Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Gen. 22:2)
Abraham is renowned for his faith, but that faith didn't come easily. Although God had shown Abraham his overall plan for the future in spectacular fashion, the actual working out of that plan included many bumps and pitfalls.
God had promised Abraham many descendants, which led to a crisis of faith. Nothing gave Abraham more delight than thoughts of his children at play. But was that promise a cruel joke God had dangled before him? At eighty-five, Abraham gave up on his wife and slept with a female servant. At least he would have one child he could call his own. Then, at ninety-nine, when God reconfirmed the original promise, Abraham laughed in God's face. Sarah pregnant at ninety?
Whatever did God want? He wanted faith, the Bible says, which means complete trust against all odds, and Abraham finally learned that lesson. God kept his promise and a son was born to Abraham and Sarah. They never lived to see their descendants multiply like the stars in the sky. But they had one beloved son, whom they named Isaac, or "laughter," as if to remind them of the very absurdity, the miracle, of childbirth at their ages.
Then God presented a final test of faith, a trial so severe that it made the others seem like kindergarten games. The Bible makes clear that God never intended to let Abraham go through with his plan of child sacrifice. (Years later, when the Israelites actually committed infant sacrifice, God would call it "something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind," Jeremiah 19.) All along, God had provided another sacrifice, a ram caught by its horns nearby. But Abraham did not know these things as he climbed the steep mountain with his only son.
Too many times Abraham had doubted God—this time he would obey no matter what. It had taken more than a hundred years, but Abraham finally learned to trust. Ever since, he's been known as a man of faith.
Life Question: What is the hardest "test of faith" you have ever been through?
