Scene One:

Imagine Abraham – He and Sarah have waited 25 years to have a child. A child that God promised them, a child that they had to wait a very long time for! They even took matters into their own hands just in case God needed some help, and Abraham had a child with Hagar (Sarah’s servant) – , a wrong choice, maybe made because of fear that the promised child wasn’t coming! Eventually, Isaac came! A beautiful boy and the long awaited child of the promise.

One day, – scholars believe Isaac could have been around 14 and even as old as 37 which some Jewish writings suggest – God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son! Wait! What? Did I hear correctly, God? The child of the promise and the one we’ve waited 25 years for. You want me to sacrifice him? ‘Yes Abraham!’

This story is found in Genesis 22. Off they go up the mountain with just the wood! As they get near the top, Isaac begins to question his dad, ‘Where’s the sacrifice dad?’ Abraham says, ‘God will provide, son’ How nervous was Abraham do you think? He was pretty confident and we  know this because he leaves his servant to look after the stuff and he says to him, ‘wait here and WE will return’ How nervous was Isaac? Did he squirm to get off the wood, did he abuse his father with shouts and objections? Can you imagine trying to hold your 14 year old son down on a wooden fire ready to sacrifice him? (At age 14, this might be easier to imagine! Haha! – don’t imagine too hard!)

Just as Abraham is about to do the deed – an angel calls from heaven and says, ‘don’t do it!’ (My version)  I’m sure there were huge sighs of relief all round! And, of course we know that there in the bushes, God indeed had provided a ram for the sacrifice.

Scene Two:

Imagine the disciples. Matthew 10

Jesus’ calling of the 12 disciples. He tells them to go and proclaim the kingdom of heaven – Jesus is sending out his team, but he says to them, ‘don’t go anywhere near the Gentiles’ (v5) Wait! What? Isn’t the Kingdom of heaven for everyone? Of course, but Jesus clearly says, don’t go to the Gentiles. Fast forward to Acts 10. Peter has the dream of the sheet with unclean animals on it and God directing him to kill and eat! Peter says no at first because this went against everything he had ever lived by and known. This was of course, Peter’s directive to go to the Gentiles! The thing that Jesus told them not to do, they were now being told to do it!

These two stories and I’m sure there are others are a great help to us and let me explain why:

God clearly told Abraham to kill his son – then He told him not to.

Jesus told the disciples not to go anywhere near the Gentiles – then the Lord tells them to.

What if Abraham and Peter had stood firm on the first word and ignored the second?

God speaks to His children all the time. And, I believe that there are times that we have to stand on the Word until we see it come into being. But, what these two examples show me is that sometimes God says something in contrary to what He’s said before. Just because God said something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s permanent.

If you’re still standing on a word, just make sure you haven’t missed any ‘memos’ from God that may have changed what He once said.

Hear God today!