Introduction/Preamble
As a classroom teacher for a number of years, I have always been fascinated by the behaviour patterns of my students. One of the things I have come to observe about students/young people is that they are just like us adults, just mini versions of us. They see and react to life in pretty much the same way, as their attitudes and behaviours often mimic our own.
One of our intriguing traits as humans, whether adults or youth, has always been the importance we place on the friends/peers one has, who one walks with. We tend to judge people based on the person/person with whom they walk. We know the old adage quite well – ‘Show me your company; I tell you who you are’.
At school, it is usually commonplace for a teacher of many students to either forget or confuse students’ names. Nine out of ten times when you ask students about their peers, the response is the same. For example, when you ask ‘John, do you know Sarah Brown from 9East?’ John’s response is almost spontaneous ‘Who she walk with Miss?’ Even us adults do it too. We know people, we remember people by who they walk with. And if we are not careful, we begin to treat people based on this judgment as well. You see, who we walk with is a very, very big deal. And so this morning, for a brief time, I want to arrest and capture our attention by asking this question, by issuing this challenge…who are you walking with?
Many believers, including some famous Biblical characters, it is said ‘walked with God’. We think of Enoch (Gen. 5:22 – 24) and Noah (Gen.6: 9). Then there is Jehoshaphat, King David and the list goes on. But what about you this morning? Who are you walking with? In a society that places so much importance on the company you keep, what can be said about you? Will people remember you like Enoch; for example, by saying ‘he/she walked with God’? Who are you walking with?
As we stand at the verge of a new day/ a new week, what stands out in my mind is how each new day we get represents a new and fresh opportunity to do things differently, to make a change, to do things right. Perhaps we spent last week walking with the wrong persons. Today offers us a new opportunity to change that. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am by no means suggesting that we get rid of or change our friends or peers. I am simply suggesting that we use these moments to take stock (again) of the lives we are living, lives that have been entrusted to us, loaned to us by Almighty God and to whom we will ultimately be accountable.
This morning I would like us to examine our lives as though it were a journey on which we were embarking…a journey somewhat similar to that which Abraham took, as recorded in the passage read earlier. Like Abraham we are presented with a new opportunity, with time. Like Abraham, we have no clue what lies ahead. Like Abraham, some of us don’t even know our destination, but we trust that there will be one and we know that we must do something to get there. Like Abraham, all we have to do is just take that first step. Might I ask then, who are you walking with on this journey called life? I believe Abraham knew exactly with whom he was walking, and that is why he is such a good example for our study this morning.
Never mind the fact that Abraham is by this time quite aged and possibly a wrinkled and bent old man. And never mind the fact that this story took place thousands of years ago. This great big wonderful God of Abraham, who walked with men then, can and still does so today. Isn’t the fact that many of us are here, alive and well this morning testimony to that? God still makes himself available to ‘walk’ with man. Are you walking with Him? Who are you walking with?
The challenge is ours as we look at Abraham’s journey into those mountains, as he demonstrated his walk with and faith in God, for us to walk like Abraham did. This God of Abraham wears many hats. It sounds strange but it is true…just like many of us here wear many hats. For example, there is Stacey the daughter (at home), the teacher (at school), the clown (with my friends). My roles change depending on my situation, just as God’s character changes from time to time, as He becomes what we require in order to meet our needs. He is our friend, our healer, our provider, our comfort, our source of reproof, our shelter, and our all in all as the songwriter says. Yet, despite these shifts in character, the essence of God and who He is never changes. Isn’t that a marvelous promise, a marvelous hope? He is and will always be the omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing/all wise) an omnipresent (here/there and everywhere) God! Abraham walked with this same God.
God the Protector
The first character of God we meet in this passage is God the protector (v.1 – 3). God the protector is He who takes us safely from one day into the next. It is He who sometimes brings us into and safely out of situations that cause us fear, situations of danger. God the protector readies us for greater service by testing us and by commissioning us to do His will…just as He did with Abraham of old. In order to understand fully the command given Abraham in v.2 regarding his son Isaac, one first has to think back to the events leading up to Isaac’s birth.
For many years, Abraham and Sarah wanted and no doubt tried really hard to have children, especially after God’s promise that Abraham (formerly Abram) would become the father of great (many) nations and would be blessed immensely. Both him and Sarah were servants of God. Yet, like we all tend to do, they too succumbed to the temptation to run ahead of God (help God out) by having a child, Ishmael through Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. At almost ninety years of age and with God’s promise still far from being fulfilled or so it seemed to Abraham and Sarah, they literally laughed at God. Yet it was no joke, when at age 100, almost ten years later or thereabouts they became parents of a baby boy, Isaac.
We fast forward through another couple of years. Isaac is now a young man. And God is testing his father Abraham by telling him to offer up his one, his only son as a burnt sacrifice. This son, for whom he had waited so long and whom he loved so much. But Abraham knew he was walking with God the protector and so he never hesitated. God said ‘Abraham’. Abraham’s response ‘Here I am!’ was spontaneous and demonstrated his readiness, his willingness to do as God said. God told him in no uncertain terms exactly what to do, take his only son and go into the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there. Again Abraham did not hesitate. The very next morning, no doubt at the crack of dawn (so great was Abraham’s faith), Abraham saddled his donkey and set off. What an example! The next morning! How many of us would have responded so quickly, to a command so difficult? In this age of individualism and materialism, where it is all about me, myself and I, my possessions, my resources; how many of us would have given up one precious possession so readily? Abraham could have been as responsive as he was because he knew without a shadow of a doubt with whom he was going on this journey. He knew with whom he was walking. What about you this morning? This week? Who are you walking with?
There are so many lessons to be learned from Abraham here. Among them is the lesson Abraham teaches about faithfulness and faith. He was ready, willing, able and obedient, even though it meant a sacrifice. What are we willing to sacrifice this morning, so that we too can walk with God the protector? Abraham willingly made provision to sacrifice his only son Isaac; some believe a foreshadowing of God offering His only Son, Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins. Perhaps we will have to sacrifice a friend or two! Perhaps it is a habit that will have to be sacrificed/laid on the altar! Maybe it is self and sin that need to be given up so we can truly walk with God as Abraham did. Can we like him, say ‘I walk with God the protector – I will obey Him’? Noah walked with God the protector. He obeyed Him to the ‘t’, when God gave Him specific directions to build the ark. We all know very well how God kept him safe during the great flood. If God protects those who obey Him, what are we waiting for this morning? Who are we walking with?
God the provider
The second character of God we meet is God the provider. I can just imagine those two servants whispering among themselves as they prepared for that journey with Abraham. They must have mocked this old man for wanting to go off (at his age) on such a journey. They probably though him senile as he packed everything he would need to prepare for a sacrifice except the sacrifice itself. No doubt they probably laughed at him, pretty much the way those before them had mocked and laughed at Noah while he worked on the ark. A very critical lesson here for all of us is this – when you walk with God, prepare to be mocked, laughed at, scorned, ridiculed. There will always be distracters and detractors, those who would want you to give up or give in, those who will scoff at your walk with God, those who will shun you for that very reason. Just remember, God the provider always provides not just for our physical being; but our emotional and spiritual needs as well. He always has a way out, even when we cannot see it, especially if we cannot see it.
What a lesson! What a lesson for those of us who would rather wait on the 1’o’clock draw than wait on God! What a lesson for those of us who cannot wait on God to do things in His time, but instead spend all our time and efforts trying all kinds of means to help out God. He does not want us to fix it ourselves this morning. He doesn’t want us to provide for ourselves either. He wants us to trust Him and only Him – God the provider. When we begin to walk with God, we will have to trust Him, not just with our lips but also more importantly with our very lives, our actions. Abraham tied up his son, laid him on the altar, took up his knife, was about to slay him…deliberate actions!
What are we doing this morning to demonstrate that you and I are walking with God the provider? Are we waiting on Him/trusting Him to provide those much-needed funds for that school fee, that doctor bill, that exam fee? Or are we too busy ‘cutting corners’ as we engage in ‘under the table’ deals? Are we really trusting God the provider? Do we believe that He can and will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory? Are we even walking with Him? Many times we want the hand of God the provider and that’s all we want. We don’t give Him anything in return. We don’t seek His face. We don’t want to know His will for our lives. We just want what we can get from Him. Thanks be to God, He does not treat us like we do Him!
Genesis 22:13 tells us that just as Abraham was about to plunge that knife into Isaac’s flesh, he heard the voice of the angel of the Lord. He looked up and there was a ram, ready for sacrifice, caught in a thicket nearby. Almighty God does deliver, always provides, right on time. All He requires of us is that we trust Him, rely on Him, have faith in Him. After all, He knows best…not our best, because we in our feebleness cannot know what is best for us. God knows best…won’t you trust Him today? He wants to be your ‘everything’. He wants to be your provider.
God the promise keeper
Then finally, we are introduced to God the promise keeper. All of us love this character of God, as though He owes us anything. We take His word and His promises seriously but we don’t even want to live up to our end of the bargain. In vs.13 - 14 we get a glimpse of how it should work. Abraham realized that God had kept His promises to protect and to provide. What did He do? He acknowledged God as promise keeper by honouring Him. How did Abraham do this? He took the ram, which God himself had provided and made it a sacrifice. He worshipped there, in that very spot and then named the place in God’s honour, so that it became a landmark, a memorial for those who would come after him.
When we walk with God the promise keeper, we must honour Him with our resources and with our lives, not so much for our own benefit but also more importantly so others will know Him as that kind of God too. Psalm 37:4+5 tells us ‘delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to the Lord and He will do this’. We honour God the promise keeper, so that others will also come to know and honour Him as well. Remember St. Matthew 5:16 - ‘Let your light so shine before men, that others may see your good works and come to glorify your Father in heaven’? We all know this is never as easy as it sounds.
Thankfully we have a God who is never slack concerning His promises. Just know that our responsibility in this regard is to walk with Him: obeying Him, trusting Him and He will take care of the rest. Just look at Abraham. Little did he know that he would have returned home with Isaac (alive) but he did know for sure that God would have kept His earlier promise to make Him father of great (many) nations. Why? Because Abraham knew without any doubt, with whom he was walking. He completely trusted the person with whom he was walking.
Conclusion
What about you and I this morning? Who are we walking with? Do we really trust and can we really count on the person/s with whom we are walking through this life? This walk is not just a physical one but a spiritual one as well. Earlier I mentioned that we are often judged or treated in one way or another depending on who we are walking with.
If we are not walking with God, especially in these uncertain and trying times, then we will be judged as such on that day. If we are walking with Him, our judgement will reflect that as well. Who are you walking with? Can you trust this person to stick with you, to walk with you, to see you through all the challenges that lie ahead?
Are you walking with someone who loves you unconditionally? Are you walking with someone who cares about you enough to sacrifice it all only for you, to die for you? Are you walking with someone who can give you the gift of eternal life?
Or are you walking blindly this morning? Are you keeping company with someone who does not even have your best interests at heart? Are you walking with someone who does not favour you highly? Is it someone who can neither protect you nor provide for you?
Perhaps you are walking alone this morning because you are tired of empty and broken promises? Perhaps you feel that there is just no one who can protect you, provide for you?
Maybe you started walking with this God of Abraham and over time you let go of His hand. Perhaps you saw a path that was better, prettier? You have wandered away from His company because you thought you could provide for yourself, you could protect yourself. You have forgotten His promises because you broke yours to follow Him to the end.
Whatever your situation may be this morning, Abraham through his demonstration of faith introduces us to someone with whom we can walk through this journey called life. His name is Almighty God. You can walk with Him; you have only to take that first step…He is here…He is waiting…
§ God the protector – obey Him!
§ God the provider – trust Him!
§ God the promise keeper – honour Him!
May God help us all so to do for His namesake, until He comes. Amen.
