Living on the Edge
Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son Genesis 22:10 NASB
Knife – The ma’akelet is a special kind of knife – a knife used to slaughter sacrifices. In the Old Testament, it describes the instrument used to cut a person into pieces (Judges 19:29) and to prepare animals for the altar. This word is sinister, fearful and ominous. Unfortunately, we transfer this foreboding on to Abraham.
Our picture of Abraham’s action has been distorted by a long history of incorrect teaching. We may believe that God forced Abraham to come to this point. Thanks mainly to Kierkegaard, we believe that Abraham had a terrible moral struggle over God’s command, battling about obeying God or protecting Isaac. None of this is true if we read the text carefully. Abraham has reached a point in his life where he finally believes that God can do anything. He is finally devoted to God and willing to entirely obey. While this is definitely a test of Abraham’s obedience, I believe that it comes only when Abraham’s total commitment is ready to be demonstrated. Abraham believes that God will fulfill the promise even if he kills Isaac. After all, Isaac was born out of impossibility. Now Isaac will continue to live even it seems impossible.
Throughout the story, God emphasizes how important Isaac is to Abraham. Isaac is the representation of what matters most to a man. God asks Abraham to sacrifice what matters most, so that only God is the true object of total devotion. Abraham demonstrates that God comes first, no matter how valuable the sacrifice. But God never demands this action. He does not command Abraham to slay Isaac. God asks, “Please?”
We need to see this story in our own lives. God says, “Take, please, your most valuable possession, and sacrifice it on a mountain I will show you.” Take your dreams, your children, your spouse, your fame, your wealth, your future – and slaughter it with the ma’akelet. Put it on the altar of death. Believe that I am El Shaddai – the God who can do anything – even if it looks like your dreams will be burned up.” The test of faith – and we all have one – is to believe God in spite of our circumstances. The test is to believe that God must come first and to act according to that conviction. If we say that we love God, but we withhold our most prized possession, then we are lying to ourselves. If we say that we trust God, but we refuse to sacrifice our future to Him, then we are deceiving ourselves.
There is an altar in every life. It is the altar where you and I are asked to butcher our dreams, our plans and our hopes. Life is not about us. It is about God’s purposes through us. As long as we keep the ma’akelet in the sheath, we will never know what God has in mind. Take out the knife. Place your future on the altar and sacrifice it to God. Let Him give you “another ram” – another life. The future you really needed must always come from the hand of God after the future you thought you needed is gone.
Topical Index: knife, ma’akelet, sacrifice, Isaac, Abraham, Genesis 22:10
“Living on the Edge”
Hmmm
Takes me back again to the deep meaning in the movie Heat and one of my favorite lines
Al Pacino plays Vincent Hanna, a lieutenant of detectives in the L.A.P.D.
He likes to be at work because as he says: “It keeps me sharp, on the EDGE, where I gotta be.”
And coincidentally I once had a friend named Makelet who told me she “loved Al Pacino” in Heat
It had the strangest effect on me; in fact, it’s been a little like Kierkegaard’s Sickness Unto Death
Ever since 🙂
MICHAEL,
HERE IS A PDF OF “Kierkegaard’s Sickness Unto Death” – I WILL BE READING IT 4 SURE… ♥
http://www.naturalthinker.net/trl/texts/Kierkegaard,Soren/TheSicknessUntoDeath.pdf
“Living on the Edge”
Hi Jan,
Thanks for sharing Soren with us, there is nothing I’ve ever read that is quite like him
The first time I came across Sickness Unto Death I was a somewhat anti-Christian undergraduate
I don’t think I was able to make it through the whole text, because it was extremely difficult
But I do remember the text deeply resonating within me and saying to myself “WoW”
What planet is this guy from 🙂
When I read the following sentence just know it still resnates deeply
“Only the Christian knows what is meant by the sickness unto death. As a Christian he acquires a courage which the natural man does not know.
“Kierkegaard’s Sickness Unto Death” – “I WILL BE READING IT 4 SURE”
Hi Jan,
I got to page 26 today before taking a break.
The following is a simple paragragh from Soren that I broke up into little sentences to ease the digestive process 🙂
“Therefore it is as far as possible from being true that the vulgar view is right in assuming that despair is a rarity; on the contrary, it is quite universal.
It is as far as possible from being true that the vulgar view is right in assuming that everyone who does not think or feel that he is in despair is not so at all, and that only he is in despair who says that he is.
On the contrary, one who without affectation says that he is in despair is after all a little bit nearer, a dialectical step nearer to being cured than all those who are not regarded and do not regard themselves as being in despair.
But precisely this is the common situation (as the physician of souls will doubtless concede), that the majority of men live without being thoroughly conscious that they are spiritual beings — and to this is referable all the security, contentment with life, etc., etc., which precisely is despair.
Those, on the other hand, who say that they are in despair are generally such as have a nature so
much more profound that they must become conscious of themselves as spirit, or such as by the hard vicissitudes of life and its dreadful decisions have been helped to become conscious of themselves as spirit — either one or the other, for rare is the man who truly is free from
despair.”
OH MICHAEL I HAVE NO PROBLEM ADMITTING I AM IN DESPAIR – TODAY AS I WAS LEAVING THE SHOWER OR ENTERING – CAN’T REMEMBER WHICH BUT I THOUGHT WHERE HAS MY JOY GONE – SEEMS THERE IS TOO MUCH DESPAIR ALL AROUND US – I JUST NOTICED TODAY THAT MY JOY SEEMS TO HAVE DESPAIRED TOO…
I STARTED READING SICKNESS UNTO DEATH & HAD TO STOP – SEEMED SO MUMBO JUMBO TO ME & NOT WORTH MY TIME – WAY OVER MY HEAD & HEART – DON’T KNOW IF I WILL CONTINUE TO “TRY” TO READ IT OR NOT… ♥
Kierkegaard’s work is very philosophical and requires a good bit of background.
Hi Jan,
I’m sorry if my quote from Kierkegaard’s Sickness Unto Death makes you feel bad )-:
For me reading his style and logic are a little bit like having a “thorn in my mind”
But his message tends to make me feel good and I find it rather inspiring
Don’t want to over simplify but like his point that our true self is spirit (the way out of despair)
Michael, you don’t have to apologize for sharing/expressing your feelings in regard to Kierkegaard – if it inspires or helps you then so be it. i didn’t get very far into the piece but it seemed senseless for me – something that i need not understand to have joy in life. but i’m glad to know more than i knew before you shared it here.
it did not make me feel bad – i just don’t understand it – maybe if i read more – i would but it just didn’t click or mean much to me at this point. seems my way out of despair is with Jesus Christ & His joy… ♥
Sacrificing “my” ministry and “my” church and moving in a Messianic direction is still painful and lonely, but the hours spent in study, learning so much and seeing myself and my Savior in a different light is fulfilling. Is there anybody in the South Bend In. area out there? We long to have others in our study group.
“moving in a Messianic direction is still painful and lonely”
Hmmm
My daughter is following in my footsteps and not finding anything in High School meaningful
I don’t want to say nothing could be more painful to me, but it seems like it to me
I never want to go back to where I was before I started moving in this direction. Laying it all at Mt. Moriah may be painful and lonely, but the peace and joy of walking this direction is worth all the sacrifice. This is the “edge” I choose to live on – you never know what God has hidden in the brambles unless you climb the mountain.
“Mt. Moriah may be painful and lonely
“you climb the mountain”
“Moriah makes the mountains sound
Like folks were up there dying”
Hi Karen,
Mt Moriah makes me think of the 9th grade, listening to the songs and music of Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and The Kingston Trio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8e9F8PV-m4
Moriah
Maoriah
They call the wind Moriah
Away out here they got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire Joe,
And they call the wind Moriah
Moriah blows the stars around
And sends the clouds a’flyin’
Moriah makes the mountains sound
Like folks were up there dying
Moriah
Moriah
They call the wind Moriah
Before I knew Moriah’s name
And heard her wail and whinin’
I had a girl and she had me
And the sun was always shinin’
But then one day I left my girl
I left her far behind me
And now I’m lost, so gone and lost
Not even God can find me
Moriah
Moriah
They call the wind Moriah
Out here they got a name for rain
For wind and fire only
But when you’re lost and all alone
There ain’t no word but lonely
And I’m a lost and lonely man
Without a star to guide me
Moriah blow my love to me
I need my girl beside me
Moriah
Moriah
They call the wind Moriah
Maria
Maria!
Blow my love to me
Indeed, it is, “Life is not about us. It is about God’s purposes through us.” Thanks for your consistently reminder!
“THE MARK OF GOD’S CHOICE FOR LEADERSHIP IS ALWAYS RESURRECTED LIFE!” Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, CA.
By the way, I hear he is a big fan of Skip’s teaching!
Abraham gave everything to YHWH.
You have longed for sweet peace,
And for faith to increase,
And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
But you cannot have rest,
Or be perfectly blest,
Until all on the altar is laid.
Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.
Would you walk with the Lord,
In the light of His word,
And have peace and contentment alway?
You must do His sweet will,
To be free from all ill,
On the altar your all you must lay.
Oh, we never can know
What the Lord will bestow
Of the blessings for which we have prayed,
Till our body and soul
He doth fully control,
And our all on the altar is laid.
Who can tell all the love
He will send from above,
And how happy our hearts will be made;
Of the fellowship sweet
We shall share at His feet,
When our all on the altar is laid.
Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.
~ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G-d, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G-d, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G-d. ~ (Romans 12.1,2)
Thanks for the lyrics to a most revealing hymn. Haven’t heard it in years!! Everybody’s singing those empty one-line-sung-a-thousand-times songs, and not meditating on songs that talk about who God is, and who we are in Christ! Thank you!!!
What could have brought Avraham to this stage of his life that he’s surrendering all to YHWH, Skip?
It would be so hard to have to sacrifice your only son whom you’ve waited so long for; and to have to lay a sharp knife on him.
It is very hard to comprehend.
At one stage, in fact many stages of my life, I had surrendered my all to YHWH, and is presently at such a stage right now.
Nothing matters more than YHWH in my life, and my beautiful relationship with Him.
Ester, I don’t want to answer for Skip- (that would be impossible!) but I would like to comment concerning Abraham, David and Moses.
In each of these lives we see a common thread. G-d did not, one day, out of the blue, say to Abraham,- (“na”- I haven’t forgotten this “na,” brother Skip!) “Na, (please) take your son,-your only son, whom you love, -(and let us never forget G-d was aware of Abraham’s feelings and affections for his only begotten son), and sacrifice him to me.” No,- there was a period of preparation, a “build-up” if you will.
The same thing is true in the life of David. Goliath was not the first challenge for David. David was practiced and prepared for battle. (He had previously dealt ‘other’ wild beasts!). Moses also was prepared for leadership while in the desert. (Been through a ‘dry spell’ in your life?) Joseph went through a period of intense testing and humbling while languishing in prison.
There is a blessedness in brokeness. G-d never uses anyone greatly unless He first wounds them deeply. Remember Job.
– Hey!- you wanna see my scars? (I’m covered with them..) I (also) am one of G-d’s “wounded healers..” I may say to you or to some other weary pilgrim- “I’ve been there.. done that”- and let me testify of the ONE who has delivered me, time and time again. My sister says I should write a book, but I believe one has already been written- it is the Word of the LORD, our Bible. I already find “my life” in parallel to so many lives already written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. G-d’s Basis Instructions Before Leaving Earth, our Bible. My name/your name, my story/your story is already written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, – and we (also) are “witnesses of these things.”
And as Bob Seiger (who’s Bob Seiger?-lol) would say- “turn the page”- for the story continues..- today adds another page to the story of my life- the story of yours. If we belong to Him, our story is a story (also) of daily deliverance and “give us this day our daily bread”-(and breathings!)”
May we (now) say with David and all the saints- “Blessed be the Name of the LORD?”
“G-d was aware of Abraham’s feelings and affections for his only begotten son and …. there was a “build-up” if you will.”
“The same thing is true in the life of David. Goliath was not the first challenge for David. David was practiced and prepared for battle. ….
“Moses also was prepared for leadership while in the desert. …
“Joseph went through a period of intense testing and humbling while languishing in prison.”
Hi Carl,
I like the way you tie those points together, and had not really noticed that theme before; probably because they all seem so “other” to me
Of course I could always identify with David’s difficulty with women and his alienation from mankind while wandering around out in the the wilderness with God 🙂
Yes, Carl…”Here I am, on the road again, Here I am, up on the stage, Here I am, playin star again, Here I am….turn the page”. (haven’t heard that in a very long time, will have to dust it off ;))
Weary traveler, walk in the footsteps of the Master, He is the Daystar…may all glory be into Him today and forever!!