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Abraham: Undaunted Faith

 Imagine being called to leave your home, your friends and family, your goals and dreams, and everything familiar, to travel out to some unknown place, with no idea where you’re going. Imagine being told that even though you and your wife are almost a century old, you will have a child who will bring forth multitudes of people and will become a great nation. Imagine being told to go and sacrifice that promised child as an offering to God. What would you think? How would you respond? This is the story of the life of Abraham, and it is full of insight and encouragement for us. Let’s take a deeper look.

The story of Abraham begins with a call from God to leave his country, Haran, and go to a place that God will show him. How do you think he responded? How would you have responded? He does not question, nor complain, but the very next verse says, “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him…” What a testimony. Right from the beginning we see a man who trusts God enough to do what He is asking without questioning, without hesitating, and without murmuring. Yet a few verses later we see that this man of faith is not perfect either. A famine came to the land and Abraham traveled to Egypt, one of the nearest big cities, to sojourn there and wait out this famine. He knew that the Egyptians did not fear God like he did, and might try to kill him for his beautiful wife. Yet instead of trusting in God to protect him, he resorted to deception. He told his wife to claim to be his sister, that they might not kill him to get her. This plan backfired, and God had to intervene to save Sarah from being taken by Pharaoh as his wife. Here we see two important lessons: firstly, our faith and trust in God, or lack thereof, always reveals itself in our actions. If we truly believe God, we will behave like we do. Secondly, we cannot trust our own plans to save ourselves and get out of trouble. The very plan that Abraham came up with to try to save himself almost caused the very trouble he wanted to avoid. We should do our best and live with integrity, trusting in God’s provision and protection.

Later down the line of history, we see Abraham’s faith again revealed in two dealings with his nephew, Lot. First, when they needed to separate because of their vast size, Abraham let Lot choose which side of the land he wanted. Lot chose the side that seemed to have more promise of gain and success. Abraham did not seek to get the better portion; he did not seek to use the promise of God as a means of excusing greed. He had faith that God would prosper him in His own timing and way, and that Abraham did not need to try to make that happen on his own. Secondly, when Lot got taken captive, Abraham showed faith and valor in his plan to save him. He sought God’s counsel in the matter and had faith that God would be with him and give him the victory. He showed that faith and obedience do not make a man weak or cowardly, but rather strong to defend the right. Yet again we see an instance where his faith was not yet perfect. He and Sarah were old and she was barren, childless. Instead of trusting God to fulfill His promise, Sarah thought to help God out and make it easier by giving Abraham her maidservant Hagar. This resulted in all sorts of issues and strife. Again we see the lesson that by trying to bring about results through our own plans, we usually make things worse instead of better.

Finally, after God did fulfill His promise in giving Abraham and Sarah a son, we see that God tests Abraham’s faith severely one last time. Because of Abraham's lack of faith in the instances mentioned before, God needed to further refine and test Abraham to show that he truly had unwavering faith in God. This test was concerning his son, Isaac. God commanded Abraham to take Isaac, his beloved child, and sacrifice him to God as an offering. This must have been very difficult for Abraham, not only because Isaac was his dear son, but he was also the heir of the promise. How could God take Isaac from Abraham, and yet make a great nation out of Isaac? Abraham wrestled with this, but dared not hesitate. He began to make the preparations in obedience to God. His faith grasped the promise that Isaac would become a great nation, and believed that God could even raise Isaac from the dead if need be. He purposed in his heart that God was faithful to keep His promises, and so he would be faithful to obey. As he was about to sacrifice his son on the altar, he heard a voice saying, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” What relief, what joy! The beauty of a life that fears God and withholds nothing from Him. God provided a lamb in the place of Isaac, and blessed them abundantly.

This story is full of lessons for us today. We too should cultivate faith and trust in God that will lead us to obey Him no matter what and to wait upon Him to fulfill His promises in His own way. We can go where He wants us to go with confidence that He will lead us and provide for us. We can seek to bless others, not needing to try to preserve ourselves, because we know that God will bless and keep us. We can give all that we have and all that we are to God, knowing that He is loving, merciful, and good. He has our best interest in mind and the best place we can be is in His hands, surrendered to His will. Where do you stand with God today? Do you trust Him enough to step out in faith? Do you have confidence that He will take care of you? Are you willing to lay everything on the altar for Him? Do you faith the undaunted faith of Abraham?


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