Human beings haven't changed much in 4,000 years. The longing for children and the desire for land still crop up with surprising emotional power.
Consider the estimated six million American couples - one in seven would-be parents - who are unable to have children. For most of them, this brings deep anguish. Or think about the hundreds of people who line up outside banks, sleeping on the sidewalks, cooking on hibachis, when a state offers special low-interest housing loans. They will do almost anything to own instead of rent.
Abraham would have understood. When God wanted his attention, he promised him land and more sons than he could count. To a Babylonian emigrant, 75 years old and childless, owning nothing but his tents and animals, the promises sounded wonderful. In fact, they sounded impossible. Yet, because God himself was making the promise, Abraham "believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness" (15:6).
For the God who had created the heavens and the earth, making good on the promises ought to have been a snap. But God did not make it easy for Abraham. Not until 25 years later, when he was 100, did the promise of a son come true. Then, incredibly, God told Abraham to make a human sacrifice of his little boy. It was really asking too much.
Astonishingly, Abraham followed God's orders. And God gave him back his son. |
