a bit more reflection on who God is. The story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac is one of the most powerful, profound, and disturbing stories in the Bible. It is a story of promise…promise made, promise fulfilled.

God promises Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child and that their descendants from this child would be as numerous as the stars.  The story is filled with drama. Abraham is seventy-five years old and Sarah is sixty-five years old when the angel first visits them and tells them they are going to have a baby (Gen. 12:4-8). They trust and follow God’s lead, though it is twenty-five years later when the angel returns to tell them, “Get ready: the baby is coming.” Abraham is now almost one hundred years old. Sarah is ninety. Abraham and Sarah could not possibly, through biological processes, produce this child.

It would be wonderful, as stories go, for the story to end there – an old couple having a baby! The promise is fulfilled. But it doesn’t end there. Now God’s word is not a promise but a command that must have taken Abraham’s breath away: “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you” (22:2).

Perhaps more surprising than that horrific command is Abraham’s response. He does what the Lord tells him to do. In an almost matter-of-fact way, Abraham follows through to the point of being poised with the knife over the altar where he has bound his child of promise, ready to take the life of his only son.

But the Lord intervenes. Abraham has proven his faith and trust, and God provides a substitute offering.

That’s our ultimate test. Are we able to let go of everything trusting that the Lord will deliver on his promise? This must be a recurring dynamic of praying and reflecting: God always honors His promises. Do we trust God? Do we trust the One who gives the gift in the first place?