Sacrifice

Sacrifice is one of those words that has always made me a little uncomfortable. As an only child in a self-absorbed culture, the mere suggestion of sacrifice has, at times, left me desperate to rationalize all the reasons why it isn’t really necessary. Converting suggestion to action and actually making a sacrifice – even a seemingly insignificant one - has, sometimes been enough to make me downright resentful.

It’s humiliating, really, to admit how selfish I have been throughout much of my life. Humiliating to think how I’ve struggled to give up foods I love in a quest for better health for the sake of my family. Humiliating to consider the number of times my “good intentions” have gone unrealized because I didn’t want to inconvenience myself and sacrifice my effort or time (especially my time) for the benefit of someone else.

And those are just the little things.

 

Read: Genesis 22:1-3

If you grew up in church, the story of Abraham and Isaac’s journey to Moriah is a familiar one. It is the uncomfortable tale of how God makes an unimaginable demand of his faithful follower Abraham: Take your precious son, your beloved long awaited and long prayed for son, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

For many years I struggled with this story. In all honesty, I saw it as a disturbing account of a cruel God and a follower who must be nothing short of brainwashed to respond in obedience to such an appalling demand.

But as I’ve grown in my faith and poured through this story with a heart to understand it, I’ve realized that in truth it is the beautiful story of how God takes us through testing and hardship to mature us, to expose areas where we need to grow or change and ultimately to reveal himself to us. Sometimes that testing is about sacrifice.

I found myself in this story once again this week, and as so often happens with Scripture, a new reading brought deeper reflection as I placed myself in Abraham’s robes and considered the walk to Moriah.

What are you willing to sacrifice for God?

That is certainly a question to consider, but I believe the real question, the more painful question, the question that exposes where we need to grow is:

What are you NOT willing to sacrifice?

Where do you draw the line and say “No way. I will NOT give up Survivor / Facebook / Starbucks / Chocolate Frosted Cake Donuts.” “Lord, I’ll follow you, but don’t ask me to give up cable TV / sell my house / trade in my luxury car / take a different job.”

Genesis 22 opens by telling us that God is testing Abraham. Abraham. The man who gave up the comfort of familiar surroundings and the security of family and friends to walk out into the wilderness, to a land yet unknown to him, because God told him to (Genesis 12:1-4). Talk about a test – that was a test, and Abraham walked out in faith. Yet here we are, years later, and God is testing him again, calling him to give up something, again, but this time the sacrifice he is asking for is beyond comprehension. Sacrifice your son. Your only son, the son you love and upon whom all your hopes and dreams for the future rest. And Abraham’s response? He saddled up the donkey and headed to Moriah.

Minds and hearts more qualified than mine have mined this story for spiritual truth, but as I read this story I am struck by those lessons that I can take with me into my daily life:

God will test us – even if He has tested us before. Faith is not like one of those things where you study up, have the big test and if you pass you’re certified. As believers, we’re never DONE. There is always more to learn, more to develop, more to be done to purify us to be more and more like Jesus. I know I’m definitely not there yet, and there are undoubtedly many tests to come.

God will often ask us to relinquish the one thing we most want to hang on to. Abraham loved this child, as any of us with children can understand, but along with that was the fact that Isaac was the key to all of God’s promises to Abraham. In Timothy Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods he says:

If God had not intervened [that is, demanded the sacrifice of Isaac] Abraham would have certainly come to love his son more than anything in the world, if he did not already do so. That would have been idolatry and all idolatry is destructive. 
          From this perspective we see that God’s extremely rough treatment of Abraham was actually merciful. Isaac was a wonderful gift to Abraham, but he was not safe to have and hold until Abraham was willing to put God first. As long as Abraham never had to choose between his son and obedience to God, he could not see that his love was becoming idolatrous (pp. 13-14).

God is clear that we are to have “no other god’s before me.” Not our children, not our bank account, not our career or our home or computer or food or...anything.

One of the hardest prayers I’ve ever prayed is that the Lord would show me those things in my life that keep me from Him. Actually, the prayer itself was easy, but acknowledging the answer? Not so much. It isn’t the magnitude of the thing as much as my attachment to it. Some of us would rather sell our homes than give up Facebook. Is my relationship with Jesus important enough to me to pray that prayer and then act upon the answer?

When God calls, just go. Abraham didn’t mull over God’s request for a week or two. He didn’t argue with God, or beg him to reconsider. He didn't ignore God and hope that maybe He would forget about it.  Abraham got up the next morning and he went. If the Almighty Creator of the universe calls you, for heaven’s sake, GO!

That isn't the end of the story, of course.  I chose to split the story into two parts because I think there is value in reflecting on each piece individually. The first piece above involves simply knowing what God has called us to sacrifice. The second piece brings about the business of actually doing it, and that is a very different, and often very difficult thing.

Read: Genesis 22:9-14

When God calls us to sacrifice, he asks US to lay the thing upon the alter. God did not take Isaac from Abraham, he asked Abraham to give him up. Abraham had to build the alter, lay the wood upon it, bind his son, lay him upon the wood and then draw the knife. When God reveals something that must go (and whatever it is that chafes you to think about, that may well be it) it is our job to take the thing, bind it and lay it upon the alter.

 

My response to God’s call reveals both my knowledge of who He is and the depth of my love for Him. Ask a sanctuary full of church people, “Do you love God?” and hands will raise and heads will nod. Look into the schedules, the bank accounts, and the lives of those same people and the truth about those hands and heads will be revealed.  I cannot love a God I do not know and I cannot know a God with whom I don’t share my life.  Do I view my relationships, my decisions and my reactions to the world around me through the lens of my relationship with Christ, or is Jesus just like a sweater I put on and take off depending upon whether I'll be around my Christian friends?  Is time in the Word a priority or something I just squeeze in "if I have time"?  Do I approach my prayer time as simply a time to make my requests known to the Lord, or do I also come with ears to listen?  "Christian" is more than a box I check under "religious affiliation."  As a follower of Christ, it defines who I am, or at least it should.

You gotta look up if you want to see God's provision.  At the moment that the Angel of the Lord called out to Abraham to stop him from harming his son, he looked up and saw that God had provided a ram for sacrifice. God’s intention from the start was always to provide a ram for Abraham, but the Lord had to take Abraham through the process of laying Isaac on the alter and acknowledging that as much as he loved this precious son, he loved God more. Ultimately Abraham knew that God was a holy God who would keep his promises to him and he recognized that his obedience to God’s call was more important than understanding God’s call. God always provides, but our focus must be on Him. If we are so focused on that thing we feel called to give up, we will never see God’s provision in the midst of it.

When God calls us to sacrifice something, it is never really about the thing we’re giving up, it is about an unhealthy relationship with that thing. Sometimes, like with Abraham and Isaac, our willingness to sacrifice it is enough and in the end we don't have to give it up at all.  But when our attachment to something interferes with our relationship with God or our capacity to live out that which He has called us to, it needs to go, pure and simple. 

Sometimes the sacrifices God calls us to are great, but sometimes the smaller ones are just as difficult to put into practice:

• the "sacrifice" of a little of my time and effort to make a meal for a friend who needs help
• the "sacrifice" of a favorite show on television in order to spend that time with the Lord instead
• the "sacrifice" of some of my favorite foods in order to be a healthier wife and mother 

When I pause to consider the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for me, that I might have the privilege of being called a child of God, that I might spend eternity with him, that I could be forgiven for all my sins and shortcomings (including the selfishness that makes these puny sacrifices such a struggle for me) when I consider Jesus on that cross giving His life for me, I am so humbled.  I am so overwhelmed by gratitude. I am so convicted of those times I've failed to love HIM more than my TV show or Facebook or my free time or food.  That's really what it is - at least for me.  I'm telling God that MY WILL is more important than HIS WILL.  I'm telling Him, "God, you're pretty neat and all, but I love this stuff MORE."

     When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
      the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
     what is man that you are mindful of him,
      and the son of man that you care for him  Psalm 8:3-4

The Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, sacrificed his Beloved Son out of love for us.  This is the God that calls us. For heaven's sake, just go.