Faith, Trust and Obedience
It is very sad that many people, including those who claim
to be Christians, often think of the Old Testament God as an egomaniac power-hungry
God. With this kind of view, people often come to a conclusion that God is sometimes
moody and often become ridiculously cruel. They see God, as a creator, who
abuses His absolute authority to “test” people to see their obedience merely for
His pleasure. One of the commonly used controversial cases to show this cruelty
is when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Atheists and even some Christians
find it very hard to understand why the all-knowing and “supposedly” all-loving
God would ever ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
I once watched an animated YouTube clip that really
questions God’s character in the case of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. In the
video, God was pictured as a God with nothing to do, who was simply trying to
mess with people’s minds. God was simply having fun and simply was joking with
Abraham. As a result, Abraham had to unwillingly lie to Isaac and asked Isaac
to close his eyes. And just when Abraham was about to stab Isaac, God remarked “April
fool! Gotcha!” Abraham reasonably got upset with God because the all-knowing
God, asked him to sacrifice Isaac to “know that Abraham truly fears God”.
After seeing the clip, I was stunned. Is God really that cruel
and ridiculous? It haunts my mind even when I was sleeping. Partially because
the chain of thoughts proposed in the animation is quite logical and partially
because I don’t think that the portrayal of God is consistent with the
character of God that I have experienced.
I thank God that He does not let my doubt lead me to hating
God but instead luckily, through this challenge, He reveals more of Himself and
let me understand what it truly means to obey God. Re-looking at the video, I
understand that the animation must have been posted by someone who hates God. His
or her view of God does not truly accept that God is love, just and all
knowing. His view of God simply picture God as a self-claimer for being loving
and just and all-knowing. Thus, this video is his/her expression of how he/she
would feel and react if he/she were Abraham. He/she would be annoyed, and would
assume that God is just being ridiculous. If God truly was simply trying to “mess
up with your mind” when asking for such request, I reckon it would be
reasonable to be angry.
However, in contrast to the animation, Abraham in the Bible did
not respond to God’s request with any hesitation. Abraham was not recorded as ever
questioning God. Abraham did not get annoyed at God when God stopped him from
stabbing Isaac. Abraham simply obeyed God. Abraham trusted God. Abraham had
faith in God’s promise.
We would then ask “Is there any way that any rational person
would gladly sacrifice his/her Son?” “Wouldn’t the only possible explanation
for someone agreeing to sacrifice his/her child is because he fears this
almighty dictator?” One would say, “Abraham simply obeyed God, because he fears
God’s punishment if he did anything less”.
In answer to this, I would say “yes if”. Yes, only if God was
a stranger to Abraham, then probably he did it out of fear. But the reality of
this case is that God was not a stranger to Abraham. Abraham knew God. Abraham already
knew how loving and powerful God is. And that makes all the difference to the
story. This is also what makes the difference between Abraham and the producer of
the video.
Abraham obeyed God based on trust. This is very different
from people who obey God simply out of obligation. Obedience without trust is
legalism. It is a common and sad mistake that people make when they try to
please God with their legalistic obedience. Many didn’t realize that if they
obey God out of legality, spending eternity with God in heaven will feel like
hell.
In Abraham’s case, prior to the “test”, a lot of things had happened
to Abraham. When Abraham was 75 years old, God called him out of Ur and
appeared in front of Abraham with a promise of a land. God had blessed Abraham
and promised his offspring to inherit the land. When there was a famine and
Abraham had to left for Egypt, God made Abraham very rich instead. God kept on blessing
Abraham with wealth and glory, allowing Abraham to even defeat the four kings of
Shinar, Ellasar, Elam, and Goyim to rescue Lot, his nephew. During this
Journey, there were occasions where Abraham laughed and doubted God’s promise,
but God repetitively showed his mercy and blessings towards Abraham. God re-established
His covenant, promising Abraham to be a great nation, which would be a blessing
to many nations. When Abraham, was 100 years old, when Sarah had past her age
of child bearing, God opened Sarah’s womb, allowing her to give birth to Isaac.
Some time later, when Isaac has grown quite a bit, around 40
years after God first called Abraham, God tested Abraham. By this time, Abraham’s
understanding of God is no longer only intellectual. Abraham knew and trusted
God as the almighty creator. For Abraham, the same God that can give him Isaac
in Abraham’s old age is the same God that had created the heaven and earth and
thus is able to keep His promise. Thus Abraham has Faith in God, believing that
God is able to keep His promise to bring forth a great nation from the line of
Isaac.
Hebrew 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when God tested him,
offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to
sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through
Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could
even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back
from death.
Okay, so Abraham had close relationship to God and completely trusted
God, but some of us would still then argue, “Why would God need to test Abraham?
Even if Abraham had close relationship with God, isn’t this test still a bit
too much?” “Furthermore, If God foreknew what Abraham would do, why did He
still test him?”
This is a very good question. A really good question indeed,
especially if we don’t doubt the all-knowing character of God. It is quite
unfortunate that many asked this questioned not willing to know why, but
instead trying to doubt the all-knowing character of God or to doubt the
concept of God altogether. But if anyone actually asked these questions for an answer,
I can assure you that there are beautiful reasons behind it.
I am not God, but there are at least two reasons that have
been revealed by God in the Bible. First, when the all-knowing God tests
someone, it is not so that God may learn something new. God who is infinite and
eternal, foreknew that Abraham would sacrifice Isaac. He tested Abraham not to
know Abraham’s faith but to make Abraham’s faith known to himself and to
everyone else. I thank God that because He knew how Abraham would respond, God
actually tested him. It allows Isaac, Jacob, and Israelites to know Abraham’s faith
and how faithful God is in His love and His
covenant. It also allows us to learn the faith of the patriarch and be
strengthened by it.
Secondly, spiritually, the act of God testing Abraham allows
Abraham’s action to become the fore shadow of Christ. Genesis 22:8 says “God Himself
will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son”. And so like Abraham, who
did not withhold his son, God also will not withhold His only begotten Son to
become the living sacrifice for the atonement of our sin.
Obedience without trust/faith is legalism but willing obedience
based on trust is comfort. Having faith in the wrong object leads to
disappointment but hope based on Faith in God will not disappoint.
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have
obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we
exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also rejoice in
our in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us,
because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He
has given us.
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