Choose To Worship

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” - Genesis 22:2-5

Earlier this morning, I was reading a devotion about worship. In the middle of the devotion, the writer pointed out that the first time the word “worship” is ever used in Scripture is in today’s key passage — the story of Abraham and Isaac.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read and heard this story over the years. It’s one that many pastors and teachers like to use to talk about obedience. But I never realized until today that this story is also about worship.

Here was Abraham, having finally received the son that he had been praying for for years, and now God was asking him to give Isaac up. He was asking him to sacrifice the greatest answer to prayer he’d ever been given. And even still, Abraham chose to worship. He chose to honor God with what he’d been given, no matter what the end result would be.

Now, I don’t think anyone would have blamed Abraham if he hadn’t initially been so willing to sacrifice Isaac. He could have argued with God. He could have burst out in anger. He could have cried and begged God not to make him go through with the sacrifice. Honestly, that’s probably what I would have done. But no, Abraham chose to obey and to trust. And in doing so, he chose to worship.

When we find ourselves in situations where God is asking us to sacrifice something, what is our response? Are we as willing to trust and obey as Abraham was? Do we default to a posture of worship? Or do we resist and fight back because we don’t understand why God is asking us to sacrifice something so important and valuable to us?

I think we can all learn a lot from Abraham’s choice to worship in response to God’s command to sacrifice his son. Because even though we are never told that following the Lord’s lead will be easy, we are told that we serve a God who we can trust and who always has our best interest at heart.

So if you feel like God is asking you to sacrifice something in your life right now, or if you can sense God leading you away from something you don’t want to leave, my prayer is that you will choose to obey, that you will choose to trust, and more than anything, that you will choose to worship.