Many believers call Abraham the 'father of faith'. Why? Is it just because he believed in God? Abraham did indeed believe in God, but more importantly he believed in God's promise. Belief in someone else is proven through that person fulfilling their promise. Let's see how that is demonstrated through the story of Abraham.

Abram was 75 years old when he was commanded by God to leave his homeland of Harran and go to a foreign land (Gen 12). Abram obeyed, letting go of everything he had been accustomed to all those years, and taking with him his wife Sarai, nephew Lot, and some possessions (they had no children). Despite his relatively old age and fear of the unknown, he obeyed God's calling.

A short time later, God came to Abram in a vision and promised him that he would have a son born from his own flesh and blood from whom descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky would come (Gen 15). Abram believed in God's promise and walked faithfully with God. 

However, as time passed, his wife Sarai, who was ten years his junior and well past child-bearing age, grew despondent, though she knew of God's promise. She pressed Abram to sleep with her maidservant Hagar in the hope that she might raise a child through her. Hagar conceived and gave birth to Ishamel.

When Abram was 99 - 25years after God made the promise - God again appeared and told him to be "blameless" (Gen 17:1). Abraham had wavered in his belief and bore Ishamel, who was not the child of promise. God then reaffirmed his promise, telling him that Sarai would bear him a son one year later in her old age. Abram laughed to himself. Nevertheless, God who always fulfils what He promises, gave them a son one year later whom they named 'Isaac', meaning 'he laughs',according to God's command. Surely Abraham would never have forgotten God's faithfulness every time he called his son by name.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” (Gen 22:1-2)

The child of the promise whom Abraham and Sarah had waited for 25 years was asked to be sacrificed. Why? And how can a supposedly loving God make such a demand? Would someone walking in obedience to such a command not be considered psychotic and, at the very least, be sectioned in a psychiatric ward in today's day and age?

Yet Abraham got up "early the next morning" and obeyed God's command. On the pretext of making a customary offering to God, Abraham and his son walked up Mount Moriah - wood, fire and knife in hand - to make the intended burnt offering. (A burnt offering in the time of the Old Testament was typically performed on a sheep or lamb whereby their flesh was ripped apart and burned with fire). As Abraham lifted his hand to strike his son dead, an angel stopped him and God acknowledged him. Abraham obeyed God, believing that God could even raise Isaac back from the dead to fulfil His promise because God always fulfils His promise (Heb 11:17-19). 

Faith is "confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Heb 11:1). Abraham had true faith because he knew God's promise and, in spite of his many physical setbacks, kept it, believing that God would fulfil regardless. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). 

Today, there is a clear promise that God has made with believers, as recorded in the four Gospels and the book of Revelation of the New Testament. Do you know what this promise is?

★Shincheonji Church of Jesus, The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony is the promised temple that has appeared according to the promises of the book of Revelation. If you are curious about the promise a believer must keep today, the reason for birth, ageing, sickness and death, or about Jesus' promised second coming, you can register your interest for Shincheonji Church of Jesus' online Bible Study Course, delivered by experienced lecturers free of charge:-

⇨http://bit.ly/bible_061102 (English)

⇨http://bit.ly/shengjing_061102 (Chinese)

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