Are you trusting with your mouth or with your feet?
“Come on buddy” I coaxed my son. “Jump. I’ll catch you”
I was in the pool and my son Daniel was along the edge of it. He was hesitating.
“Dad, I’m scared. What if you don’t catch me?”
“I’ll catch you Daniel. Do you trust me to catch you?”
“Yes” he said.
“Then jump.”
I could see the struggle wanting to trust me yet the fear of the water. Daniel jumped. I caught him. We laughed and splashed in the water. His trust of me was demonstrated when he jumped. Are you ready to jump?
Trust is a funny thing. If I truly trust someone or something, that trust will have an action associated with it. True trust always – ALWAYS – shows itself in actions not just words. Here in Genesis 22 we see a wonderful example of trust in action.
This trust – the kind that leads to action – is the one that we exercise both choosing the path of holiness as well as walking on that path of holiness. Let’s take a look at biblical trust and what we can expect when we wholly trust the right One.
God’s call to Abraham began in verse one. It was a call to obey God that was built on a relationship between Abraham and God. Now that call continues where Abraham’s response to God’s call is built on trust. Do you trust God enough to follow His call on your life? Are you ready to jump?
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. Genesis 22:3-8 NASB
After God’s call in v. 1, here in v. 3 Abraham responded to God’s call to sacrifice his sin – the son of promise – on a mountain yet hidden. He got a donkey, loaded it with wood, took a couple of young men in addition to his son Isaac. This group travels for three days and somehow it was revealed to Abraham that they had arrived at the place of sacrifice. Abraham tells his servants to remain while he and his son continued to ascend to the place where they will worship God.
During this journey, one may infer that Isaac was trusting his father Abraham for the past three days to take him to the place they need to be. I can imagine that Isaac had put together that there was going to be a sacrifice when they continued on their journey. Notice what Isaac says
Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
So Isaac sees everything but the lamb for the burnt offering. Now I want to make an important point here. Isaac was probably at least 15 or 16 years old. How do I know this? The Hebrew gives it away. I know this is not a child because the word lad in Hebrew is na’ar (pronounced na-ar). This means a young person, a youth or something similar. If Isaac was a child the word would have probably been yeled (pronounced ye-leth). Why is this important?
If Isaac was a youth of 15 or 16 he certainly had the physical strength and will that could prevent anything from happening to him that he did not want to happen to him. Isaac could have simply refused to go on this journey with his dad. He was carrying the wood for the sacrifice. Abraham was carry a coal or some sort of fire that would provide as the starter for the fire to consume the sacrifice. But no lamb.
Abraham responds with assurance that God would provide a lamb for His sacrifice. This is Abraham showing faith in God. Abraham trusted God to 1) either provide a different lamb for the sacrifice or 2) use Isaac as the sacrifice but resurrect him somehow (based on Abraham’s statement to his servants as he and Isaac left). Abraham and Isaac were both trusting God not with the words of their mouths but with the actions of their feet. Are you trusting with your mouth or with your feet?
This passage ends beautifully with the phrase So the two of them walked on together. Here they are, father and son walking together to fulfill God’s will for them both.
I wonder how much we are committed to following God. Do we really trust God? Do we trust Him with our very lives? Our family’s life? I’ve used the phrase “Talk is cheap but actions are expensive” before. And it is applicable to this as well. We can talk about trusting God all we want but until we do something with that head knowledge, all the talk is simply cheap talk. Just like my son in the story I shared at the beginning of this article, we must do something with our trust if we do indeed truly have trust in God.
That may or may not include leaving where we are now. It may mean various things. But are you ready to demonstrate your trust of God?
Immediately after God called Abraham to take the son of promise to a mountaintop to sacrifice him, Abraham takes action. Notice what is missing. There are no negotiations and no special pleadings by Abraham.
The Bald Theologian 