Kill Your Dreams

Which is more important to you: God’s promise or God?

You may be familiar with the story of Abraham. God made some pretty heavy promises to him, like these:

God made all these promises to Abraham, but they all hinged on Abraham having a son.

And Abraham was getting old with still no son in sight. He could have given up, but instead he talked to God about it. Here’s his conversation with the Lord in Genesis 15:2-5 (note that Abram is Abraham; God changes his name from Abram to Abraham later):

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

But still he had no son. So, in Genesis 16, Abraham’s barren wife Sarah (then Sarai) suggested that perhaps her servant Hagar could bear a son for him. Their plan was successful, but it was still their plan, not God’s.

Abraham was getting old by the time God came to tell him the son He’d promised him was was on the way. Look at their exchange in Genesis 17:17-21:

Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!”

But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant. As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiply his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.”

Notice that God specifically says that Isaac is the child of the promise. He says it again in Genesis 21:12:

“Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”

This is really important to note, because God Himself has said that His promises will be fulfilled through Isaac and not another son.

God made a very specific promise to Abraham and made clear that without Isaac the promise could not be fulfilled.

So isn’t it a little shocking when God tells Abraham to kill his son?

Genesis 22:2 says God said to Abraham:

“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

I don’t know about you, but I would totally be reeling. After all, God had made all these promises to Abraham - not just once, not flippantly, but over and over again, and He had very specifically stated that those promises required Isaac…and yet here, suddenly, out of the blue, He tells Abraham to go and kill the child all those promises are hinging on? What?

But notice what the verse before that says:

Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith.

God was testing Abraham.

God wanted to know if Abraham would still be faithful to Him even after he’d been given everything.

As it turns out, Abraham was willing to trust God, and God stopped him from killing Isaac at the last second because Isaac’s death was never what He really wanted.

Abraham believed that what God said was true. That means He also believed that God’s promises could only come to pass through Isaac. But Abraham knew God was good and had faith that even if he killed his son God would find a way to bring him back, because God keeps His promises and Abraham was willing to bet everything on that.

Hebrews 11:17-19 says:

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

Sometimes God calls us to lay down the very things our hopes are pinned on - like Abraham with Isaac - not because He doesn’t want to give us those things, but because they cannot carry our hopes. Only God can be our hope.

If we put our trust and hope in anything other than God, even in God’s promises to us, we’ve made those promises idols because we’re trusting them instead of God.

If we can’t choose God when we are faced with a choice between chasing the dreams and promises God’s given us or being obedient to Him, then we can’t steward the great things He’s called us to and the great gifts He has in store for us.

In John 12:24, Jesus said a seed must die before it can bear fruit. [Remember how Abraham was asked to sacrifice his “seed” before he saw its fruit?]

Sometimes God asks us to make the choice. Which is more important to us, our hopes and dreams, or Him? Only when we choose Him can we be faithful stewards of the beautiful plans He has for us. And only in Him is our joy complete.