Hebrews 11: 8
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
"Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love."
(Oswald Chambers in Run Today’s Race)
When God called Abraham to go to the land that was going to be given to him and his descendants, Abraham trusted God, because he had faith in what God had told him.
Abraham was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. His wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, all their possessions and the people they had gathered in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. Abraham did not know the way to Canaan but trusted God to lead him.
Abraham travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the land was occupied by the Canaanites. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, in Genesis 12: 7
“To your offspring I will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
We can see that Abraham had total faith in everything God said to him. Apart from a few possible blips in Abraham’s faith, God was still with him. Eventually, after a few problems around the promise of a son for Abraham, despite Abraham and Sarah’s ages they got their promised son, Isaac. Things were going well again for this family.
However, some time later, God told Abraham to send his other son away with his mother. Then God told Abraham to take Isaac to the place of Moriah to sacrifice him. This was the only son Abraham had and God had said all of the promised land would go to Abraham’s descendants as their own possession. How could this be?
Anyway, instead of trying to work things out for himself, this time he took God at His word again. After so many tries to order his own safety, Abraham trusted God again. Abraham had the faith to take Isaac up the mountain, giving him the wood to carry for the sacrificial fire. Isaac was curious to know where the sacrifice was, but Abraham replied that God would provide. His faith had reappeared when it was most needed, and God did indeed provide the sacrificial lamb.
Now we are asked to have faith in the death of God’s own son, who was not replaced by a sacrificial lamb, Jesus WAS the sacrificial lamb. Jesus who carried all our sins to the cross, bleeding out the payment on our behalf. Because of Jesus we are promised a home with Him, if we only believe and confess Jesus as the Son of God who died and was raised for our eternal life. Only we must have faith!
Earth is not our home. We are citizens of the New Jerusalem, where Jesus has prepared a place for us.
Prayer
Merciful Father, we come again to thank You for all the blessings we receive from You. For Your mercy each time we come to You asking forgiveness for the times we have not obeyed Your directions. For the times we have shown less than loving kindness to our neighbours, for the times we have forgotten to include people on the periphery of society, or deliberately ‘forgotten’ because of the opinion of society. Father, please allow Your Spirit to lead us in the paths that Jesus pointed out for us, so that our thoughts and actions will be pleasing to You. Father, You made all of us in Your image, help us to recognise You in ourselves and aspire to live as You intended. We come in the name of Your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment