Periodic Trips to Mt. Moriah
Periodically, God reminds us of the importance of the first and second commandments. “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath of in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, …” (Exodus 20:3-5) God insists upon being the number one priority in our lives. His holy jealousy will not allow anyone or anything else to displace Him in our affections and allegiances.
God’s test of Abraham in Genesis 22 vividly depicts this divine command. After proving His faithfulness through the birth of Isaac, God requires that Abraham offer Isaac as a sacrifice on Mt. Moriah. Perhaps, Abraham’s love for his son, Isaac, began to supersede Abraham’s love of God. To ascertain the depth of Abraham’s love for Him, God instructs Abraham to unequivocally demonstrate his love for Him by sacrificing the son, Isaac. In order to fulfill his providential role as the “knight of faith” and “father of many nations,” Abraham had to be unquestionably devoted to the Lord.
In Isaac, Abraham finally had an heir. You can only imagine his excitement! Abraham’s love for Isaac probably totally consumes his heart and being. It might even surpass his love for Sarah. However, if it exceeds Abraham’s love for God, then it is problematic. Although Abraham lives four hundred years before the Law was written, his experience of the Lord necessitates that he abides by the spirit of the previous commandments. Nothing usurps the Lord.
As a consequence, Abraham travels to Mt. Moriah and shows his undying love for God by offering to the Lord his most prized earthly possession, Isaac. Amazingly, Abraham does not question the Lord. He incredibly renounces the disobedience and recalcitrance that must lurk within his heart. Abraham shows the Lord that he loves Him more than anyone or anything in the world. Abraham obeys to the point of lifting the knife to slay Isaac. The Lord then intervenes and blesses Abraham because he did not withhold Isaac.
Like Abraham, we occasionally journey to Mt. Moriah and offer the “Isaac” of our lives on the altar of holiness and divine love. Our love for others and devotion to causes cannot exceed our love for God. We place every desire of our hearts on the altar of Mt. Moriah. If we resolve that true happiness is found in being with a significant other, then we must put our love for that person on the altar. All of our prized possessions (talents, degrees, titles, relationships, material acquisition, jobs, social status, etc,) also belong on the altar of God’s countenance. We subject each desire to the test of determining whether it coheres with God’s will.
When God’s will does not correlate with our desires, then we must accept that His will is best. Often, we will not understand His will. We feel that God makes a mistake. We want Him to bend His purposes to meet our wishes. Yet, as believers, we trust without reservation that God’s will is “good, pleasing, and perfect.”
I suspect that God would have permitted Abraham’s disobedience. Had Abraham not loved God enough to pass the test, then he would have lived an average life. We would never know him. God would have found someone else whose love for God was unconditional. Similarly, if we refuse to love God with our whole hearts, possibly we miss His will for our lives.
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