Test Of Faith

Hebrews 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

Has your faith ever been tested?  Do you remember the particular event, circumstance?  In today's scripture, Abraham had been tested by God.

If you remember in the book of Genesis, the Lord promised that Abraham and his wife Sarah would have a son.  And they were to name him Isaac.  But here's the catch.  They were old.  That's right. They were nearly 100 years old, and God told Abraham that he would have a son.

Now Abraham and Sarah were human beings, so like a lot of us, they began to wonder.  So they decided to help God out and Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham.  So Abraham "went in unto" Hagar, and she became pregnant.  Now there are all kinds of problems in the Middle East as a result of this union.  But that's a whole other article.

Several years later, God reminded them about giving them a son.  This was a promise from God, who ALWAYS keeps his promises.  So they had a son, and they named him Isaac.  A number of years later, God tested Abraham's faith and told him to go to a certain mountain and offer Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice to God.

It would be extremely difficult for me to offer a child of mine as a sacrifice to God.  You probably feel the same way.  Abraham was obedient; he and Isaac went to this mountain. He laid Isaac on the altar with the wood, and prepared to kill his son of promise. 

Abraham's faith was so strong in the Lord, that he was obedient.  But just before he started to kill his son, he heard a voice behind him.  He looked, and there was a ram caught in the thickets.   Here was the sacrifice which Abraham knew in his heart that God would provide.

You see, God wasn't going to let Abraham kill the son that had been promised to him.  What God wanted to know was if Abraham's faith was strong enough that he would offer his son to God.
Abraham believed God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead.  But Abraham was willing.

Now the question.  How willing are we to obey God to the fullest?  Would we be willing to sacrifice our son/daughter to the Lord as asked?  God wants all of us, not just some of us.  He wants us to let go of anything that we would we allow to come between him and us.  Let's search our hearts, and ask God to look into our hearts and see if there is anything we are holding back from God.