The Hall of Faith | Abraham’s Faith To Release His Son – Hebrews 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
It is hard for me to read a biblical narrative in which Abraham is mentioned without a certain widely popularized and strangely catchy Sunday school tune bouncing around in my head. I wasn’t a frequent attender of Sunday school and I still fail to make it three words into this passage before I subconsciously mouth “Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had father Abraham.” Abraham did not always have an abundance of offspring. In fact, when God revealed to Abraham that Sarah was going to have their first child, all she could do was laugh (Genesis 18:9-15, ESV).
Often times, it is easy for me to look at Sarah’s response to God’s promise and scoff. I tell her, “How could you not see past your circumstances? Don’t you know that we serve a God of miracles? Have you not heard the song?” However, in my better moments I am able to put myself in Sarah’s shoes and be honest with myself and ask, “Are there scriptural promises that I laugh at?”
I think it is worth all of our time to honestly evaluate areas of our life that this could be true. Maybe it is that one friend that we half-heartedly pray for because they are “too lost” for even God to save them. Or maybe it is losing heart in a struggle with that thing that has defeated you half a million times and there is surely no way out of it now. No matter the situation God’s response to Sarah still carries weight today: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14a, ESV).
Faith When Faced With The Unthinkable
Sarah’s age proved to not be too hard for God to overcome, as little Isaac breathes his first bit of the life-sustaining mix of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen in Genesis 21. At this point, Abraham has to see the light at the end of the tunnel. He has been promised that his offspring will be as many as the stars, and after painfully slow years of waiting, he has an heir that can at least produce a constellation or two. Not even one chapter later, Abraham is told to do something that just shouldn’t make sense to him. God calls him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. If I am Abraham here, I would be beyond confused. My first thought would be, “Why would God have made me wait all of this time to have Isaac just to take him away from me. Wouldn’t it have been easier on me to just let me be?”
God’s will for our life can sometimes makes little logical sense from our perspective. However, God’s will for our life is the same will we would have for our own life if we knew everything that God did and could see all of eternity as clearly as He can. Surely Abraham had some doubts and weird thoughts about God’s call, but ultimately he knew that nothing is too hard for the Lord. He had seen God’s faithfulness in his life time and time again and leaned on those experiences to trust God’s seemingly contradictory plan this time around. He believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead and still keep His promise that his offspring would continue through Isaac’s line. Ultimately, God worked in a different way by providing a ram in place of Isaac.
God the Object Of Our Faith
God asked Abraham for the impossible. Throughout the life of Abraham, there had been the promise of children. Now God asked Abraham for the one thing that he had waited his entire life for; Abraham’s son. The child that miraculously came by the grace of God now was being required for sacrifice. Abraham, though, as difficult as it may be, held God as the object of his faith. The author of Hebrews tells us that Abraham trusted that the God who provided where there was no way, could even raise Isaac from the dead. While God provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac (a foreshadowing of Christ to come), Abraham put his faith in God to trust Him with every aspect of his life, even his most treasured blessing.
I think my tendency is to read a passage like this and urge myself to try harder to conjure up faith like Abraham. It is not the size of our faith that is significant but rather where we place our faith. I can have a mountain of faith that the Jacksonville Jaguars will win on a given Sunday, but I am likely to be disappointed. But if I have any faith at all in something as immovable as Jesus, surely I cannot be easily moved. If I place my hope in the God who makes dead people alive and whose promises never fail, surely I will not be disappointed.
About The Author
Wyly Yant is a content creator for the Gospel Outpost. Attending the University of Florida, he has a passion for seeing the lost come to Jesus. When not in class he is an active member of a Christian Fraternity and enjoys Gator Football. To find out more about him, check out his Author Page.
