Abraham obeyed quickly, making all the necessary preparations and setting on his way with two servants and Isaac. On the third day he saw the place he had to to go to, and left the servants behind, leaving just Isaac and himself. Interestingly he tells the servants that they would come back. Hebrews 11:18,19 tells us that Abraham reasoned that God would raise Isaac from the dead. So it seems that Abraham's words were not just "white lies" to his servants. Abraham knew God's promise to him, and knew that it was through Isaac. All the waiting, and then the pain of having to send Ishmael away, had firmly implanted in Abraham the truth that Isaac was the means of God's promise. Sometimes God puts us through hard times to make us even more convinced of the reality of His promises. As Paul says, suffering produces perseverance. Now Hebrews tells us that Abraham reckoned that God would raise Isaac from the dead. As we know that is not what actually happened, but God did not take Isaac's life. We need to recognise the difference between believing that God will do something, and thinking we know how He will do it. The first is crucial, the second really doesn't matter most of the time. In fact we can be led astray or become stubborn if we get fixated on God doing something in a particular way. God will work things out in the way He chooses.
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