Abraham Faith, Providence, Prefigurement In Genesis chapter 22, we read the powerful story of how God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. In Genesis 22:1 it says that God tested Abraham. This …More
Abraham Faith, Providence, Prefigurement
In Genesis chapter 22, we read the powerful story of how God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. In Genesis 22:1 it says that God tested Abraham. This should remind us that God will test each of his followers at various points in their lives to see if they remain true to His faith, His law, and His commands. By modern standards, the test that God gave to Abraham was a mind-bogglingly difficult one. God told Abraham to kill his beloved Son; yet upon hearing God's command Abraham immediately moved to obey it. When God saw that Abraham believed and accepted His word and that he acted to fulfill it, God intervened to stop Abraham. Abraham is thus an Exemplar of true and unhesitating Faith, which accepts without delay what God has revealed even if one doesn't see the justification for it or the reasoning behind it.
As saint Anselm says: "For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, that unless I believed, I should not understand."
Abraham's example stands out in history for our instruction and admiration. True Faith believes first and understands second, it is only when we believe that we are able to truly understand. This principle has a special application to God's truths on salvation. Most people today refuse to believe what God has taught about the destiny of those who die in mortal sin or outside the true Faith. Some of them also refused to believe what God has said about the fewness of the saved, the fact that most people go to hell.. See Matthew 7:13. Since these people do not see how individuals they consider to be good could possibly be condemned to Hell by a just God, they reject what God has said on this point. They convince themselves that the reality must be other than what God has revealed, and that such people are therefore saved. They are sadly bereft of the gift of faith that was demonstrated so clearly by Abraham had Abraham acted in the manner they do, he would have fallen out of God's favor and forfeited God's profound promise. As we read in Genesis 22:17-18: "I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, BECAUSE YOU HAVE OBEYED MY VOICE ."
The concept of obedience to God's voice that we see here and in many other places in scripture is not what most typically consider it to be; that is to say, it does not refer to a multiplicity of pious practices that we decide to perform or the amount of effort we might employ for what we deem to be God's cause. No, it captures something more subtle. In many Biblical contexts obeying God or His voice refers specifically and primarily to believing what God has said, exactly how He has said it. It refers to a special connection with God's revelation while that certainly sometimes has application to actions that must be performed or things that must be done, the initial component of the obedience to His word rests with faith in what He has said. If you disbelieve what God has said, you reject Him; if you believe what He has said, you accept Him, and logically you should carry out what He has revealed although you will not necessarily do so. From complete faith in His word obedience to His prescriptions should spring but obedience defined in one's own way that is by actions that are allegedly done for God while one disbelieves in some of what God has revealed is actually not obedience to God at all it has no value in His sight. A passage which illustrates this truth is 1 Kings 15:22-23, or 1 Samuel 15:22-23: And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel: and like the crime of idolatry, to refuse to obey. Forasmuch therefore, as thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee from being king."
In Genesis chapter 22, we read the powerful story of how God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. In Genesis 22:1 it says that God tested Abraham. This should remind us that God will test each of his followers at various points in their lives to see if they remain true to His faith, His law, and His commands. By modern standards, the test that God gave to Abraham was a mind-bogglingly difficult one. God told Abraham to kill his beloved Son; yet upon hearing God's command Abraham immediately moved to obey it. When God saw that Abraham believed and accepted His word and that he acted to fulfill it, God intervened to stop Abraham. Abraham is thus an Exemplar of true and unhesitating Faith, which accepts without delay what God has revealed even if one doesn't see the justification for it or the reasoning behind it.
As saint Anselm says: "For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, that unless I believed, I should not understand."
Abraham's example stands out in history for our instruction and admiration. True Faith believes first and understands second, it is only when we believe that we are able to truly understand. This principle has a special application to God's truths on salvation. Most people today refuse to believe what God has taught about the destiny of those who die in mortal sin or outside the true Faith. Some of them also refused to believe what God has said about the fewness of the saved, the fact that most people go to hell.. See Matthew 7:13. Since these people do not see how individuals they consider to be good could possibly be condemned to Hell by a just God, they reject what God has said on this point. They convince themselves that the reality must be other than what God has revealed, and that such people are therefore saved. They are sadly bereft of the gift of faith that was demonstrated so clearly by Abraham had Abraham acted in the manner they do, he would have fallen out of God's favor and forfeited God's profound promise. As we read in Genesis 22:17-18: "I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, BECAUSE YOU HAVE OBEYED MY VOICE ."
The concept of obedience to God's voice that we see here and in many other places in scripture is not what most typically consider it to be; that is to say, it does not refer to a multiplicity of pious practices that we decide to perform or the amount of effort we might employ for what we deem to be God's cause. No, it captures something more subtle. In many Biblical contexts obeying God or His voice refers specifically and primarily to believing what God has said, exactly how He has said it. It refers to a special connection with God's revelation while that certainly sometimes has application to actions that must be performed or things that must be done, the initial component of the obedience to His word rests with faith in what He has said. If you disbelieve what God has said, you reject Him; if you believe what He has said, you accept Him, and logically you should carry out what He has revealed although you will not necessarily do so. From complete faith in His word obedience to His prescriptions should spring but obedience defined in one's own way that is by actions that are allegedly done for God while one disbelieves in some of what God has revealed is actually not obedience to God at all it has no value in His sight. A passage which illustrates this truth is 1 Kings 15:22-23, or 1 Samuel 15:22-23: And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel: and like the crime of idolatry, to refuse to obey. Forasmuch therefore, as thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee from being king."