"And as they lifted up their hands upon me, that they might offer me up and take away my life, behold, I lifted up my voice unto the Lord my God, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and he filled me with the vision of the Almighty, and the angel of his presence stood by me, and immediately unloosed my bands;
And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father’s house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land which thou knowest not of;
And this because they have turned their hearts away from me, to worship the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; therefore I have come down to visit them, and to destroy him who hath lifted up his hand against thee, Abraham, my son, to take away thy life.
Behold, I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee, to put upon thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy father, and my power shall be over thee.
As it was with Noah so shall it be with thee; but through thy ministry my name shall be known in the earth forever, for I am thy God."
Abraham 1:15-19
I like knowing that Abraham plead to God when he was about to be killed, and was saved. I think it kind of changes my perspective on everything that came after, especially when he was asked to sacrifice his own son. Maybe the question needed to be answered in Abraham's head... do I follow God because he saved me from the evil practice of human sacrifice? Are there circumstances where God could be wrong, or where I would refuse to obey?
The offer to lead Abraham by the hand here reminds me of D&C 112:10: "Be thou hunble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers." It's a huge change to leave everything that you know and go out into the unknown, but I think in a way, that is what God does with all of us. We have to unlearn negative behavior patterns and learn to be new people, and often that requires a new environment where we can rebuild and learn to thrive.
Today, let's turn to God in humility, asking for deliverance and promising to follow as he leads us to all good. As we follow God our lives are not going to be what we expected them to be, but God's plan is always better than ours, and our end will always be better than where life was heading before we turned to him. Let's buckle down and learn more of him, and his plan for our happiness. :)
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