Godly Parenting Part 1: Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac
The faith of Abraham, the willingness of Isaac, and the graciousness of God
Today is the first post in a series of posts on Godly parenting. My hope for the next few weeks is to simply get us to better understand our role in the stewarding of our children. Each post will focus on a particular Scripture reference that can guide us and assist us as we seek to be Godly parents.
Today’s text will be focused on Genesis 22. I won’t spend a great deal of time exegeting this text, but I will do my best to provide a summary and some context to how we ended up here. I would also highly recommend you go and read Genesis 16-21 to get a clear picture on why Genesis 22 and the story of Abraham and Isaac is so important as we look at our own parenting.
In previous chapters leading up to chapter 22 we are told that Abraham and Sarah are unable to get pregnant. They desperately want a child, but Sarah hasn’t been able to conceive. In light of this, some things occur as these two seek to make their own way to parenting. We won’t get into that here, but the path they chose was not ideal.
We then see in chapter 17 that God promises Abraham that Sarah will conceive a son. This made Abraham fall to the ground in laughter as both he and Sarah were of advanced age and long past their reproductive years. Their laughter was met with rebuke from God as he replied, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Understanding that the Lord was serious, Abraham and Sarah accepted this news and a year later gave birth to Isaac. The son they so desperately wanted had come.
This, although not exhaustive, brings us to chapter 22 and where I want us to focus today. Every single time that I read Genesis 22 I am blown away at the faith of Abraham, the willingness of Isaac, and the graciousness of God.
Genesis 22:1-14
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.
This text is so heavy. Abraham and Sarah, more than most, could have argued ownership of their child. A child they prayed for, longed for, and thought was out of reach. They could have become helicopter parents. They could have wrapped him in bubble wrap and sheltered him from everything. They could have, but they didn’t. Why? Because they understood that Isaac was a gift that needed stewarding. He wasn’t a gift to lord over. They knew that God granted their desire for a child and that God, ultimately, was in the driver’s seat when it came to Isaac’s upbringing.
The trust of Abraham in this moment is something that I struggle to fathom, but I so admire. Abraham had received blessings on top of blessings. He could have let all that go to his head, but instead he continued to trust and look to God for guidance. I can just imagine that moment when Abraham heard the voice of the LORD telling him to not harm Isaac. What a relief, affirmation, and blessing to hear that God was providing a sacrifice to take the place of his son.
I could go on and on about this text, but I want to give us some practical tips as we look at Genesis 22 in light of our own parenting and stewardship. Some of us prayed for years for a child. The Lord granted that via birth or even adoption, but these blessings didn’t come without a lot of tears, fears, and uncertainties. It is in these times of struggles that we can turn into overly protective parents that lord over our children seeking to protect them from all the ills of the world. The unattended consequences of this style of parenting will have us extinguishing their growth and any flame that they might have.
The opposite is true here too. Some of us, out of fear of being overly protective, will allow our children to lord over their own life, rule the roost, and figure things out for themselves. This distant style of parenting isn’t the answer to good stewardship either. So, what are we to do?
We must find a sweet spot where we are protecting our children from wolves and the world while also allowing them to flourish and grow in maturity as a human and as a follower of Christ. The best illustration I can give for this is the game of tug of war. We are playing tug of war with our children from the day they are born. This is a game we are destined to lose. Each day they are in our care we are slowly being pulled closer and closer to the line. Some days we will be forced to pull that rope tighter, but as they mature in their faith and in their lives we will ultimately allow them to pull us across the line and we will let go of that rope.
Even writing those words causes me some pain and anxiety as I think about the day that I let go of that rope for my four children. This doesn’t require me to be distant or unengaged as they get older. No, it simply means that engagement and stewardship will look different. This will require me to parent my twelve, ten, seven, and five year olds with their future in mind. Each one of them is unique so each one of them will require a different game of tug of war.
I don’t know what this looks like for you, but I hope that you will meditate on these verses today and in the coming weeks as you navigate through parenting the gifts God has given you. I pray that we would never forget to recognize just how blessed we are to parent the ones He has entrusted to us. Some days or seasons will be tougher than others, but when our understanding of our role in this process is clear we will be better equipped to play that game of tug of war. We may be destined to lose this game, but ultimately, as parents, we win because we get to see our babies mature, find success, and be a light in a dark world. I will take that truth all day long.