Promises, Promises: The Adventures of Abe and Ike

At the age of seventy-five, with no children and a wife who was called barren, Abe, having been ordered by the Creator to leave his land, relatives, and his father’s house, received his first promises from God (from the book of Genesis 12:2-3 in the New American Bible Revised Edition):

• I will make of you a great nation
• I will bless you
• I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing
• I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you
• All the families of the earth will find blessing in you

Though we are not told what kind of life Abe lived for the first three quarters of a century, once he got hooked up with the Lord, our wanderer’s existence was anything but dull. For the next 25 years he wandered in and around the land promised to him by God, with a side trip to Egypt where there was trouble with Pharoah over Abe’s wife who was passing as his sister. This little imbroglio was repeated years later with the King of Gerar. Later on, Abe battled with four kings to save his nephew, who was kidnapped with his household and wealth.

Still, as the years passed, Abe and his wife had no son of their own to carry out the plans of God. Only once did Abe express his frustration with the promises, asking the Lord what good would it all be if he died childless. God reassured him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, and this quieted Abe’s passionate concern. The Lord “attributed it to him as an act of righteousness.” [15:6b]

The wife (aka Sis), apparently not as convinced by the stars, and impatient for a child, gave him her servant, who bore Ishmael. Needless to say, this did not work out well. As time and the traveling tribe moved on, more details about the future were revealed, the promises evolved into a covenant with terms painful (for Abe and the men, circumcision) and cosmetic (Abe and the wife, name changes).

Finally, after all the travels, wars, destruction, altar building, political and diplomatic intrigue, surgical procedures, and household unrest, God dropped in with two angels to announce that the time was at hand. This nomad on the verge of 100 years old, and called “as good as dead” by the writer of Hebrews, was finally going to be a proud papa borne from his equally elderly wife who was quite amused by the possibility, but reluctant to admit it.

Could Abe now sit back and enjoy his son, knowing that this lad will be the instrument of all that was prophesied by the Divine Author? Has he demonstrated sufficiently his obedience and faith in all that was told to him by the Lord God? Apparently not.

We don’t need Paul Harvey to tell us the rest of the story. Abe’s son, Ike grew into a healthy and happy young lad. Sometime later the Lord told Abe, to take Ike to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a sacrifice. The ever-faithful follower obediently and unprotestingly trekked off with the wood and the fire and the boy. No sooner had they arrived when Ike realized that something was missing, and asked Papa Abe about the animal to be sacrificed. Abe answered him that, “God will provide…” When Abe had arranged the wood on the altar, he bound up his cherished offspring, put him on top of the wood, and took out his knife for the slaughter. No protest or struggle was recorded from the son/sacrifice.

As the knife was wielded, an angel of God intervened, providing a ram for slaughter, and reaffirming that Abe’s descendants would be numerous, would “possess the gates of their enemies,” and be a blessing to the earth because of the faith of the ancient man who was willing to give his son back to God.

No less amazing than the faith of Abraham was the obedience of his son Isaac. Did he understand what his father said, that a sacrifice would be supplied by the Creator? The trust of the man who gave so freely of his beloved is eclipsed by the faith of the son, tied up and ready to be slaughtered, when the youth could have easily overpowered his elderly dad. As God gave his only Son to us to be sacrificed, so Abe gave his. And both Jesus and Ike went ahead obediently to face what their fathers had in store for them.

This is what I think of on Passion Sunday. Jesus, like Ike, knows that a sacrifice is imminent. All signs seem to indicate who the victim will be. Ike did not have to die. Jesus died for him, and for all of us. I only hope that the less costly sacrifices I have faced through this Lenten season were confronted with as much faith and fortitude as that shown by Ike and Jesus, and yes, Abe, who was willing, like our Father, to hand over his son to be our salvation.