Faith and Sacrifice--by Linden Malki

         
The concept of bringing an offering to God goes back to the first family: Abel brought a choice lamb from his flock, and Cain brought an offering of produce from his field. Abel's offering was accepted;  Cain's was not, and we see that the acceptable offering was a living creature, the best of the flock. (There is a provision for an offering of produce of the field, but Cain apparently did not fulfill the requirements.) After the Flood, we see Noah bringing an offering of "clean" animals and birds from the additional ones on the Ark.

The next major character in our story is Abram/Abraham, who is called by God and offered a covenant as the father of nations if he will move his family to a new land. Abram's only son was from his barren wife's  slave, but he was willing to go where God sent him, and every where he stopped, we see him building an altar for an offering.  What he did not expect was the birth of a son by his elderly wife and the promise that this son Isaac would be the ancestor of a nation, and then the more surprising command that he was to take Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice.  We know the story:
Abraham's faith that God would (and did) provide a miracle and Isaac would come back--alive--with him. (There is a Jewish legend that the stress of this caused the death of Sarah; which would have made Isaac in his 30's at the time. This is possible; Isaac didn't marry until he was 40.)

There is more to the tradition of sacrifice: when the law was given to Moses 500 years later, it included a provision for the firstfruits of crops and the firstborn of animals were to be offered to God, including the firstborn son.  However, the son was to be brought to God but an animal was to be offered as a substitute, as a reminder of the loss of the Egyptian firstborns in the plague that freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The idea of sacrificing sons was common in the surrounding pagan cultures; after the fall of Jericho, there was a prophecy that if the city were to be rebuilt it would be at the cost of the builder's sons--and in 1 Kings 16 we see this fulfilled during the time of the apostate King Ahab of Israel. Over a thousand years later, we see Jeremiah preaching against Israelites who copied the Moabite practice of sacrificing children to their  "god" Chemoth (borrowed from neighboring tribes)-and they were originally related to Abraham through his nephew Lot.

Unfortunately, we live in a world today where children and young people are not safe; there are still places where young people are killed to preserve a family's "honor", and too many die of violence, drugs, trafficking, abuse, and neglect in many parts of the world including our own country.  Those of us who know that we are all responsible to each other and that this breaks God's heart, need to be in prayer and take the challenge as His church to combat the evil that too many face in our world.