Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Genesis 22: 1-8

I struggled for some time with this text. I struggled with what and how to present this because there are so many messages and so many ways to say them. This lesson is about both Abraham’s time and it points to a future time. As I struggled I realized the struggle is what it is all about.

Abraham is in the middle of a terrible struggle however; his struggles started long before God tested him with his son. They started when Abraham was 75 years old and God told him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house for an unknown land God would later show him. God promised Abraham he would become a great nation, He would bless him, He would make Abraham’s name great, and that Abraham would be a blessing. That is quite a bit to put on someone all at one time. But, his struggles didn’t stop there.

Abraham faced famine which leads him to Egypt where he passed off his wife as his sister to save his own skin. This leads to Pharaoh taking Abraham’s beautiful wife as his own. Eventually, Pharaoh sent Abraham and Sarah away after God afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because he had another man’s wife as his own.

Abraham and Sarah became frustrated after 10 years and Sarah still had not bore a son as God promised. So, Sarah took things into her own hands (now none of us would ever do that, would we.) Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham thinking she was to bear a son on her behalf. But when Hagar conceived, things didn’t go well between the two women (I can’t imagine why.) Hagar fled until an angel urged her to return at which time she bore a son named Ishmael when Abraham was 86 years old. Is it just me or is Abraham’s life full of constant struggles? And, those struggles continue.

God creates a covenant with Abraham when he is 99 years old and promises Sarah will bear a son one year later. Abraham struggles with the news because Sarah is 90 years old and Abraham doesn’t think she can conceive at that age. But at last she gives birth to Isaac one year later at the spry age of 91 as God promised. It took twenty five years for God to fulfill His promise of a son. Imagine the struggles with doubt and anger during those twenty five years. Now, imagine how precious that child was to Abraham and Sarah after those agonizing twenty five years. Isaac is so precious especially since the covenant of a multitude of nations with kings coming from his line will be fulfilled through Isaac. At last, the promises will start to be fulfilled, but wait, God wants Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the one the covenant will be fulfilled through? How can the covenant come true if he kills his only son? Can you feel the inner struggle Abraham is going through? If he kills his son the covenant cannot come true but if he doesn’t kill his son Abraham will disobey God. Don’t forget about Sarah, Abraham left early in the morning without her knowing what he was to do so she would not try to stop him. Imagine returning home to tell your wife you just sacrificed your only son, the son that took 91 years to have. Can anyone spell D I V O R C E? What a struggle, what a test. God truly is testing Abraham but not tempting him. The test is intended to probe, strengthen, and purify Abraham, his chosen servant.

We see Abraham proceeding in faith with his answer to Isaac’s question about where the lamb was for the burnt offering. His response is both a confession

of faith and a prayer. Abraham is struggling yet proceeding in faith. He knows God will work it out but he doesn’t know how. Abraham passes the test and God provides a sacrificial ram caught in the thickets. Abraham triumphs in the Lord through faith. In our Epistle lesson James tells us a bit about struggles and tests. Verse 12 "¹²Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." That sounds like struggles and triumphs to me.

Abraham’s struggles lead to the triumphs that God gives to him. Some of those triumphs do not come in his lifetime, but they come from the Lord in His time. Can you see the common thread that runs through all of the struggles Abraham and Sarah face? What do they all have in common? They are all struggles of faith. Abraham cannot see the things that are promised to him so he doubts God will keep His word. Abraham does not yet believe that God will take care of him and his family so he lies about who his wife really is in Egypt to save himself. Sarah does not get pregnant right away so she doubts the word of the Lord that she will bear a son and tries to take matters into her own hands with Hagar. But in each case, they see that God is faithful to His word. Abraham is finally starting to realize that God will keep His word when he takes Isaac to be sacrificed. And God proves Himself faithful again. Their struggles, God’s triumphs.

We have struggles in our life. We struggle with earthly things like money, house, car, job, friends. These are not the things to struggle over, these struggles will not lead to a triumph of the "crown of life" James is talking about. We are to have faith that God will provide our daily bread as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. God wants us to struggle but He wants us to struggle with our faith and how that plays out for our mission here on earth. God calls us to accept His gift of grace and in turn love our neighbor’s as ourselves so we can continue our Father’s mission of being those whom "all nations on earth will be blessed." Though we struggle our triumph has been given to us by Jesus who remained steadfast under trial for you and me.

Jesus chooses to struggle by becoming the sacrificial ram caught in the thorns; those thorns would later be wrapped around his head as a makeshift crown. Jesus chooses the struggle of taking our place on the sacrificial altar. We deserve the death penalty for our sins but Jesus chooses to replace us. Isaac struggled when he had to carry his own wood for the sacrifice. Jesus also chooses the struggle of carrying His own wood, a beam by which He will be raised on the cross. He struggles through the agony of a slow and painful crucifixion. Jesus’ struggles came to an end when He declared "It is finished." Jesus triumphs over sin when He descends into hell to declare victory before Satan. Jesus triumphs over death when on the third day He rises from the dead and later ascends in bodily form into heaven and Jesus will triumph again when He comes back in bodily form on the last day in judgment where he will take those that have struggled and remained steadfast under trial. "¹²Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." That is the difference between our struggles, Abraham and Sarah included, and Jesus’ struggles. Our struggles are struggles of lack of faith in Him, His struggles are because He loves us so much He wants to take our struggles and turn them into triumphs.

God grant this to each of us, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.