Genesis 22:1-14
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied.
2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied.
12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

Even after doing something foolish, it feels horrible when someone calls us ‘fool’, we can not accept it. We like to be known as wise, strong, able, righteous etc. We like to be praised. On the other hand, Abraham left everything and set himself out to an unknown land, when God called him to do it. With response to another call, he almost killed his only son, the one who is born after a long wait of 100 years. A thorough fool, in the eyes of the world.

Abraham obeyed God, never looked at the consequences of it. So many times we think, analyse, weigh carefully with all our wisdom and knowledge to find out as much excuses as possible to see how we can avoid following a godly advice or direction. And then we give it an explanation - we are being ‘wise’ as a snake. Never bothered about the dove in us! We are truly wise when we make ourselves to follow the word of God as if we are a fool according to the ways of the world. On par with the man who build his house on the rock.

Most of us were called a fool, when we started our life as a disciple of Jesus. They said that we are wasting our life for ‘some prayer meeting’ or’some church’, because we followed the scriptures whole heartedly, without turning to left or right, without making those ‘calculations’. When we decided to go to Thrissur on a mission team, taking with us two children of ages 2 and 3, many people said it might not be a wise idea. You will lose your job, how will you live, who is there for a support etc. so many questions arised? Today, when we look back, we are sure that the decision we made was the best and the wisest. God’s ways are the ways of wisdom - spiritually and physically. He will never let his faithful ones to live in shame.

When Abraham was willing to give up his son for God, God blessed him with children as numerous as the sand on the sea-shore and the stars in the sky. Let us trust in God and obey his words sincerely. May God bring forth so many disciples of Jesus from a single you. Let our children of obedience shine like stars.

Prayer idea

Think about the ‘foolishness’ of all the great men and woman in the Bible and pray through their life.