Like a rubber band being stretched as far as it can go, often we find ourselves being stretched to the same point of tension. When I experience tension, my knee-jerk reaction is to try to relieve the tension. In fact, that seems to consume my thoughts: "How can I get out from under all of this tension?" I would argue that we all have our own ways of trying to cope with and/or relieve the tension. Some of us hit the gym and others of us hit the bottle, but what if any attempt to relive the tension, healthy or unhealthy, is really a way of avoiding the good God has for us on the other side of the tension? What if our desire to relieve the tension is keeping us from the greater good God has for us?
Anna is studying Genesis in Bible quizzing and the other day she was recounting the story of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (Genesis 22). Surely, Abraham wanted to relieve that tension. Certainly, Isaac, must have felt the tension as he unknowingly followed his father up the mountain.
"Where is the lamb for the sacrifice, Dad?," Isaac asked.
"The Lord will provide," answered Abraham.
How heavy Abraham's heart must have been...how confused his mind must have been--why would God ask him to sacrifice the boy who was God's miracle gift of blessing? With every step they took, the tension grew.
Finally, Abraham built an altar out of stones. He then tied up his only son and lay him on the altar. Can you imagine looking into the terrified eyes of your child as you lift the knife to sacrifice him to God? This is more than tension, it is devastating. But Abraham would not relieve the tension for himself or his son. He lifts the knife...
Then, just before the knife cuts through his son's heart, the angel of the Lord cries out, "Abraham, stop!" Suddenly, a ram's, "baaahhh," is heard. There in the thicket, God has provided a ram.
God relived the tension and Abraham and his son experienced the provision and faithfulness of God in a way that they never would have, if he had relived the tension himself.
Will you and I learn from Abraham? Our culture teaches us to relieve the tension. We don't need God. We have prescriptions, credit cards, Dr. Phil, the Internet, divorce and 1000 other ways to relieve the tension in our lives. But what if every time I insist on relieving the tension myself, I miss out on experiencing God's provision and love? What if God does not allow us to experience tension to harm us, but to free us? What if every time I walk up the mountain of tension's sacrifice trusting the Lord to provide rather than me trying to figuring a way to avoid it, I will get to experience something from God that will not only impact me now, but help me the next time tension stretches me beyond what I think I can bear?
Of course, Abraham and Isaac's story foreshadows another story that gives us all the more hope for the tension points of life. God the Father did not provide a lamb to take his only Son's place on the cross. Jesus endured the full weight of the tension of pain and loss sin brings into our lives and world. The tension broke and killed him so that the tension, not even death itself, need not break us. Look at Hebrews 4:14-16. It reminds us that Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses and now intercedes to the Father on our behalf. When the tension comes, rather than try to relieve it ourselves, we can turn to the very one who overcame it for us and now prays for us. He is the lamb in the thicket we need, not the tension reliving device we are so tempted to use. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
