Our hardest sacrifices are never so hard as we thought they were going to be, if we go on with them to the uttermost that God asks.

A sacrifice of self to God’s will made halfway, or even nine-tenths, is a grinding, cruel experience.

When it is made the whole way, with the altar built and self laid upon the altar, God always comes with an unexpected blessing that so overwhelms us with love and joy that the hardship of the sacrifice sinks out of sight.

“Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld” (v. 12). Can He say that to us today?

No one ever knows the full joy of hearing the word from God until the altar has been built and the knife is laid to the sacrifice.

MESSAGES FOR THE MORNING WATCH

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?

Your heart, does the Spirit control?

You can only be blest and have peace and sweet rest

As you yield Him your body and soul.

In this chapter, Abraham pleaded with God for the lives of others. A friend of God’s can do exactly that. But perhaps you see Abraham’s level of faith and his friendship with God as something far beyond your own possibilities. Do not be discouraged, however, for Abraham grew in his faith not by giant leaps but step by step. And we can do the same.

The person whose faith has been severely tested yet who has come through the battle victoriously is the person to whom even greater tests will come. The finest jewels are those that are the most carefully cut and polished, and the most precious metals are put through the hottest fires. You can be sure Abraham would never have been called the Father of Faith had he not been tested to the utmost.

Read Genesis 22. In verse 2 God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son—whom you love—Isaac and . . . sacrifice him.” We then see him climbing Mount Moriah with his heart heavy and yearning yet humbly obedient. He climbed with Isaac, the object of his great love, who was about to be sacrificed at the command of God—the One whom Abraham faithfully loved and served!

What a lesson this should be to us when we question God’s dealings in our lives! Rebuke all explanations that try to cast doubt on this staggering scene, for this was an object lesson for all ages! Angels also looked on in awe. Will Abraham’s faith not stand forever as a strength and a help to all God’s people? Will his trial not be a witness to the fact that unwavering faith will always prove the faithfulness of God?

The answer is a resounding—yes! And once Abraham’s faith had victoriously endured its greatest test, the Angel of the Lord—the Lord Jesus, Jehovah, and He in whom the “many promises God has made . . . are ‘Yes’ . . . [and] ‘Amen’ ” (2 Corinthians 1:20)—spoke to him and said, “Now I know that you fear God” (Genesis 22:12). The Lord said to him, in effect, “Because you have trusted me through this great trial, I will trust you, and you will forever be ‘my friend’ [Isaiah 41:8].” The Lord promised Abraham, “I will surely bless you . . . and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:17–18).

It is true, and always will be, that “those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:9).

Having a friendship with God is no small thing.