The faith that revealed true love
Hannah Elsa Abraham
Without love, there can be no true faith; a loveless faith is nothing but an empty religious exercise. This is a phrase that caught my attention recently after I had read the passage in Genesis where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son as a burnt offering. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old and Sara, 90 years old. Though they had promises about the generations after, still the circumstances around them created uncertainty in them, and they even thought God was joking about the whole thing. If we hear a 100-year-old grandpa and 90-year-old grandma is going to have a baby, I feel our response would be the same too. Definitely can’t blame them. Eventually, we know they had the baby and they named him Isaac.
Then came the real test for Abraham, God called him one day and told “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you”. God is specifically giving stress to this phrase, “whom you love”. As we read the passage, we might not clearly understand the pressure Abraham must have gone through, I believe he must have gone through a lot. But he chose to be silent and to obey God’s command because Abraham was a person who trusted God and placed God above everyone. There are times when God loves our silent obedience. If your silent obedience can push you more towards God, then never doubt it. If we were in place of Abraham, then we would have raised many questions, God, you can ask anything of mine except my son or if you knew you were going to make me offer him as a burnt offering then why did you bless us with Isaac in our old age? What will I say to Sarah? God knew Abraham had faith in Him but He wanted to reveal it to the whole world through actions.
A father loves his children, how much more would be the love Abraham had for his miracle boy, Isaac. Though Abraham had a love for His only son, but that love couldn’t replace the love he had for His God. Losing something that he had waited for around 100 years was tough, but he knew God would do something great even amidst this tough test. He surrendered himself and his boy for it. He came from his place Ur, without even knowing where God was taking him to, the same faith was demonstrated here too. Even though he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen in the mountains, still he trusted God’s command. We can see him speaking the words of faith in the following verses as well when he says to his servants that he and boy would come back after worshipping, and also when Isaac asks about lamb for sacrifice, he says ‘God will provide’. The author of the book of Hebrews shows a deeper revelation of Abraham’s faith, ‘He considered that God was able to raise him back’.
We know how the rest of the story goes, Abraham built an altar and finally bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar and he reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. And only after taking the knife, he heard a voice from heaven. Through this, Abraham proved to God and all of us that God was the first priority in His life and not his son, Isaac. Abraham loved God more than his son or any of his belongings and heaven was pleased to see that. Abraham passed this tough test victoriously.
This story of Abraham and Isaac shows us the story of a father in Heaven and Jesus. The love for His beloved son Jesus was there, but God chose to love us more. In John 3.16, it says For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Were we worthy enough of that precious love? Definitely not, but he being the father he chose to love us even when we were not in a state to be loved.
We being humans, often plead God for certain things, might be material blessings, spiritual gifts, or anything. Finally, when we do get that ‘something’ which we were longing for, we tend to spend more time with it. We might boast about it to our family or friends. Without even us knowing, we might start to love that ‘something’ more than God. Those days when we haven’t yet received them, we might have been praying hard and some might have been fasting too. Finally, when we do get it, we might not even remember to thank God for what He has given or many of us even forget God in the process. Then suddenly, if God takes that thing from us, we just blame God for everything. We always tend to forget the ‘source’ in our journey. Make God your priority, then the things from him would be of lesser value than Him. When we love God more, then the rest of things won’t bother us much. That love will give us more faith in our day-to-day struggles.
Love God and love His kingdom and the people around you. We may be facing struggles every day but just with faith, we might not be able to conquer them. Make sure you love God and that love will give us the strength to overcome whatever comes in our way. God is love and He expects us to demonstrate His love to our fellow beings. If Abraham had only faith, he must have failed but His love for God enabled him to pass the test of faith. When God gives us struggles or tests, the way we react to it shows us how much we love God. So always choose love. As faith without love is not true faith.
