And so, we come to Genesis 22.  This is one of those chapters that always stops me cold, especially now that I’m a mom.  I always wonder what went through Abraham’s head when God said, “Hey, that son I promised you?  Give him back.  Violently, even.”  It’s one of those things I don’t want to think about, to be honest, what I would have done in his shoes.  But the thing that got me this week was something about Abraham… and about Isaac.

Genesis 22:3a (GW) Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey.

Now, I know as close to nothing about the original language of this text as you can know.  That’s to say, the original verb tenses and all aren’t something I know.  But it looks to me like, in verse 2, God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac… but He didn’t say when.  (Now, maybe He did in the original writing.  I have no idea.)  Whether he did or didn’t is probably a moot point.  We don’t know how much Abraham tossed and turned that night, but we do know this… he got up the very next morning and obeyed.  He didn’t wait a week or so to see if God changed His mind.  He didn’t pull a Jonah and run in the opposite direction.  There’s not even a record of him trying to bargain with God like he did when it came to Sodom and Gomorrah.  He just got up and obeyed.  Immediately.

No wonder he’s a fixture in Hebrews 11.  No wonder he’s called faithful.  I mean, God told him to sacrifice the Child of Promise.  And he didn’t hesitate.  He believed what God had told him would happen from the start.  God said Isaac would make him the father of a great nation, so God must know what He was doing.

Wow.

Want the other thing that gets me?  Nowhere in this chapter does it indicate Isaac fought back.  True, Abraham tied him, but we don’t know the why’s of that.  What in the world was going through both of their minds?  Because, also nowhere, do we ever see Isaac bitterly scream at his father, “Dude!  You tried to kill me!”  No therapy.  No tell-all book.  No appearance on Dr. Phil.  Yeah, none of those were around back then, but you know what I mean.  Clearly, there was some heavy duty God trusting happening here.

And I’m so, so far beneath them when it comes to that kind of faith and trust.  I have such a long way to go.  Abraham has that Job faith that I’ve talked about before.  “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15a KJV).

So, what about Genesis 22 speaks to you?

-JB

This Monday, it’s all about the story.

In April, I was driving back from our beach vacation (little one was in the truck with her daddy).  Long drives alone are when I start to get the germ of ideas for stories.  And boy, was I relieved to get this one.  I was starting to think the well had run dry. However, as most of my stories work, the idea I got wound up being, well, nothing at ALL what the story is turning out to be.  My first chapter one never, ever looks like my final chapter one at all.  And that’s okay.  The idea gets me started.

The more I messed around with this particular chapter one and the more it changed, the more it became (partially) influenced by my life.  We moved back to my hometown recently, into my grandmother’s house, the house where I spent a large amount of time growing up.  Honestly, we never thought we’d live here, especially after she died three years ago, but here we are, loving every minute of it.  Funny thing is, I never thought I’d live in this tiny little town again.  Never thought I wanted to.  Now there’s no place I’d rather be.

And my character is learning that as well.  She’s come home… but for totally different reasons.  In fact, she left for totally different reasons.  She’s facing totally different obstacles and challenges than I am.  BELIEVE me.  The book is far from autobiographical, though some of the feelings about coming home are real.  And her grandmother in the story keeps morphing into the amalgamation of my grandmothers… and that’s okay.

Every time Scotty McCreery opens his mouth to sing, it shocks me.  How does that voice come out of that kid?  That’s absolutely crazy.  Anyway, this song of his rolls around in my head every time I sit down to write, because my hometown (actually, half of my county, if we want to get honest) is a water tower town.  And so is Aubrey’s hometown in the story.  It’s one of the reasons I had no trouble moving back… and one of the reasons it’s causing her a world of pain.

And one of the reasons I’m loving writing it.

(My apologies… youtube wouldn’t let me shrink the size, so it’s chopped on one side…)

-JB

Right off the bat, before we go anywhere with this, I have to say… Genesis 21 is, for me, one of those “things that make you go hmm.” Then again, I’m not God. As strange as this whole chapter is, the image of God’s mercy toward one blows my mind.  As many times as I’ve read Genesis 21, verses 17 and 18 never stood out to me the way they did this time.  God loves everybody.  A whole, whole lot more than we can grasp.  And He’s merciful.  A whole, whole lot more than we can grasp.

Genesis 21:17-18(GW)–God heard the boy crying, and the Messenger of God called to Hagar from heaven. “What’s the matter, Hagar?” he asked her. “Don’t be afraid! God has heard the boy crying from the bushes. Come on, help the boy up! Take him by the hand, because I’m going to make him into a great nation.”

Let’s face it.  Abraham screwed up.  Royally.  As in big time.  As in, “What in the world were you thinking?”  And yet he is still considered faithful.  Okay, right there, I’m already floored by God.

But here we have Hagar and Ishamel, sent out into the desert to die.  Ishmael.  The result of a man-directed attempt to fulfill God’s promise.  The result of a certain lack of faith move on his father’s part.  But let’s not forget… He was the innocent one here.  He didn’t ask to be born, didn’t ask to be a rival of the favorite son.  He was a victim of circumstance here… until he chose to mock his brother.  Now that wasn’t nice.  And you have to wonder, based on the reaction of Abraham and Sarah, if this was an ongoing heart problem with Ishmael or if Sarah just finally, jealously lost it.  We don’t know enough to say.

But what gets me here is God’s actions.  See, he could have let Ishmael die in chapter 21, right where he lay under a bush in the desert.  That would have been the end of Ishmael’s story.  To boil it down to very, very overly simplistic terms, some traditions believe Ishamel to be the patriarch of Islam.  And had Ishmael died right there… Well, history would be very different.

But God didn’t let him die.  Instead, He saved Ishamael and promised to make him a great nation too.  In fact, Ishamel had twelve sons.  Sound familiar?

I won’t bog down in the question of “why” God did that.  Only God knows.  But I feel certain God loved Ishmael.  God saw that young man simply as who he was as he lay there on the ground.  And despite knowing everything that would happen, God loved Ishamel, who was born into a definitely crazy dysfunctional situation if there ever was one.

God loved Ishmael.  God loves every single person on this earth, whether they are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist, or whatever flavor of religion they are chasing today.  His greatest desire is to be right there with them, for them to believe Him and love Him, no matter what.  And He gives them every chance, just like He gave Ishmael.  That’s why we are to love as well, and it breaks my heart when we hate “in the name of Jesus.”  Because, mind you, I’ve seen it happen.  And that’s just as much a sin as the sin of those we are so busy hating.

Is it a fine line to walk, that one between love and tolerance?  Yes.  We don’t tolerate sin.  At all.  But we love each other, no matter what.  And that’s the line we have to find.  That’s the way we walk like Jesus.  Lord, help us find that line and walk it with purpose.

So, for you… what in the Bible makes you go… hmmmmm?

-JB