Human Response 59: Believe and Obey

Genesis 22:8-9 And Abraham said My Son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told them of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Abraham is going through with it! He going to sacrifice the son of Promise! He follows through because he believed God. Therefore, he responds with obedience to the letter. Here we see a man in whom the Lord has developed a mature faith. He started his journey with faith, but along the way he faltered, failed, and doubted, taking matters into his own hands. But the Lord worked him through the doubts unto this moment when his strong faith was tested, proved, and purified.

God had proved Himself to be faithful to His Covenant Promise time and again. Abraham learned faith; and now Abraham’s strong faith was to be tried in the furnace. The Lord had shown him that He was faithful, but was He that faithful? God perfected his faith through this supreme test. He passed the test! Now both God and Abraham know that he can be trusted to obey. The Patriarch and progenitor of the Promised Seed had to be strong in faithful obedience. He is!

Abraham did not know what God would do, but he trusted Him to do it. He didn’t know how prophetic he was when he believed and confessed, ”God will provide the lamb.” God did, for Isaac. And God did, for us, when He provided His only Son as the Sacrificial Lamb to save us for life. We respond with faith.