God’s Surprising Provision
For the week of November 16, 2024 / 15 Heshvan 5785
Vayera
Torah: Bereshit/Genesis 18:1 – 22:24
Haftarah: 2 Melachim/2 Kings 4:1-37
And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (Bereshit/Genesis 22:7-8)
Traditionally entitled “The Akedah,” the Binding of Isaac is such a wonderful story—that is, once you know the ending. Reading the story from the beginning, however, as I have noted on past occasions, is intensely traumatic. What kind of God is this, who demands of his beloved servant Abraham to commit human sacrifice? What kind of father binds his son to a pile of wood and raises a knife to plunge into his heart? Even after providing the substitute, what did this do to Isaac’s psyche? How did his sons, Jacob and Esau, process hearing what God told their grandfather to do to their father?
From where we are sitting, thousands of years later, we sentimentalize this story, celebrate Abraham’s extraordinary faith, and theologize over the substitutionary act. But to truly appreciate what’s going on here, we need to personally and intimately wade into the story’s dynamics. We are too quick to jump to the end and take comfort in that God didn’t really mean for Abraham to kill his son. Abraham didn’t know that. The New Covenant Writings claim that he anticipated God would do something. We read:
By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17–19)
Abraham knew God would do something, but he didn’t know what or how. I would like to ponder that here.
Abraham obeyed God, living with the tension of knowing he was trustworthy and capable of doing the impossible while not being clued in on the what or the how. Yet, step by step, he moved forward in obeying God anyway.
I don’t know about you, but I like details. I like to know where I am going and why. I know our plans don’t always work out as expected, but I still prefer to have as much information as possible. You should hear me pray! Often, when I face a problem and lay it out before the Lord, I tend to provide him with a multiple-choice list: “O God, do you want me to do this, that, or the other thing?” I am sure he appreciates my giving him options to choose from! Don’t worry. I am aware of what I am doing. I know I tend to try to solve my problems on my own instead of simply offering them to him. Of course, we should be working out problems as needed and able. And, sometimes, we struggle with choosing between reasonable options. There’s nothing wrong with praying accordingly. But other times, we don’t know what to do and need God to come through for us. Abraham’s journey to Moriah with Isaac was like that.
Step by step, day by day, more unknowns than knowns, with the knowns being as strange as strange can be. And yet, he kept on keeping on, trusting God knew what he was doing. Abraham even told Isaac, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Bereshit/Genesis 22:8). True words indeed, even though he had no idea how God would provide. And provide he did. It wasn’t until the last second that God stayed Abraham’s hand. He was working all along, preparing the ram for a substitute. But from Abraham’s perspective, the provision was a surprise.
We don’t know about surprises until they happen. That’s what makes them a surprise. Until then, we live without being conscious of them. That’s fun when it’s a special gift or event, but another matter when we go through challenging times. I wonder how many of us resist such challenges because we don’t have enough details. Abraham knew there was more going on than what he was aware of. But he did it because God, the God of surprising provision, called him to.
Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version
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