I was reminded this past weekend that, some time ago, my pastor preached a message on Abraham and Isaac. He pointed out something that I think most people miss; I know I had always missed it up until then. He asked us to try to imagine the difference it made in the relationship between that father and his son when Abraham took Isaac up to Moriah. We have a tendency to read that story, already knowing how it turned out: the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from offering up Isaac as a sacrifice, but Abraham didn’t know, on the way to the mountain, that he would be stopped, and Isaac thought, on the way to the mountain, that they were going to sacrifice a ram. Granted, there was a very short period between the time that Isaac found out that his father had lied to him, and when Isaac was reprieved, but that had to have changed the way Isaac felt towards Abraham for the rest of his life.
After that service, we had one young man that told me that didn’t make any sense. The incident, in his opinion, shouldn’t have changed their relationship at all, because in Hebrews 11:17-20, it says that Abraham knew that Isaac was the son of promise, and that if Abraham had actually had to kill Isaac, then God would have raised Isaac up from the dead, to fulfill the promise. That’s an interesting point, but, even though Abraham knew that at the time, Isaac still would have felt differently towards his father. We discussed this for a while, and this young man still couldn’t see it, and kept insisting that Abraham knew. Finally, I told him, “but Isaac didn’t,” and he replied, “But Abraham did,” and I just said, “You’re missing the point,” and walked away. One party knowing that he isn’t really throwing the other party under the bus isn’t going to keep the second party from feeling badly about the whole thing. I guess I should be grateful to him, though: Thanks to him, I don’t think that I will ever forget that message.
God wants those of us who are fathers to be good fathers. He also wants those of us who have fathers to love and to respect our fathers. For some people, that’s hard (I can’t really speak to that too much, because I’m not one of those people). God is our Heavenly Father, and, to some extent, our earthly fathers should mirror our Heavenly Father. Notice I said ‘should.’ The problem that you run into is that of an imperfect, flesh and blood human being placed in a position to emulate a perfect, Spiritual being. Some people do that better than others (although even the best of us falls way short), and some don’t even try. For those whose fathers were about as far from God as one can get, the idea of God as Father can be difficult. The idea that God would still want them to honor that flesh-and-blood father may be as difficult, if not more so. But God does want us to honor our parents, no matter how flawed or imperfect they may be. Keep in mind that we are all flawed and imperfect. Some people just manage to inflict more damage with their imperfections than others. God wants us to love our neighbors, but there should be a special place in our hearts for our own family members, even a family member that has treated us in a manner that could only be termed, ‘despicable.’ If you can’t forgive your flesh-and-blood family, then how can you forgive the members of your spiritual family? They’re going to let you down, too, you know. We’re only human; that’s just the way it is.
After that service, we had one young man that told me that didn’t make any sense. The incident, in his opinion, shouldn’t have changed their relationship at all, because in Hebrews 11:17-20, it says that Abraham knew that Isaac was the son of promise, and that if Abraham had actually had to kill Isaac, then God would have raised Isaac up from the dead, to fulfill the promise. That’s an interesting point, but, even though Abraham knew that at the time, Isaac still would have felt differently towards his father. We discussed this for a while, and this young man still couldn’t see it, and kept insisting that Abraham knew. Finally, I told him, “but Isaac didn’t,” and he replied, “But Abraham did,” and I just said, “You’re missing the point,” and walked away. One party knowing that he isn’t really throwing the other party under the bus isn’t going to keep the second party from feeling badly about the whole thing. I guess I should be grateful to him, though: Thanks to him, I don’t think that I will ever forget that message.
God wants those of us who are fathers to be good fathers. He also wants those of us who have fathers to love and to respect our fathers. For some people, that’s hard (I can’t really speak to that too much, because I’m not one of those people). God is our Heavenly Father, and, to some extent, our earthly fathers should mirror our Heavenly Father. Notice I said ‘should.’ The problem that you run into is that of an imperfect, flesh and blood human being placed in a position to emulate a perfect, Spiritual being. Some people do that better than others (although even the best of us falls way short), and some don’t even try. For those whose fathers were about as far from God as one can get, the idea of God as Father can be difficult. The idea that God would still want them to honor that flesh-and-blood father may be as difficult, if not more so. But God does want us to honor our parents, no matter how flawed or imperfect they may be. Keep in mind that we are all flawed and imperfect. Some people just manage to inflict more damage with their imperfections than others. God wants us to love our neighbors, but there should be a special place in our hearts for our own family members, even a family member that has treated us in a manner that could only be termed, ‘despicable.’ If you can’t forgive your flesh-and-blood family, then how can you forgive the members of your spiritual family? They’re going to let you down, too, you know. We’re only human; that’s just the way it is.
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