Parashat Vayera: Gen 18:1 - 22:24

Abraham's birth was around 2100 – 1800 BCE. For discussion purposes, we will place it in the middle of this time at around 1950 BCE. His departure from Haran, after the death of Terah, was at 75 yrs of age. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old. The Akedah (Binding of Isaac) occurred, by some estimations when Isaac was between 15 and 25 yrs old. This puts the event of the Akedah around 1835-1825 BCE from our starting date.

Notice that God spoke to Abraham after the death of his father Terah who was an idolater. This is not to say that God never spoke to their family before. Figuratively, it does say that we can hear God's voice clearer when the things we have put before him die. When our obedience to God is in first place the revelation of God can come and things can change. Abraham's simple obedience to the word of God set in motion a nation of Hebrew people that were to come. The word Hebrew means to cross over. It typified Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's pursuit of God and it applies to us today.

Abraham did something radical. He left his homeland, his security, and his kin. Only outcasts or merchants took to the roads. Abraham was neither and his monotheistic views were in the minority of his day. It had been around 900 yrs since the flood. The world's population may have been only 15- 20 million people and the world had already fallen into idolatry.

So Abraham embarked on his journey, which was a partnership with God. For 25 years Abram and his barren wife Sarai traveled in Canaan, built altars, and worshiped. They invested in the revelation of God and it was at least 15 more years before God spoke to him concerning sacrificing Issac on Moriah. At this point, Abraham had 40 years invested in cultivating and developing the revelation God gave him. Then in Genesis chapter twenty-two all of this comes crashing down when God tells him to go to Mt Moriah to sacrifice his only son. The son of his promise.

There is a place in carrying out the vision of God where faith has to move from simple obedience, to sacrifice. God called Abraham with a promise and for forty years he pursued the revelation of God. Now he felt powerless, confused, and betrayed. It is not long before you step out on what God told you to do that your faith is tested. Abraham was called the father of the faithful, but that faith had to be built. It was built with every altar, with every challenge that threatened his purpose, and with everything that refined his character. In our story God seems to challenge Abraham's faith and resolve, as if God was asking, "Abraham, you have come a long way and traveled far, but how far will you go to really trust me?" The picture on Moriah seems bleak, but it is the first time the word love is used. It was also on this pinnacle that another revelation broke where Abraham and everyone who came after him sees a prophetic picture of Yeshua the Messiah.

Don't despise that desperate place. It is not uncommon for God to challenge our faith to the degree that sacrifice is required. God is not slack concerning his promise (he is not slow but patient, 2 Pet 3:9). He will bring his will in his time and in a way that strengthens our faith. From Abraham's perspective, everything that God had led him to do was caught between his duty to obey and a strained sense of trust. From God's perspective, that dark place would open up a light for generations of people to believe.

God did not ordain the promise that he spoke to you to die on a mountain of bad circumstances or languish on a bed of spiritual affliction. Some types of faith are only born in trial. It is this sacrificial faith that God brings us into the deep places of his calling and election. If you are looking at a Moriah today, it is not a burial ground of broken spiritual promises and stillborn hopes. God ordained you to be salt and light to the world, a city on a hill. When God breaks open revelation through your life and calling, a faith is born that will lead people toward God. Don't let the pandemic, the chaos, or the politics distract you from your purpose. God is at work and time is short.

Rav Calev Lehrer Apostolic Messianic International- Gulf Coast Parler, Rumble, Facebook