Mountain of God.
To get to there, we have to go through the valley - or a flood.
Until we die - the journey continues - down through the valleys to the next mountain top. Noah waited in the ark for 375 days before the next journey to a valley. Abraham - a lifetime.
I can only imagine what was going through his mind. How at times he probably wished that his faith wasn't so great. How at times he wanted to take his Isaac and run back to the valley from which they had come. To run away from God who he had chosen to obey - no matter the cost.
He had left his comfort zone, sent away his other son, and now was told to use his remaining son as a sacrifice - all commands from the God he loved. Looking back over his lifetime of memories as they climbed the mountain - he had to think how does this make sense.
Only God knows the whole paradigm. We can't - so there will be many, many times in our journey of life that situations do not make sense. At all.
What does make sense is that God wants us to give up everything to Him. He wants to be our most loved, most cherished, most everything - our "I AM". Because that is what is best for us. Because that's how much He loves us. Not every mountaintop experience is joyful, but the view enables us to see more than when in a valley. It brings us closer to Him when we climb upward. We have to lift our eyes up as we climb. I am reminded of Lot's wife looking back and turning into a pillar of salt. I wonder what prevented Abraham from turning back too. Was it the knowing if he did it would turn his life to salt only instead of a life full of seasonings. That it would be a life that lead to separation from God. I don't know. What I do know is he did exactly as commanded. Even to the point of raising his knife to kill Isaac.
That. is. faith.
That is putting God first.
This passage of scripture is one of my most favorite because it shows me that God wants me to sacrifice "my Isaac" to Him. That "my Isaac" is coming between Him and me - even if it is a "good Isaac". The times when life is overwhelming - "God sees to it!" Just as He supplied the ram for Abraham - He "sees to it" for me. Nothing is too big for Him or out of His control. I also love how this account between God and Abraham holds me accountable.
What is my Isaac? What do I need to sacrifice to Him? To put Him first? What do I love more than Him?
Whom or what needs to be on my alter on the mountain of God?
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