THERE'S A GOAT IN THE BUSHES

I guess we all have our favorite stories from the Bible.  I have many stories I love to read and scripture passages from which I love to teach.  The 22^nd chapter of Genesis has to be one of my favorite.  I believe one could take it verse by verse and teach on this chapter for weeks. The points made in this little post are not all inclusive but so as not to prolong your time of reading, let me just touch on a few points.  Some people may see this lesson as a tragic, troubling, stressful story. I do not see it that way.  I see this as one of the most encouraging stories in the  Bible.  I hope you will too by the end of the story.

God knew what He was about to ask of Abraham was going to be difficult.  He was going to ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son on an altar.  That involved killing and burning the sacrifice, his son.   There is a song about this story that a friend of mine use to sing, it was entitled “I just wanted you to know”.  The premise of the song was that God  just wanted Abraham to know exactly how it feels because God would, one day, do the same thing with His Son.  I’m not positive that was the reason for the test.  But God did understand that what lay ahead for Abraham was going to be tough. 

Knowing this, God, right out of the chute, took away all of Abraham’s excuses.  “And He (God) said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of”

·         God said, “take NOW”.  It would have been easy for Abraham to say, “Sure, I’ll do what you ask but give me a little time.  Let me get everything in order.  Let me have it all under control”  I do that a lot.  I’ll do it God but I’ll do it when I get ready.  Understand dear reader that when God ask us to do something, we must DO IT NOW.

·         “Thy son” was a specific command.  If God would have asked for just a human sacrifice, Abraham would have no doubt chosen one of his servants.  But God wanted Abraham to give up his most prized possession the heir to Abraham’s kingdom. 

·         “Thine only son” was meant to eliminate another of Abraham’s defenses.  Can’t you hear Abraham now?  “But God, Now?  My son?  Don’t you know, God that Isaac is the only son I have”? 

·         “Whom thou lovest” shoots down another of Abraham’s vindications.  “God, he is my son, my only son and God I LOVE HIM”!

 Why do we do this?  God shows us what He wants us to do and we make excuses.  We try to justify our reluctance to do His will.  God takes away our excuses.

In verse six the symbolisms are amazing.  This just reeks with the smell of Calvary.  The son, carrying the wood (the cross) up the hill to be sacrificed.  Wow!

Isaac surely must not have been a small child.  If he could shoulder the wood for the sacrifice, he must have been “stout” as my Dad would say.  He was old enough to know what this process was all about.  He had seen this procedure many time.  He knew the components of this ritual.  The knife, the fire, the wood could mean nothing less than that they were going to make a sacrifice to God…but there was one major part missing.  “Where is the lamb”?  

All of the preparation, all of the ritual, all of the effort was useless without the sacrifice.  The trip up the mountain would have been no more than a walk in the park without the sacrifice.  Oh, do you get it?

 

Folks, we come to church expecting God to bless us.  We sing, and pray and teach and preach and do all the things that are needed to receive God’s blessing…..but we fail to bring the lamb…the sacrifice.  Don’t tell me that dressing up in your finest jeans and taking a bath on Saturday night and driving ever how many miles you drive to church is a sacrifice!  Where is the lamb that you have brought?  What is the sacrifice that you will make to see the smile on the face God?   

Verses nine and ten make me understand that Abraham was serious about what he was going to do.  He was not playing.  I don’t believe he ever thought that he would not go through with what God wanted.  God wants our willingness.  God doesn’t want to have to force us to do His will.  Abraham took the knife in his hand “to slay his son”. 

Oh don’t get upset folks.  Don’t think God left Abraham up there on that mountain with his doubts and worries, his fears and his dead son.  Don’t think God didn’t reach down and love Abraham and care for Abraham.  God provided. I told you this is a story of encouragement.

Verse 13 says, “Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket …”.  If this were written in the Chilton County vernacular it would go something like this. 

“And Abraham looked up and lookie there, right behind him was a goat in the bushes”!

When Abraham was at his lowest point, when he was about to give all he had, when he was losing what he loved most, when he didn’t understand, when he was alone and lonely, when his heart was breaking……God put a goat in the bushes!

He did it for Abraham…..He’ll do it for you. 

Don’t quit.  Sure you are tired.  Sunday school teacher you may feel like no one sees or notices your efforts each week.  No one appreciates what you do.  But look up, God has provided a help for you, “there’s a goat in the bushes. 

Pastor, sure you are discouraged.  The numbers are down, the offerings are even lower.  The people are not excited and are not making an effort but …..there’s a goat in the bushes. 

Are you feeling your age today? There’s a goat in the bushes. 

Are your children disappointing you?  There’s a goat in the bushes. 

Is your job falling apart? You bank book looking thin?  Your friends rejecting your ways?  Let me just encourage you.  There’s a goat in the bushes.  

God will not leave you to go this way alone.  He will provide for you.  

Abraham found that out.  He even called the mountain by the name, Jehovah Jireh or  “The Lord Provides”.  I’ve read it and I’ve taught it time and time again and I promise you, it is true.  

Just look around you friend, There’s a goat in the bushes.

MAMA LOVED CHRISTMAS

Mama loved Christmas.  Oh, I don’t guess there are many people I know who don’t love Christmas, but Mama especially loved Christmas.  She told stories about when she was a child, her Dad had died and her Mom was trying to raise 7 children by washing clothes for people on a scrub board or wash board.  She said then they didn’t get anything but an apple or an orange that her Mom put in their shoe by the fireplace.  Or perhaps some “rock candy”. But that didn’t stop her from loving Christmas. 

When I was a child, Mom and Dad made Christmas a big deal for us.  Some of my earliest memories are of the wonderful times we had as children because of Dad and Mom’s attitude and efforts at Christmas.  I don’t ever remember asking “Santa” for anything that I didn’t get.

One of my fondest memories of Mom and Christmas was after I had left the Coast Guard and returned home and Mom and I were going to get a Christmas tree.  Back then you didn’t drive to a Christmas tree lot and pick one out.  You were almost a communist if you used a “fake” tree.  So we would go out into the woods and find a cedar tree.  That’s the only kind of Christmas tree we ever had back then. 

We lived in South Calera and Dad had a friend and co-worker named John Lejoue (I guess that’s how you spell it) .  John was a Frenchman and he and his wife owned some land not far from us.  Their land was full of cedar trees and John was nice enough to allow us to go over and cut down a tree for our Christmas.  Mom and I got the ax and headed out, really not paying much attention to the weather. 

Finding just the right tree with Mom was a chore.  This one wasn’t large enough.  That one was too small.  This one isn’t full enough and that one looks crooked.  It seems now like we walked those woods for hours.  It was almost dark and then it started to snow.  (Yes, snow in Alabama.  It had to be early December, I guess.)  The snow begin to “stick” to the trees and ground so I assume it must have been pretty cold, although I don’t remember it being that cold.  The cedar trees looked wonderful and we had a blast when we finally found the right tree and I cut it down and carried it back to her house. 

Well, as you know, Mom died about 3 years ago.  She had lived with Keva and I for about 5 years before her death.  We tried to make Christmas for her as special as she had made it for me and Anita when we were kids.  On Christmas morning she would have her little pile of gifts that Santa had left her and we would take pictures and video of her opening her treasures. 

The Christmas after Mom’s death Keva had a wonderful idea.  Mom had a little saying that she always used when folks would leave.  She would say, “I love you, just a little bit”, and make a sign with her little fingers showing you how “little” she loved you.  So Keva had handkerchiefs made for those who knew Mom, and on those handkerchiefs she had embroidered that little phrase, “I love you just a little bit”.  She gave them out and everyone seemed to love them.  But that was three years ago.

This year, we continued our tradition of stockings and presents and family. Keva has continued the tradition of making everyone’s Christmas special. But on Christmas morning it is just Keva and I, Gracie (the dog) and the three cats (Bubba, Sissy and Runt).  So we opened our gifts and then I took down our stockings.  Keva had placed some little stuff in my stocking and I had placed some little stuff in her stocking.  I opened mine and smiled and commented on them, then it was her turn. 

As she emptied her stocking and “made over” the little stuff I’d put in there, I thought we were through with the presents.  But she reached down into the toe of the stocking and pulled out a special gift. 

There, stuck down in the  toe of the stocking was a little yellow handkerchief with the phrase “I love you just a little bit”.  I hadn’t put it there.  I guess the logical explanation would have been that three years ago it got placed in her stocking when we were giving them out to the family and for the last two Christmas’s it had gone unnoticed. But as her eyes glistened with a tear or two and I looked away so she couldn’t see mine, I think we both had the same thought.  Mama will always love Christmas.