God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22 tells us that God would one day bring the Messiah to conquer sin through the lineage of Abraham.  God reminds Abraham several times of His plan to build a great nation that would bless all nations through Abraham’s descendants.  God speaks directly to Abraham and blesses him for his obedience.  Through God’s Word, we, like Abraham, must reject our understanding for God’s. 

Abraham chose God’s direction, separating from a people who rebelled against God at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:6) to a place where God used him to birth a nation in whom all nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3).  Leaving everything familiar, Abraham’s journey from Ur to Hebron is about the traveling distance across Texas: the Tower of Babel on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other.  On Mount Moriah, Abraham foreshadowed the Messiah when he was about to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, and God provided the ram (Gen. 22:2). Solomon later built the Temple of God on that very same mount (2 Chronicles 3:1). 

Abraham chose God’s direction, wanting to find a God-honoring spouse for his promised son, Isaac.  By this time, he had seen the result of man’s rebellion against God. He most likely heard stories passed down by Shem (who lived until Isaac was fifty) of the tower of Babel and the flood of Noah.  Abraham had rescued his nephew Lot from the four evil kings, and, to top it all off, he had begged God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18).  It is no wonder Abraham made his servant vow not to take a wife from Canaan for Isaac. He must have known that Ham and his descendants (the Canaanites) was cursed by Noah to be the servants of Shem, and Abraham, a descendent of Shem, did not want Isaac to be hindered from the blessings of God. The Angel of God helps Abraham’s servant find the perfect match for Isaac in Rebekah.  

God’s plan for Abraham was fulfilled in Christ as He bore our sins, and all nations can be blessed through Him. King David warned prideful nations that forget God and prayed that God would put them in fear so they would know that they are just men. (Ps.9:17-20)  Christ will reverse the Tower of Babel, unifying all nations when He returns.  In Proverbs, the answer is clear: trust God as Abraham did and do not lean on your “own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths.” (Prov. 3:3-6)