The evolution of faith

I have been immersing myself in Genesis for a couple of months now and I am simply fascinated by the pruning character of God in the life of Abraham. God is always growing us into what he sees us as, becoming more and more like him and Abraham’s life was no exception. I have already said in my previous post that Abraham was a man of faith. In fact, Galatians says that all who believe are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7), so faith started with him. What we see early in his journey is that his faith had a progression. First, it started as a blind obedience, then it moved to a matured obedience filled with understanding and last, it became a complete obedience, filled with desires and a heart surrendered to God.

In Genesis 12, when God tells Abraham to leave his people, his father’s house, and everything he ever knew to the place he would show him, we see Abraham simply blindly obeying the Lord. He asks no questions and does not waste time obeying. What is even more remarkable is that he ends up staying in Canaan the place God had told him to move to for at least ten years before seeing anything offspring related happened. And in all those years, the bible does not record one instance of Abraham second guessing himself or wondering whether or not he should be staying. His faith, although blind and naïve was the seed that was needed by God to produce more out of him. What more you say? Is such a faith not enough? Isn’t it what God expects of us? Well, God expects us to obey him, but he also wants our faith in him to be mature and understood which is what we start seeing in Genesis 17 to 21.

In these chapters, we see that Abraham has a son named Ishmael through his servant Hagar. The birth of Ishmael is quite a story in itself; Sarah, Abraham’s wife is barren and so, wanting to provide her husband with an offspring, tells her husband to have a kid with her servant Hagar. What I find interesting is the fact that, Abraham did not seem bothered by the fact that he did not have kids, it does not seem to be a desire at all for him unless it was a suppressed desire. I believe the encounter he had with God in Genesis 15 where God tells him specifically that he would have an offspring from his own flesh and blood was part of the reason why he did not seem to be bothered by not having kids. Abraham believed God at his words even without understanding how things would play out. This is probably why when his wife Sarah tells him to have a child through his servant Hagar he does not hesitate. This route seemed to be the most logical way God was going to fulfill his promise to Abraham, I mean how else would he provide an offspring to Abraham whose wife was barren? Abraham goes with his wife’s plan and Ishmael is born. Several years pass, around thirteen years since Ishmael’s birth and then God appears to Abraham, giving him the name we know now which means “father of many” and telling him that Sarah would bore him a son. This is another level of faith Abraham is being subjected to. It was easy to believe God’s plan was through Ishmael but a child from his barren old wife? This is pushing it, yet that is precisely where God was taking Abraham. God wanted Abraham to understand that faith is on God’s terms, it is all about believing in what God says not in your interpretation of what God says (reminds me of Proverbs 3:5-6).

The last level of faith we see displayed in Abraham’s journey is total surrendering. Abraham has grown from blindly obeying, almost like a robot to being content in your obedience, in your waiting to fully giving up your will. You see, Abraham finally got to see the promise of God he had been waiting for, his son Isaac. With Isaac’s birth, there was so much joy, the reproach of Sarah was removed, now Abraham could truly say he was a father as his name says, he could freely love his son unlike with Ismael where he couldn’t. In all this, Abraham in my opinion allowed himself to enjoy things, to savour, to live life fully and simply enjoy being a real father this time. Unfortunately, the story does not end here as God will test Abraham in the most brutal ways. God asked Abraham to give him “his only son whom he loves”. Now that is painful. God wanted Abraham to give him his all, his very best thing. This sacrifice that God asks is the costliest that God asked Abraham. Until now, it was simply “go there”, “wait for your offspring”, “I will make you into a great nation”, etc. but all of a sudden it is “give me your child, the one you love”. Surprisingly, Abraham obeys God and gives his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Fortunately, the Lord prevents him from harming his boy and instead provides a substitutionary sacrifice for Abraham which he uses to make the sacrifice to the Lord. Abraham passes the ultimate test; he shows God that he is in this for the long run and that God has his heart which is precisely what God was searching for. Abraham basically told God, “do with me as you please, you’re the boss”.

Up until this point, Abraham’s faith had been more or less simple obedience, but God wanted obedience from the heart not obedience because you are told to. God wanted Abraham to truly love him, knowing that he had great plans for him and to trust him for everything. This shows me that God is not interested in puppets, he wants your all just like he gave you his very all in Jesus Christ. You see, Abraham foreshadowed what God would do to the world, giving us his one and only son whom he loved as a substitutionary sacrifice in our place so that we could become friends of God. Therefore, by giving us Jesus, which is his everything, God expects from us our everything. He desires all of you not part of you, he wants your full and complete obedience, he wants it all!