My Times Are In Your Hands

In earlier posts we began to look at various believers recorded in the Bible as examples for us to imitate. The latest of those is Abraham, a man who went out, not knowing where he was going. I'd like to consider that last phrase. 

Who of us really knows where he is going? In that connection I always find myself thinking of Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786. While he was plowing a field, he upturned a mouse's nest. His resulting poem is an apology to the mouse:

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

As a pastor I'm often called upon to comfort people whose carefully laid plans have gone awry. A young man planning to go through college on an athletic scholarship breaks his leg on a skiing trip and finds that his leg no longer works to play football and basketball. Young parents are devastated when their six-year-old daughter comes down with cancer and dies. A middle-aged couple's plans are completely overturned when the company that the husband works for is bought up by a larger corporation that has no need of his services. A senior couple planning their retirement is overwhelmed with grief to learn that the wife has an inoperable brain tumor and will probably be dead in two months.

So it goes, again and again, month after month and year after year. . . "An lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promised joy." Surely these times test our faith. What can we learn from Abraham?

You probably know the story of how the LORD told Abraham in a vision that he would be the father of a multitude, the progenitor of an entire nation numbering like the stars above. I mentioned that promise in my previous post. But no children came until Sarah, his wife, was beyond child bearing years. And then the wonder of wonders. She became pregnant and gave birth to Isaac, according to the promise of the LORD who personally visited Abraham (Gen. 18:1-15; 21:1-8).

One would think that the story might end there with a phrase like "And they lived happily ever after and Abraham died a contented old man." But it does not. God put Abraham's faith to the test, a most severe, irrational test.

He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." - Gen 22:2 ESV 

The amazing fact is that Abraham did not question the LORD. He simply trusted that even if Isaac were dead the LORD could raise him from the dead. In faith he went to the land of Moriah and would most certainly have offered Isaac but for the LORD intervening at the last moment.

He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." ... 

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." 

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." 

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." - Gen 22:2, 10-18 ESV

In this way Abraham has become for us and thousands before us the example of a man of faith. We join with them to pray, regardless of how the LORD allows our faith to be tested,

But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! - Psa 31:14-16 ESV