May 12, 2004 Wednesday
His Piercing Reminders

"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest..." - Genesis 22:2

Have you been reminded of your sinful past recently? As dreadful as it is to recall the things that we have allowed to wreck our lives in the past these reminders often serve a very clear purpose in God's plans for us and He sometimes breaks straight through our hearts with them. Before God delivered to Abraham his greatest test of faith He actually tested his heart with this preceding statement, with each phrase piercing Abraham's heart deeper and deeper...

"Take now thy son" Which son was God referring to? Was not Abraham the father of Ishmael also? "Thine only son Isaac" But Abraham was Ishmael's father! "Whom thou lovest" But Abraham loved Ishmael too! (See Gen 21:11) This wasn't the time for Abraham to sit down and engage in battle over these thoughts, such an attempt would have only instantly wedged more thoughts into Abraham's mind than he could have possibly sorted out and he would never have been obedient to His Master's call. Abraham had certainly not forgotten about Ishmael, but he did something we often refuse to do, he determinedly brought his soul to a point of closure and overcame the failure. In the Bible, Ishmael is a representation of every sin we commit, of every disobedient act in our life when we serve and live apart from God's almighty wisdom and marvelous grace, and we must grow beyond it all. Dealing with our past is sometimes just as excruciating as if God had told us also to cast out our firstborn child. And every time the battle begins we either tuck the thoughts away, in our pride, and ultimately become even more wretched or we allow our heart to be broken and molded by the Almighty...Abraham learned to choose wisely. Isaac is a representation of the rewards that we receive when we live through the faith of Christ alone and nothing more...Abraham learned to live wisely. The learning process was agonizing for Abraham though and so too will it be for us. But God will purposely bring us to a point where we must learn from our past in order to move forward and, as trivial as that may seem, few people seem to consistently experience such victory. If there are areas of failure in your life, whether from your past or present, that you are refusing to overcome and learn from, you will never be prepared for God's call to obedience. Don't allow your life to fade away like that, but allow God to transform the bitterness, pride, and anger into a flaming fire for His will and you too will be prepared for God's greatest test of faith in your life...the cries of your past will no longer drown out His will in your life.