Faith-filled Obedience

“…God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!..…Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’  So…” (And notice the time phrase that shows his immediate obedience)  “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.” 

        The book of Hebrews gives us even more insight into what was going on in Abraham’s mind saying, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son…He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.”  Hebrews 11:17,19

      Abraham followed through to the point of stretching out his hand and taking the knife, but the angel of the Lord stopped him, saying, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God (are a fearer of God), since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Genesis 22:12

      What a powerful example of a heart of faith-filled obedience.

Now, at this point, let us ask ourselves how much evidence do we give the world (and the angels and God) that we are a fearer of God (that we fear/reverence God)?  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments.."  Psalm 111:10


   Abraham had a promise of descendants through Isaac, yet there were no descendants, so how could Isaac die?  Abraham had even suggested shortcuts to that promise, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” (Genesis 17:18,19- Abraham, like us at times, would have settled for another plan, one that was easier and required no waiting or faith) ‘But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”

      The scene continues, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”  v.16-18 

       We too need to know God’s promises; clinging to those promises and to faith in Who God is, will enable us to walk in confident obedience. Abraham, knowing the promise, immediately 
obeyed this illogical assignment, and because he did, he was allowed to be a part of blessing all the nations of the earth. 

“Because you have obeyed My voice.”

We have no way of knowing what our acts of obedience will bring about and who they will affect.  God has a great plan in asking for each act of obedience, and there ARE consequences to our obedience that bless us and many others and potentially many, many after us down the halls of time.

Abraham was even allowed to be a part of THE greatest plan:       “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith…….. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ.” Galatians 3:13,14,16

What promises do you need to cling to so that you may walk forward in confidence faith-filled obedience to all that He calls you to?