The tragic picture of Alan Kurdi lying dead on the Turkish beach has one silver lining. It has spurred the world to action in speeding up the long-awaited migrant resettlement process.
Kurdi’s dad lost two of his precious sons and a wife. Even then, he undertook the trip to his native Qubani in Syria in order to bury the sons in their homeland.
Reading the touching anecdote reminded me of a Jewish father who was about to give up his only son, not because of political pressure, but under God-honouring compulsion.
But in the nick of time this lad’s life was spared. This mobile and migrant dad was Abraham, the affluent patriarch who had his priorities straight.
Abraham’s prosperity didn’t take him away from God to look for safer and secure pastures in far-off lands. Every time he moved and pitched his tent, he also built an altar to the One under whose direction he was voyaging.
Talking about his nomadic life, the writer of the book of Hebrews says, “Because he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Abraham sought a new world, more stable and much more eternal than European or North American shores, as his family’s permanent refuge.
Then one day a test came to him when God told him, “Take thy son and offer a sacrifice of him.”
And as if to rub into him precisely what He was asking, God added, “Thine only son, Isaac.” That name reminded Abraham of his son of promise.
God had promised that through Isaac the world would be blessed some day and the Redeemer of mankind would come in his line.
God said to Abraham, “Make an offering out of him. I am not asking you just to take him up on top of a mountain and stab him to death.
“I’m asking you to do it as a religious act of devotion, of worship, of adoration, of love towards me.
“It has to be a religious exercise. You are to make a real service out of it with the right attitude of heart.”
The Bible tells us that when Abraham heard that, the very next morning he started on his way. That’s how quick he was to obey God.
God came before his family and before his children.
If the meaning of that is properly understood, it won’t bring problems; it would only bring blessings to our families and our children.
So Abraham went up to that mountain, without wavering. And what had God promised?
It’s that through the son who was about to be sacrificed, the whole world was going to be blessed. Jesus was going to come down in his line.
Now comes this paradoxical, contradictory command in which God said, “Put him on an altar and make him an offering.” Without hesitation, Abraham went up to the mountain where this was to take place.
Hebrews chapter 11 gives a beautiful insight into this story where it says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac . . . accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.”
Do we get the picture?
The late V. Raymond Edman, president of Wheaton College, used to say: “Never doubt in the dark what God has promised you in the light.”
In the light God said, “Abraham, Isaac is the man through whom the Messiah would come into the world.”
And when darkness came, Abraham held on to that promise and must have said, “Dear God, I believe you.
“And I take my son up there and you allow me to take his life. You are going to have to raise him from the dead because I am holding you to your word.”
How’s that for real faith?
Abraham had his priorities straight: God first. Not like Eli, the high priest, the sweet old man who helped Samuel find the Lord.
God told him one time, “Eli, you prefer your sons above me, because when they do evil, you don’t restrain them.”
Eli’s sons, who were also priests, were tampering with offerings of the temple. This was a serious offence because those offerings pre-pictured Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
The boys tampered with offerings of the Lord and, beyond that, they committed immorality with women worshippers in the precinct of God’s temple.
And instead of tearing their priestly robes off, all Eli would say, “Naughty, naughty. Daddy wishes you won’t do that.”
Eli’s priorities were mixed up. God said, “You prefer your sons above me.”
Fathers, grandpas, let us remind ourselves that we are the priests of the families we represent.
And it’s our job to raise children and grandchildren as His followers no matter what the cost may be.
Narayan Mitra is the pastor of Merritt Baptist Church. [email protected]
