Faith Is an Act of Praise

Can you imagine a singing group marching in front of an army to the battle? By this Jehoshaphat demonstrated his absolute faith in God’s promise: “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle.” This faith too was an act of praise. Then we read:

“And when they began to sing, and to praise; the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.” 2 Chronicles 20:22

A demonstration of the magnificent power of praise is also given in Acts chapter 16. Paul and Silas had been brutally beaten and confined in the inner prison with their feet in stocks. Then we read:

“At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bands were loosed.” Acts 16:25,26

Do you want any doors opened? Do you want any bands loosed? Do you want any problems solved? Try praising God! Extol his virtues. In your prayers name and recount every wonderful thing you can remember about him: his personal attributes, his great and marvelous works of creation; his divine plan so just and yet so merciful; the precious gift of his son, Christ Jesus; his incredible provision that we may be associated with him in his kingdom; his providences in our lives; his exceeding great and precious promises; and many, many more things for which he can be praised. Let us thank him for all these things. This will be a most acceptable act of worship, and will be heard and regarded. “If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Where Is the Lamb? (The Trial of Abraham)

THE Lord God loved Abraham, and called him away from country and kindred. Abraham loved God, and obeyed him in all things, instantly and completely. God made many promises to Abraham and to his seed. These promises were most generous and substantial and of wide scope. They involved such sweeping expressions as: “I will make of thee a great nation.” (Genesis 12:2) “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” (Genesis 12:7) “I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth.” (Genesis 13:16) “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis 15:1) “Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; so shall thy seed be.” (Genesis 15:5)

Jehovah God and Abraham conversed directly together as intimate friends. They talked freely and frankly and hid nothing. The Lord said on one occasion:

“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him.” Genesis 18:17-19

Yes, they knew each other well. It was a close acquaintance. So it was not altogether surprising that one day, after God had made one of his promises to Abraham, that Abraham frankly said to God, “Lord God; what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?” (Genesis 15:2) In other words:

“These promises you have so graciously given me presume descendants. How can you make of me a great nation if I have no children? How can my name be great if there is no son to perpetuate it? How can all the families of the earth be blessed in me if there is only my own brief life span in which to accomplish it? My wife, Sarah, is barren and cannot have children. Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless?”

Then God told him plainly: “You shall indeed have a child of your own flesh and of Sarah’s, and you shall call his name Isaac.” Then he gave a most important promise: “I will establish my covenant with him [Isaac] for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” (Genesis 17:19) Now note this point carefully. The promised seed and all the blessings were to come through Isaac–not through Eliezer, not through Ishmael, but through Isaac.

In due time Isaac was born. He was the only child of Abraham by his beloved wife Sarah. An only child is always very precious, but Isaac was doubly precious to Abraham and Sarah because he was born in their old age. They had wanted a child for so long and now it was here! They lavished all their love upon him. Hagar and Ishmael were sent away by God’s approval, and on that occasion God reiterated his promise: “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Genesis 21:12

Abraham’s joy was now complete. He now had everything he could possibly desire. The most high God, the Creator and ruler of the universe, was his intimate friend. He had great material wealth of silver and gold, flocks and herds, and servants. He had a devoted wife whom he loved dearly. Now he had a fine son who was the heir of all the wonderful promises that God had made to him, in whom was wrapped up the hope of the world! Isaac grew up to be a handsome lad, a delight to his father and mother, obedient and considerate, fully returning their great love for him. Life seemed perfect.

God Tests Abraham

Then, one day, Abraham heard God’s voice calling his name in the old familiar way. He loved these talks they had together. He eagerly answered: “Behold, here I am!” And God said,

“Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Genesis 22:1,2

Abraham was stunned! He could scarcely believe his ears! This was a terrible thing that God was asking: to kill his own son! How it must have wrenched his heart. All his dreams and plans and high hopes came crashing down upon him. But though he loved his young son as his own soul, he loved the Lord God with all his soul. There was no question about his obeying, no asking why or pleading with God, only prompt and complete obedience.

He probably could not bring himself to tell the boy’s mother. He would want to spare her. Why cause her anguish before it and try to dissuade him and that would only make things harder because he could not be dissuaded. After all, she did not have his depth of faith. She could not know the Lord God as completely as he did, he who had frequent conversations with Him.

So Abraham got up early in the morning, probably while Sarah was still asleep, to commence the three-day journey to Mount Moriah. First he cut wood for the sacrifice. Every blow of the axe must have cut his own heart. Then he asked his beloved son Isaac to accompany him on a trip into the wilderness to make a sacrifice to the Lord.

Together with two household servants and a pack animal, they started out.

It must have been a heart-breaking journey for Abraham; his anguish of soul must have shown in his face and manner. It is said that man’s greatest love is self-love and his strongest animal instinct is that of self-preservation. But the Bible tells us that a greater love than this is possible: to lay down one’s life for a friend. Abraham’s love for Isaac was undoubtedly of this superior quality; this high degree of sensitivity would make his suffering even keener. Isaac must have noticed his father’s burden and, as a loving and dutiful son, must have been extra solicitous of his welfare, doing little things for his comfort on the journey. Every such act would be like the turning of the knife in Abraham’s wound.

But the three days’ journey would give Abraham time to meditate, to try to rationalize God’s command, to reason things out. Although he was determined to obey without question, he would naturally try to find the answer in his own mind. Again and again he would go over the facts and try to evaluate them. The essential facts were these: God had given him many promises which could be realized only through his seed, or posterity. These promises were given before he had a son. Finally, a son was born to him in a miraculous manner and he was told, by God himself, to name him Isaac. He was told, by God himself, that this same Isaac was the seed through whom the promises must come. God’s promises are absolutely certain of fulfillment and they must be fulfilled through Isaac. Now he was told to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering, to kill his own beloved son, lay him on the wood of the altar, set fire to the wood, and burn the fine young body to ashes! To put it very simply, God had said Isaac would live to have children. Isaac did not as yet have children. Isaac was required to die before having children. These were the facts.

Abraham’s Startling Conclusion

To one lacking faith they made no sense. But Abraham had faith to a superlative degree. To him there was only one answer and that answer was clear: Isaac was to be raised from the dead. Reprints, page 2907:2-6

This was an amazing conclusion to draw. At that time there was no precedent whatsoever. At that time no one had ever been raised from the dead. Now if one had believed such a thing in the days when Elijah awakened the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:22) or at the time Elisha awakened the Shunamite’s son (2 Kings 4:35), it would have been easier to believe that the dead can live again. Or, if one had seen Jesus take the hand of Jairus’ little dead daughter and gently raise her to life (Mark 5:42), it would be a more natural conclusion to draw. Or if one had been with Jesus that day at Nain when he took compassion upon a poor widow whose only son lay in his coffin: “Weep not,” he said, as he delivered the boy alive into his mother’s hungry arms. (Luke 7:13) Or in Bethany, when this time Jesus himself wept, his tender heart responding to the grief of Mary and Martha, and then, with a mighty display of power, he summoned four-day-dead Lazarus from his tomb! (John 11:44) Or if one had seen Jesus die in agony on the cross and then had the glorious experience of walking and talking with the same Jesus, alive! We can conceive that one who had seen such things could believe that Isaac would be raised from the dead. But Abraham had no such examples to go by! Not one! He trod totally unexplored paths. But by an absolute reliance upon God, by sheer unwavering faith, alone and unaided by any other human, he reached out and grasped beforehand the grandest and most staggering truth: “There shall be a resurrection of the dead!”

On the third day of the journey they came within sight of the spot designated by God for the sacrifice. Halting the caravan and telling his servants to wait for them, Abraham took the bundle of wood he had brought for the burnt offering and loaded it upon the back of his son Isaac. Now here is something which would ordinarily be beyond our understanding. To make young Isaac himself carry the wood by which his own body would be burned is a repugnant idea to us. The only way such an act could be justified is by Abraham’s absolute belief that all would be well, that no permanent harm would come to the boy, that there would be a resurrection, that he would rise again!