A Conflicting Conviction

 

 

Sounds confusing

You are probably saying

But read to the end

Before despairing.

 

He shall remain nameless

Until you work out his name,

This difficulty is not even close

To the actual claim.

 

Truthful it is

And I have no doubt

That any disputing

Will be finally thrown out.

 

He rose long before dawn

Maybe, he didn’t sleep,

His conflicting conviction

He intended to keep.

 

He prepared his mule

For the journey ahead

Knowing by the end of that day

His loved one would be dead.

 

The demand was ludicrous,

It didn’t make sense

But given his disposition

He took no offense.

 

It was not the first time

He was sent on a mission,

The very first time

He knew not the direction.

 

Back then it was his faith

That caused him to respond

And so on this occasion

He was up before dawn.

 

He called his son

And a few of his servants

And they set on the mission

Ignorant of the intent.

 

Had they known

They might have insisted

Their leader was mad

And probably resisted.

 

 

But he proceeded by faith

And they in obedience,

The burdened mule

His son and his servants.

 

It appears that his wife

Knew not of his plan

So in that case

She couldn’t tie his hands.

 

So early he set off

On his very strange journey,

A conflicting conviction

But he stuck to it firmly.

 

His only son

From his very old wife,

His child of promise

At the end of his life.

 

It didn’t make sense

Given the promise God made

But He gives and He takes,

Such are His ways.

 

A three days journey

Now at an end

So he said to his servants

It’s around the bend.

 

He instructed his servants,

“You remain at this point

While the boy and I worship

At a farther point.”

 

Taking the wood off the mule

He gave it to the lad.

“Where is the burnt offering?”

He later asked his dad.

  

God will provide

Was the father’s reply

Though he knew in few moments

His son would die.

 

I am sure you know

How this event did end,

With the benefit of history

We see around the bend.

 

 

But consider this father

For a moment or two,

He was not looking back

Like me or like you.

 

It happened in real time

As we would say today

And to understand it then

He had no way.

 

How was he to know

That this was only a test?

Obviously, if he had known

His mind would have been at rest.

 

He had no way of knowing

Yet he dared to obey

Where for many of us

We would have said, “No way.”

 

A conflicting conviction

Do you see what I mean?

Convinced it was God

But still a conflicting scene

 

A child of promise

Yet, the likelihood of his death

How could a father’s mind

Still be at rest?

 

We tend to forget

As we read the account,

It was not smooth going

All the way to the mount.

  

There must have been doubts

As he journeyed on,

He surely wasn’t eager

Because he left before dawn.

 

There are many similarities

I would not mention here

Between this father and God

That are certainly clear.

 

 

The wood and the cross

That both sons carried,

The locations on the mount...

They do not vary.

 

Both considered sacrifices:

One perceived, the other real,

One a demonstration of faith

The other rent the veil.

 

One a conflicting conviction

The second bought our redemption,

Faith need not understand

Just follow God’s direction.

 

The stalwarts of the Bible

As they underwent their tests

Were not often in the know

But obedience was their quest.

 

Conflicting convictions

But they learnt to trust God,

We must do the same

At home and abroad.

 

Stewart Russell © September 2019