Testing Abraham’s Faith

The human body becomes weaker if it is not used.  This is true whether we are talking about the muscles, the digestive system, the immune system, the eyes, the emotions, or the intellect.    By our limits, we increase our ability to deal with the things life places in our way.  When we are not challenged, there is no reason for us to grow stronger.   This is one of reasons why a homeless person who gets his food by dumpster diving can eat things that are loaded with salmonella and other pathogens, while other people who go out of their way to avoid germs die after eating lettuce which has almost undetectable amounts of salmonella.  Our immune system needs exposure to germs in order to develop the ability to protect people.  One of the biggest problems in modern society is that we try to protect people from everything, and as a result, they have become weaker, physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Today, instead of embracing the challenges of life as an adult, college graduates are remaining at home and avoiding the challenges of taking responsibility for themselves.  

Because God wants our faith to grow and mature, he challenges it.  Sometimes, we fail, like Abraham and Sarah using Hagar as a surrogate, but even those failures can result in growth, both by making us aware of our weakness, and by stretching our faith until we see God’s power, as when Isaac was finally born.  In Genesis 22:1-2, God again challenged Abraham’s faith.   “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.  And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” 

This statement that God tempted Abraham seems in direct contradiction of James 1:12-15.  “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”  The Greek word translated tempted in James refers to trying to seduce or persuade a person to do something that is wrong.  The Hebrew word in Genesis refers to trying or testing a person.  As a test, God may put us in a position where we have to choose between good and evil, but he never tries to get us to do evil.   That pressure comes from our own lusts or cravings. 

The test for Abraham was whether he was going to obey God, or try to save his son.  Genesis 22:3-10 describes Abraham’s response.  “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.  Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.  And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.  And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.  And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.’ 

Abraham’s response was not some spur of the moment decision.  It took three days to get to the place, carrying the supplies they would need.  When Isaac questioned his father, Abraham was forced to re-examine his commitment, and when he tied up Isaac and laid him on the altar, it must have been very hard to continue, but he was committed to doing what God commanded.   

God honored that commitment to obey as if Abraham had actually offered Isaac, in Genesis 22:11-13.  “And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.  And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.  And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”

One can only imagine the relief Abraham felt when the angel told him to stop.  His sacrifice of the ram in Isaac’s place must have been a joyous event.  God had accounted Abraham’s faith for righteousness  many years before, in Genesis 15:6.  By offering Isaac, Abraham demonstrated the reality of his faith, as James 2:21-22 explains.  “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”  Until the faith is tested we don’t know how strong it is, any more than we knows how strong a man is until he tries to lift a heavy weight.  Until faith has been demonstrated by obedience, it is just words, and as James 2:17 says, it is dead.

Because of Abraham’s obedience in faith, God refreshed and strengthened his promises to him and his descendants, in Genesis 22:14-18.  “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.  And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”