Knowing God
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“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham…” (Genesis 22:2, NKJV)
Even though things in this world mostly look an utter mess, an incomprehensible train wreck, God has not forsaken His original purpose for creating all that is. He has not forgotten Himself nor His original purpose for the creation of the world. He is still at work down to the details. And this truth brings us to His continuing work in our individual lives.
God tested Abraham and God tests us. No evading the trial. And my, what an ordeal this was. We are not wrong to think that for Abraham God’s command to sacrifice Isaac is completely bewildering. Gerhard Von Rad writes: “For Abraham, God’s command is completely incomprehensible: the child, given by God after long delay, the only link that can lead back to promised greatness of Abraham’s seed, is to be given back to God in sacrifice. Abraham had to cut himself off from his whole past in chapter 12:1ff; now he must give up his whole future.” Friends, this is God being God and that is how life works. How different is the God of the Bible from Who we often would like Him to be. He is certainly not all about just making us happy and seeing that we have a good time.
God is looking for faith. Real, iron-hard, unbreakable faith. This takes a life-time, no doubt, to even partially achieve. Dr. Packer reminds us that Abraham began as a man of “little moral courage, altogether too anxious about his own personal security.” He was not a man of strong principle and lacked in the area of personal responsibility. And then God showed up. What followed is a series of tests that will change this fragile man into a giant redwood of faith whose life and decisions continue to impact the world. Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in speaking to a joint session of the United States Congress on July 24 of this year mentioned Abraham several times. Remarkable.
God commands faith. Without faith in Him it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6) Walter Brueggemann writes that faith is the readiness to answer yes to both God’s promise and His painful commands; to respond in trust even though God requires us to live long in the deep tension between the joys of God and the costs of following Him.