"Here Am I"

           While waiting for a session in the temple last week, I found an interesting pattern in the scriptures about sacrifice. The scriptures that first got me thinking were in Genesis 22. In this chapter, Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. The Lord calls out to Abraham by calling his name, and Abraham answers by replying, "Here I am" (1). The scripture says that God "did tempt Abraham," but the JST changes this to "test, or prove." I had been thinking a lot about sacrifice recently, so this story meant a little more to me that day. I was impressed with Abraham's faith in the Lord--he was willing to give up what he loved most just because the Lord asked him. Most of us are familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac. I wonder, though, what Abraham was thinking on his way up the mountain. Was he pleading and begging with God in his heart to not make him do this? Was he thinking, "What am I going to tell Sarah? How will I go on without my son? How can you ask me to sacrifice the one thing I love most?" My guess is that these things crossed his mind, but he didn't dwell on them. He had so much faith in the Lord!

Just as Abraham is about to slay his only son with a knife on the altar, "the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham" (11). Abraham replies, yet again, by answering, "Here am I." Before, I had focused so much on the actual event of the sacrifice that I had never noticed what Abraham might have learned. I don't think that God called out to Abraham at the beginning because he was looking for him. God knows everything about us! I think God was calling Abraham's attention to where Abraham was spiritually before his trial. God was asking Abraham if he would be willing to come forward and sacrifice, if he'd be willing to improve himself. At the end of the trial when Abraham says, "Here am I," I see it as "Here am I now spiritually after that trial. I'm stronger spiritually and my faith is greater." The final "Here I am" is where God wanted Abraham to be in the end. Because of his sacrifice, Abraham was blessed with seed as numerous as the stars (22).
         

I was surprised at how many times that phrase appears in the scriptures. I found it again in Exodus 3 when Moses hears the Lord in Mount Sinai. Out of the burning bush, the Lord calls, "Moses, Moses" (4). Just like Abraham, Moses replies, "Here am I." Moses didn't know what the Lord was going to ask of him, but I think that just like Abraham, he was willing to step forward and sacrifice. Moses was hesitant at first, but like Abraham, he was blessed with so much after his trials.

Of course, the greatest example of sacrifice the world has ever known is our Savior, Jesus Christ. When asked who would come forth, He also came forward willingly: "And the Lord said, Who shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man, Here am I, send me" (Abraham 3:27). I testify that Jesus Christ came into the world as a sacrifice for all mankind. Christ gave Himself for us in the ultimate act of love. I think that in order to gain salvation, we must be willing to sacrifice things in our lives, too. We must be willing to give up what we love most and put it on the altar of sacrifice. But, if we do, we'll be blessed more than we can imagine. Any sacrifice we make now will be swallowed up in the glory of heaven: 

"That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory" (C.S. Lewis).