Lent - 2nd Sunday - God of (good) surprises

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Our image of God affects everything. How do we really see Him? Especially when life is hard, how do we imagine God? If it’s not the God of the Cross, we are believing a lie.

The snake in Eden fed us a lie about God. Not about fruit. That was just a distraction like the sweet wine in which a poison may be mixed.  What mattered most then is still what matters most now: what kind of picture do you have of God? Because if that picture is distorted it can be critical. In things that aren’t very important, we have room for slight miscalculations. If I cut my steak a little too thick or cook it a 10-seconds too long, I’m still going to have a great meal. If I run for a minute less than an hour, I’m still going to get great exercise.

But if I’m flying to the moon, my rocket ship better be aimed perfect, so I don’t want to be off by 1-degree, not even five minutes or five seconds, since I kind of want to come back to earth and tell my family about it.

So when it really matters, if our vision is wrong, it makes a huge difference.

And as far as God goes, right here is the difference, the poisonous weed the devil sowed in our hearts: “God doesn’t want what’s best for you. He wants to take it from you. He is a tyrant keeping you in bondage.  He’s holding back the best. You need to be your own master and steal for yourself whatever you want.”  Think of every sin you’ve committed and you will find this lie: “if I am to be happy, I must disobey God and take this for myself.” 

How do we imagine God?

If we are honest, I bet we can all think of times when we are afraid of God - that in the end he really doesn’t seem to care; that he won’t come through on his promises; that he is okay with the suffering we see in the world and in our lives.   Waiting for the other shoe to fall.

So that brings us to today. 

Abraham, at multiple times in his life, had profound experiences of God.  Perhaps we can think of times we have too.  Abraham had received promises from God, and most of those promises had to do with his son, his only true heir, Isaac.  So when God tests Abraham by asking for a sacrifice of Isaac, this is more than just a test to see if Abraham loves God more than he loves what God can give him. It’s more than just a way that God can say, once and for all, that human sacrifice is never worship.  Most of all, God is challenging Abraham’s trust in who God truly is.  The questions that can flood our hearts could have been asked by Abraham: Is God trying to take back what he has given?  Is he breaking his promise?  Were all those past experiences of God true?  Or does God really love us and want what is best for us?

But Mount Moriah leads to Mount Tabor.
Christ is the lamb.  “God will provide the lamb”

WHAT CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD?

If God dies on a cross for you, don’t imagine he is a tyrant.