There are scriptures and stories I accept by faith, but I do not understand.
This is just such a scripture.
The challenge of the scripture to me is in God’s request. Such a request is more painful than physical pain.
When my oldest son was just two years old, he had to have surgery. The thought of my two year going under anesthesia was immensely painful to my heart.
As they wheeled him away and he cried out for my wife and I, I would have done anything to comfort him.
The request of God in Genesis 22 is that pain I had multiplied to infinity.
I understand that Abraham reasoned God could Isaac back to life (Hebrews 11:19), but I also knew my son would wake-up from anesthesia–but it was still a pain my heart will forever remember.
So again, this is a scripture I accept in faith, but struggle with in my humaneness.
The focus of this chapter is the covenant of circumcision.
But what jumped out at me, were the names.
Abram to Abraham.
Sarai to Sarah.
The name of the unborn Isaac, to remind Abraham that he laughed at God’s promise.
And my favorite of all, El Shaddai. Our English Bibles translate this, “God almighty,” but it is the name God gives to Himself,
“I am El Shaddai”
El is the term for God and Shaddai is often viewed as a translation for all powerful —
but there is also “the suggestion that Shaddai is a composite term of
Van Groningen, G. (1988). God, Names Of. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 882). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.sha (“the one who”) and dai (“is sufficient”). The later Greek versions have adopted this meaning.”
Sarai and Abram who could not have
Sarah and Abraham because God is sufficient to make a great nation out of the infertile–where there is nothing, God is sufficient to make something.