Grains of Sand

Ester It’s easy to skip over. It’s just one word at the beginning of a story, but it is one word that makes all the difference to what follows. “ Some time later God tested Abraham ” (Genesis 22:1). It was a TEST. God knew His man. He also knew that from this test would come one of the most graphic illustrations of the grace of God delivered to us on the cross by Jesus Christ that the world would ever see. Abraham was to take his only son to Mount Moriah and there sacrifice him as an offering to God. Of course, we know what happened. When Isaac asked his father where the lamb for the sacrifice was, Abraham replied: “ God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son ” (22:8). God knew His man, and Abraham knew his God. When the test was over, Abraham named the spot “ The Lord will provide ” (22:14) because that was exactly what the Lord did. It was a TEST. As I read the story this morning I thought of some dear friends who are sitting by the bed of their newborn daug...

“ But he knows the way that I take, when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold ” —Job 23:10, NIV Job might not have understood what was going on in heaven during the darkest hours of his life, so he might not have understood fully the significance of these words. He was eager to defend himself before God. In fact, he demanded to be able to present his case to God. Job was certain that God had made a mistake, a miscalculation, that he had mistaken Job for a sinner. He was just as certain that God could be made to see that he already was “gold.” But the statement goes far beyond the meaning Job gave it. His words are the cry of those, who like him, are going through deep waters but who understand that those circumstances are allowed by a gracious God to refine us a Christ-followers, to chip away at a little bit more of whatever it is that keeps us from being more like him. God knows the circumstances because he is the Master of them. He knows they are a double-edged sword...

Genesis 12-15 Abram continued the journey his father had started. God called him to leave the comfort of Haran to go to Canaan. He knew his destination but he knew nothing about the place to which God had called him. But he went. We have in these chapters a picture of a man in constant motion—not just the motion of moving, but in the struggles of adjusting. The Canaanites were in the land and without a doubt were not pleased to have their space invaded. Sounds like our reaction to immigrants, doesn’t it? Sometimes those adjustments weren’t well done. Abram adjusted to his fears of having the Pharaoh make him disappear because of his beautiful wife by lying about who she was. Even our heroes of the faith have clay feet from time to time. Abram had to deal with fractious relatives. Sometime close family ties are better preserved from a distance. Unhappily Lot chose the wrong place to pitch his tent and ended up being kidnapped. That situation turned his uncle into a military leader as h...