What
happens when we take our sacrifice off the alter when God tells us to leave it
there?
When
God always calls us to place what we treasure on the alter, is it to see if we
love Him enough? Is it to test us? I don’t know. I know for me, it was to see
if my obedience outweighed what my heart desired.
I
failed miserably.
I
tied my treasure to the alter and waited like all obedient children do. Then,
as time ticked on, my sacrifice’s replacement (i.e. ram) didn’t show. Where was
my ram in the thicket? I looked and looked. Surely the Lord would provide a
replacement for my treasure!
Not
finding one, I felt it necessary – nay my duty – to untie my treasure and help
it off the alter. Then the Lord asked, “Where is your sacrifice?” With a
shameful shuffle, I tied it back up (loosely mind you, you never know when you
might need it), stepped back in pious religiosity, then went on the hunt for its
replacement yet again.
With
each pious conviction and rebinding, the sacrifice ropes became looser and
looser until eventually the treasure slipped off the alter unaided. I kept
waiting for Him to allow me to keep my sacrifice, all the while He kept waiting
for me to allow Him to keep it.
God
is quite patient with our humanity, but there will come that fateful day when,
before you can untie it again, He sends Holy Fire to consume the sacrifice He
chose for YOU to offer.
It
is agonizing to watch a treasure you have longed for burn. The fire is Holy and
from His heart, but it still sears your being.
My
soul wailed at the site of my incinerated treasure.
But Lord – you didn’t
send a ram, what was I to do?
Wait.
That is what you do. You wait.
My
beautiful treasure – one I’d waited many years for – lay in ashes at the alter
because I couldn’t – wouldn’t – wait
for my ram.
So
what is one to do when their treasure lay at God’s alter in ashes?
Wait ...
... for the ashes to soak into the soil during the spring rains.
... for the ashes to feed future seeds.
