The Abraham Test
In talking with people about their crisis of faith (If you have not had one – you will), I am always drawn back to the story of Abraham in Genesis 22. The story actually goes back to Genesis 15 where God originally promises to Abraham that he will not only have a son, but an entire nation will come from his descendants! Then beyond all hope at an old age Abraham’s wife Sarah gives birth to the promised miracle child Isaac. The one on whom all this hope and destiny rests! Then in 22: 1-2 the good loving all powerful God says to Abraham...
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Umm... what? Let’s pretend you are Abraham in this test. Talk about a crisis of faith! How could a loving God ask such a thing? You’re supposed to be just God – how is this just? Let’s pause here to examine the 4 key qualities of God... These are things that God does not merely do – these are who He is, His nature. These things that cannot be fully defined without Him. I have identified four such themes in scripture (perhaps five if you count “Light” but light may be the symbolic sum off all these others). God says He is... “Love”, “Justice”, “Truth”, and “Holiness”. I have capitalized them because I am in fact naming God. So we see how deeply this crisis of faith runs for Abraham. How can he believe against all evidence, that God is Love, that God is Just, etc.
But that is exactly the point.
Back to the story... Abraham and his teenage promise child go on a journey as God has ordered – to the mountain of His choosing, and Abraham prepares to kill his son as an act of obedience to THIS God. I can’t tell you that he wasn’t hoping God would stop him at the last second, or bring his beloved son back to life. I don’t know what he was feeling – but I do know he would have gone through with it, had God not appeared and stopped him. ”Angel of the LORD” in scripture sometimes means “appearance of the LORD”, just like here – God says...
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
We know two things from this. One, that Abraham would have done it. And two, God was not really the one who needed to know that. God already knew (He’s God). So then, who was the one who needed to know if Abe would really do it? Abe was the one who needed to know. That was the test. Can you believe in a God when all evidence contradicts his very nature? Abraham could. Can you?
I’ve spoken to countless people who have become terrified at the knowledge that they are beginning to question their own faith. A loved one dies, a child, how could a loving God let that happen? Rape, torture, suffering, starvation. A woman watches as the man who God promised was her soul mate walks away. “Did the God of Truth lie to me?” In all this the question is the same as it was 3500 years ago... can you believe in, follow, surrender to a God when all evidence contradicts Him? For those who pass this test we have a word; “faith.” But there is also another word that means this kind of choice and surrender; “LORD”.
Once you’ve identified the test of Abraham you begin to see it in the lives of the great heroes of the faith. All of them struggled with questioning their faith. Some came out on the other side with a new understanding of what trust in God as LORD means. Unfortunately others became talk show hosts who claim to follow God THIER OWN way. And some just stopped believing in God altogether, thus claiming that they are “God”; able to know all things. Which are you going to be?
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Umm... what? Let’s pretend you are Abraham in this test. Talk about a crisis of faith! How could a loving God ask such a thing? You’re supposed to be just God – how is this just? Let’s pause here to examine the 4 key qualities of God... These are things that God does not merely do – these are who He is, His nature. These things that cannot be fully defined without Him. I have identified four such themes in scripture (perhaps five if you count “Light” but light may be the symbolic sum off all these others). God says He is... “Love”, “Justice”, “Truth”, and “Holiness”. I have capitalized them because I am in fact naming God. So we see how deeply this crisis of faith runs for Abraham. How can he believe against all evidence, that God is Love, that God is Just, etc.
But that is exactly the point.
Back to the story... Abraham and his teenage promise child go on a journey as God has ordered – to the mountain of His choosing, and Abraham prepares to kill his son as an act of obedience to THIS God. I can’t tell you that he wasn’t hoping God would stop him at the last second, or bring his beloved son back to life. I don’t know what he was feeling – but I do know he would have gone through with it, had God not appeared and stopped him. ”Angel of the LORD” in scripture sometimes means “appearance of the LORD”, just like here – God says...
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
We know two things from this. One, that Abraham would have done it. And two, God was not really the one who needed to know that. God already knew (He’s God). So then, who was the one who needed to know if Abe would really do it? Abe was the one who needed to know. That was the test. Can you believe in a God when all evidence contradicts his very nature? Abraham could. Can you?
I’ve spoken to countless people who have become terrified at the knowledge that they are beginning to question their own faith. A loved one dies, a child, how could a loving God let that happen? Rape, torture, suffering, starvation. A woman watches as the man who God promised was her soul mate walks away. “Did the God of Truth lie to me?” In all this the question is the same as it was 3500 years ago... can you believe in, follow, surrender to a God when all evidence contradicts Him? For those who pass this test we have a word; “faith.” But there is also another word that means this kind of choice and surrender; “LORD”.
Once you’ve identified the test of Abraham you begin to see it in the lives of the great heroes of the faith. All of them struggled with questioning their faith. Some came out on the other side with a new understanding of what trust in God as LORD means. Unfortunately others became talk show hosts who claim to follow God THIER OWN way. And some just stopped believing in God altogether, thus claiming that they are “God”; able to know all things. Which are you going to be?
posted by Rob Petkau at 11:48 AM
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