LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Abraham without Children
The figure of Abraham in the Old Testament is very rich and profitable. The reason for Abraham's call, and God's purpose for him was related to the land and to his descendants; in short, it had to do with a son that he was to beget. And, as we know, he had not only one, but two: Ishmael and Isaac. One was born in the vigor of his father; the other in the impotence of his old age. But at one point in his life, Abraham was left without either.
Ishmael must have been driven from home, for he had been conceived of a slave woman, and in response to the man's initiative. Isaac, meanwhile, the beloved son, the son of promise, must have been offered on the altar of sacrifice. That which was born of the flesh had to be cast out; that which came from God had to return to God. Nothing was Abraham's; neither what he produced, nor what God gave him.
Such is the believer who walks with God and seeks to please God. His first efforts have an end of death, and cannot abide in the house of God. After failure, and defeat, comes the joy of spiritual fruit, of the sheaves that God places in his hands. However, the believer has to experience death again. What God placed in his hands must return to him. The fruit of his faith belongs to God, and is not his. His is only helplessness, desolation and death.
To let Ishmael go is painful; but to lay Isaac upon the altar is still more. It is all our glory, because we have come to understand that God gave him to us. He has the imprint of God, the seal of resurrection. Isn't it beautiful? Yet, on a certain day, God will tell us to go to Mount Moriah, and bring that which we love so much - the fruit of our faith, and of our walk with God - to offer.
The believer has no rights with God. There is no work that God has entrusted to him, no spiritual blessing that He has placed in his hands, that belongs to man. If the believer is unwilling to lose it, it means that he is still holding on to something of his own.
If we are unwilling to lose what God has given us, it means that it is still ours. And if it is ours, God will walk away from it. If God does not give Isaac back to us after the altar, then it means it was never ours. Only what we lose in God, and God gives it back to us, is truly ours. There is nothing more beautiful than God's blessing in our hand, but all of it is not greater than the God of blessing. Above Isaac is the God of Isaac.
What is the end of this story? God said: "By myself have I sworn, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me; I will surely bless thee ... because thou hast obeyed my voice" (Gen. 22:16, 18). The superabundant blessing. But the secret is to be willing to be childless; only with God.