The Essentiality of Faithful Obedience…
Yielding to the command God gave Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the son he loved, the son of his old age, with a possibility of not being able to have another child till he dies, I am really convinced, one could easily conclude that it’s the voice of the devil. Humanly speaking, you and I could also conclude that it was a plan to jeopardise the great covenant God had with Abraham.
The veracity of the promise of God in Abraham’s walk with God became questionable and incredible when He instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to Him, the only son, the legitimate heir and the supposed progenitor of the great covenant. In other words, Abraham’s obedience demonstrates the height of faith and this should encourage all believers to acknowledge God as the Almighty in all situations. The precedent activities of Abraham’s obedience could be traced to his early walk with God, who first called him to leave his land to the unknown land, the comfort for the uncertainties and the seen for the unseen.
Considering my instinctual view into the Chapter 22 of the first of book of Moses, Genesis, at a very tender age, I could not understand how Abraham’s human mental faculty was able to process the instruction God gave him. All I saw then was a great boldness and a deep sense of obedience to God, even, the God that is unseen. Yielding to the command God gave Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the son he loved, the son of his old age, with a possibility of not being able to have another child till he dies, I am really convinced, one could easily conclude that it’s the voice of the devil. Humanly speaking, you and I could also conclude that it was a plan to jeopardise the great covenant God had with Abraham. But on the contrary, as Christians, it is an understatement to justifiably draw a conclusion that Abraham’s obedience is a virtue to emulate.
Trusting Even in the Dark Places
It is therefore noteworthy that his obedience was based on the faith he has in the Yahweh God, who has all the power to do all things with the power to give and to take, the power to kill and to make alive, the power to create and to destroy and the power to start and bring to a close. The belief in the power of resurrection of Jesus Christ also reflected in the obedience nature of Abraham. In the Old Testament, it was not expounded how quickly and boldly Abraham responded to the command of God. But in the New Testament, Abraham believed in the God of resurrection. According to Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure”. Obedience to instruction and commands from the Living God can only be backed up with an unwavering faith in Him.
Abraham believed that the Almighty God Who gave Isaac to him at an old age and has asked him to sacrifice the same son to Him is able to raise him up in order to bring to pass the promises which He had made. “…and being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:21). All he needed was to fully persuade himself that God’s covenant would be established with Isaac and that he would become a great nation. Romans 4:17 confirmed that “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were”. God is capable of raising Isaac up, even when he is slain for sacrifice, Isaac would be brought back to life for the fulfilment of His promise.
Whatever the nature of the instruction or command given by God, you and I are only left with an option, and the option is – “Obey the Last Command” That’s God’s style!
Excerpt from: Walking With God: The Spiritual Dynamics of an Intimate Walk by Ayodele Afuye
