The other day I wrote about the fact that there is no sure-fire way of determining what is God's will. Well, last night when I went to check my e-mail there was an article on the news section that talked about a 4-year-old boy who had been abandoned on a lonely Texas highway in the middle of the night by his father. The father's reasoning? "God told me to."
Now I doubt very much that my pastor is going to preach on this since it is his policy only to preach from the Bible but I do think some things need to be said about this. It's all too easy to say that this man was a crackpot and that God doesn't tell people to do that sort of thing.
Oh really? Seems that there was this fellow in the Book of Genesis who tried for years to have a son. In fact he and his wife had given up all hope whene a miracle occurred and she got pregnant even though she had gone through the change. And what does God tell him a few years later? "Take your son, the one you love, and go to this mountain and sacrifice him to me!"
And that is exactly what Abraham did--or tried to do, before he was allegedly stopped by an angel right as he was about to plunge the knife into Isaac. The Bible doesn't record how Isaac felt about this, nor his mother Sarah, but I bet there was a pretty interesting discussion around the dinner table that night. And it's interesting that Isaac doesn't seem to be as chummy with the Lord as his father was.
The sad thing about this little tale is that Abraham, because of his unquestioning obedience, became a hero to three major monotheistic faiths. Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks pretty approvingly of him--without ever specifying what Abraham was commanded to do. That's pretty scary. Unfortunately for the father who abandoned his son in the desert at God's command, the Texas judicial system is not so approving and he may face the death penalty for his actions.
Well, that happened a long time ago, and God only commanded it to prove a point, you might say. But if you were up on that mountain and you saw a man lifting a knife over a bound boy, would you accept his explanation that "God told me to do this", or would you interfere and set the boy free and call Child Protective Services? I know I sure would, God's "command" be damned. There are just some commands that should not be obeyed and it does not matter who gives them.
So to those who say that God didn't command that man to throw his kid out of the truck, how do you know? It's already been established at least once--in Sacred Scripture, no less--that God is capable of giving such commands, and that the person who follows them is to be commended.
Now I doubt very much that my pastor is going to preach on this since it is his policy only to preach from the Bible but I do think some things need to be said about this. It's all too easy to say that this man was a crackpot and that God doesn't tell people to do that sort of thing.
Oh really? Seems that there was this fellow in the Book of Genesis who tried for years to have a son. In fact he and his wife had given up all hope whene a miracle occurred and she got pregnant even though she had gone through the change. And what does God tell him a few years later? "Take your son, the one you love, and go to this mountain and sacrifice him to me!"
And that is exactly what Abraham did--or tried to do, before he was allegedly stopped by an angel right as he was about to plunge the knife into Isaac. The Bible doesn't record how Isaac felt about this, nor his mother Sarah, but I bet there was a pretty interesting discussion around the dinner table that night. And it's interesting that Isaac doesn't seem to be as chummy with the Lord as his father was.
The sad thing about this little tale is that Abraham, because of his unquestioning obedience, became a hero to three major monotheistic faiths. Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks pretty approvingly of him--without ever specifying what Abraham was commanded to do. That's pretty scary. Unfortunately for the father who abandoned his son in the desert at God's command, the Texas judicial system is not so approving and he may face the death penalty for his actions.
Well, that happened a long time ago, and God only commanded it to prove a point, you might say. But if you were up on that mountain and you saw a man lifting a knife over a bound boy, would you accept his explanation that "God told me to do this", or would you interfere and set the boy free and call Child Protective Services? I know I sure would, God's "command" be damned. There are just some commands that should not be obeyed and it does not matter who gives them.
So to those who say that God didn't command that man to throw his kid out of the truck, how do you know? It's already been established at least once--in Sacred Scripture, no less--that God is capable of giving such commands, and that the person who follows them is to be commended.
