The CSEE department will hold its annual research review this Friday from 9:30am to 4:00pm at the UMBC Technology Center at South Campus. Faculty, research staff and students from all of the department's programs present and discuss their latest research results. The Research Review is open to the public and is a good way for prospective collaborators and students to find out about the research our department is doing and meet and network with current faculty and students. There is ample free parking and refrehsments and lunch are provided. Directions: Take Gun Road off Rolling Road (Rt. 166) or take the UMBC “Satellite” Shuttle to South Campus.

Genesis 22:1-18 (NIV 2011)

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, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded 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 ramcaught 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.”

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspringbecause you have obeyed me.”

Reflection:

God’s tests may seem cruel or harsh to some. Abraham had wanted a child for his entire life, and when God finally gave him one in his old age, the Lord said he would take him away. Yet the test was grounded in God’s desire for Abraham to see what was in his own heart. Abraham feared God and trusted Him, and verses 13-14 show that he was able to experience the incredible reality that the Lord Will Provide. Even more powerfully, God renewed His promise that Abraham and his descendants would be blessed and be a blessing for all nations on earth.

Abraham acted in faith. He had no “proof” that God would provide for him but he trusted in God’s promises while being tested. We have been called as a people to worship God and serve Him, through all the trials and tests of everyday life. Some tests are harder to face than others. Yet through all of them, let us trust that God’s resurrection reality lives in us through His Spirit and the Lord Will Provide.

Response:

Let us declare that God is with us. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have the Spirit of God living in us, empowering us through hardships and trials. Let’s thank God for this reality and proclaim again that we will trust that the Lord Will Provide for all of our needs.