Today's Surrender Is Tomorrow's FreedomНамуна

I walked across campus for the last time carrying the very instrument that made it possible for me to attend college. I had been awarded a music scholarship to study music education, and in exchange for the funds, I would play the tuba anytime and every time the school had a need for a tuba.

As I walked across campus that Fall day, there was a lot I did not know. I didn’t know how I would pay for college. I didn’t know what this would mean for my future career. I didn’t know what would happen with the music classes in which I was already enrolled. What I DID know, though, is that God was directing me to surrender playing the tuba and studying music and to follow His leading into pastoral ministry.

Hebrew Rabbis call today’s passage The Akedah because this is the Hebrew word used in v.9 to describe the pinnacle of Abraham’s surrender - he bound (akedah) Isaac.

As Abraham wrapped that rope around Isaac, there was a lot that he didn’t know. Would Sarah ever forgive him for sacrificing her only son? How would God keep His promise to make Abraham’s descendants more bountiful than the stars in the sky or the sand on the beach? Would anything ever make him chuckle again? (Isaac means laughter in Hebrew.) What he DID know is that God was calling him to surrender Isaac.

Abraham was not the only one surrendering on that mountain, though. Isaac was roughly 100 years younger and stronger than his dad; he could have turned the tables and made Abraham the sacrifice that day. In surrender, Isaac allowed his father to bind him with the rope that he himself had carried up the mountain and lay him on top of the wood that Isaac himself had shouldered.

Here’s the thing about surrender: surrender reflects God. We are never more like Jesus than when we surrender.

On that mountain, Abraham reflects God the Father - a Father who will not spare his own Son, but will deliver him up (Romans 8:32).

On that altar, Isaac reflects Jesus - a Son willing to lay down His life in reverent submission to His Father (Hebrews 5:7).

What about you? What is God calling you to surrender so that you can reflect Jesus?