PATRIARCHAL FAITH

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who 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. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instruction concerning the burial of his bones (Heb. 11: 17-22).

As little as the patriarchs knew of God, they were men of faith. Oops! What did I say? They probably knew God far more intimately than many of us do. Who was this God whom they worshipped? He introduced Himself to Abraham as el, the one who, to the Hebrew person, was not some unique being who was holy, eternal and unknowable except through revelation, although these facts are true.  God was, to them, the one who had power and authority. When He spoke, they obeyed and when He promised, He acted.

Later on, He added another dimension to Abraham’s understanding of Him – El Shaddai – the Mighty One who nourishes. He is the one who has strength and authority and who provides for those who trust Him. These were the simple, everyday experiences of the early fathers because they trusted God and did what He told them to do, even to the near-killing of Abraham’s only son-of-his-old-age who brought him joy and laughter.

God said, ‘Go, sacrifice Isaac,’ so Abraham went without hesitating or questioning. How about that for trust! He no Bible to check up on God. He had no history of a people who knew and followed El. He was a pioneer who had left home and kindred to go where this God had told him to go and he went. In his going, he discovered that his God was able to exactly as He had promised. Wasn’t Isaac proof of that? Whoever heard of a ninety-year-old woman having a child, and that after she had gone through menopause?

So confident he was in God that he was willing to put Isaac’s life on the line, as much as he loved him, for the sake of obeying God, and leave the outcome to Him. The writer commented that Abraham even credited God with the power to raise Isaac back to life after he had plunged in the knife and taken his life. Why did he believe that? He knew Him. His past was spread out in front of him like a panorama of everything he had experienced, and God was in it from the moment he first heard His voice.

Abraham lived up to God’s expectation.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about what He has promised Him (Gen. 18: 18-19).

Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Abraham’s descendants, all eventually followed the way of Yahweh because Abraham obeyed God and taught his offspring to do the same. Although the Bible does not mention his influence on his grandchildren, he was still alive long after they were born. He lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and seventy five years.

Abraham’s son, Isaac and grandson, Jacob received the same promise that God gave to Abraham (Gen 26: 3-5; Gen 28: 13-15). Joseph, although he died in Egypt, was so sure of the fulfilment of God’s promise that he left instructions for his bones to be take back to Canaan when the people eventually left Egypt to take possession of the land of Canaan (Gen 50: 24-25; Ex 13: 19).

These were momentous days. Think of what this meant to these families. Abraham was uprooted from a stable life in Ur to spend the rest of his life as a nomad, with no land of his own, living in tents and moving from place to place, always at the mercy and goodwill of the local inhabitants.

Isaac and Jacob never knew what it was like to live in a house and have land of their own. Jacob twice had to relocate hundreds of miles from where he was born, ending up in a land where the ruler eventually turned hostile and enslaved his descendants.

Joseph was sold into slavery by jealous brothers, ripped from his beloved father’s side and carried off to a heathen land where he served for thirteen years before God promoted him to a position of power and authority. Even there, in spite of the honour he had received, he was still alone, without family and heritage until his brothers came and he was reunited with them.

What a story! And yet, God was in it and behind it all, working out His will to bless and provide for His people. How did they know that? He had promised and they trusted Him and did what He instructed. What about us? Would we have done what they did at the command of someone they could not see? That’s real faith!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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