“And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD:” (Ge 19:27 AV)
You have to be impressed with Abraham. Again, he is not hesitant to obey the LORD by faith regardless of the command. He was told the evening before to take Isaac up a mountain and offer him as a human sacrifice contrary to the promise of God. That is, it appears contrary. How could God promise that through Isaac Abraham’s seed would be called and then tell him to offer him as a human sacrifice? These two positions do not agree. Unless one factors in the resurrection. This is exactly what Abraham did. He figured if God could give life to a husband and wife who were past the physical ability to produce a child, then He could also raise the dead. It is the same thing. Just a matter of degrees. Sarah ceased the natural ability to bear children. As far as bearing children, her body was dead. If God could regenerate the body of Sarah so she could conceive, then He could also raise a dead son back to life. This was Abraham’s thinking according to the book of Hebrews. This faith in the resurrection meant Abraham got up very early the next morning and lived by faith. He did not hesitate. I would have. I would have put it off as much as I could. It would have taken me hours to saddle the asses and pack my bags. I would not have been in a rush. Not faith-filled Abraham. He got up and got going.
God asks us to do difficult things. Things that require a great deal of faith. Things we wish we could avoid, but we know we cannot. It is not just the steps we take that reveal our depth of faith, but also how quickly and with what attitude we take those steps. Life is not easy. It never was and it never will be. Faith is something that can only be learned by experience. There are no shortcuts to faith. We are asked to endure hardship we could never do without the power and strength of our ever-abiding God. We are asked to suffer loss. We are asked to accomplish tasks beyond our ability. We are asked to trust God with those things or people who are closest to us. We are asked to help others along the way when we are hurting ourselves. The LORD asks us to put it all on the line with little or no backup plan. He does this because living by faith is the deepest relationship we could ever have with the LORD. When a child is young, he has no choice but to trust his parents. How else will he survive? When they age and become more self-reliant, this trust is often brought into question. When that child can reason and choose and solve his or her own problems, trusting the counsel and guidance of his parents becomes a little harder. But it is this educated trust that is the deepest of all. When an adult child asks his or her parents for guidance, and follows it, to the parent it is gold. It is much deeper than a two-year-old asking for his next meal. Faith is the basis for deep and lasting relationships.
Abraham knew this. He knew his relationship with the LORD could only be as deep as his faith in Him. There was no reason to hesitate. To do so would harm his walk with God. If he hesitated and put off what God asked him to do, it would be a stamp on how much he loved and trusted God. He had to act immediately and decisively. Abraham is a remarkable man. He was extremely well-balanced. He was spiritually and emotionally secure. Abraham never waivered in his love and faith toward God. Outside of his relationship with Hagar at Sarah’s bidding, there isn’t a blemish on Abraham’s life. He was a man of faith who set the example for the entire human race to follow. May we be as quick as Abraham was to trust the LORD in each and every step of faith He asks us to take.
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