Wednesday Bible Blurb “Act of Faith” 9 25 2024
One long day God spoke to Abraham. Usually when God came to speak to Abraham it was a great day, but the message God gave Abraham this day must have ripped at his heart. God said, “Take now you 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.” (Gen. 22:2 [NKJV]). Abraham must have been crushed and confused, yet God said He would speak to him again and tell him which mountain to sacrifice Isaac on. Abraham knew God would appear to him again, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son;” (Gen. 22:3). For Abraham, this was an act of faith. He simply obeyed God, saddled his donkey, took Isaac and started the journey of death.
How do we respond to God concerning our faith? Do we have an intellectual faith where we know what God wants from us? Or do we have actual faith where we know we are to do what God says?
Up on the mountain of Moriah, Isaac the teen aged boy was tied to the altar and laid down ready for his father to sacrifice him. Abraham grasped the knife, looked down at his son, the son whom he loved and then he raised the knife screaming with grief in his heart ready to fulfill his act of faith in God. Just as he was to strike Isaac with the knife held high, he must have thought back to his life and the life of his son Isaac.
God had told Abram to “Get out of your country…I will make of you a great nation…And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed…So Abram departed” (Gen 12:1-4a) not even knowing where to go (Heb. 11:8). When he departed it was an act of faith. Through Isaac the entire world was to be blessed, yet Abraham stood there ready to plunge the knife into his son. God had told Abraham, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.” (Gen. 15: 18-20). From the river to the sea, all was to go to the descendants of Abraham, yet he stood there holding the knife ready to perform his act of faith.
Isaac was the miracle boy born to parents in their old age as they could not conceive. His birth was an act of faith. Imagine the heart of 99-year-old Abraham as he held his little boy for the first time? The little boy of promise. The little boy of the future for all mankind. And now he stood there holding the knife of death. Then “the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!… Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld you son, your only son, from Me”. (Gen. 22:11-12). God saw his act of faith. “Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son-blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.’” (Gen 22:15-18). God saw his act of faith.
These thoughts of Abraham as his arms were outstretched ready to plunge the knife into Isaac, his life and the acts of faith he shown to God were blessed by God. God saw his acts of faith and shouted to him to stop. Abraham had fulfilled his faith by his acts. Do we fulfill our faith by our acts? Does God see our faith in action like He saw Abraham’s faith in action?
Carried by four men the paralytic was lowered down through the roof to get to Jesus for healing. “When Jesus saw their faith…” He healed him. (Mark 2:3-5). Jesus saw their act of faith.
Stephen the deacon preached a sermon which enraged the Jews, and a young man named Saul. As the stones flew into the body of Stephen, he “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus STANDING at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the righthand of God.” (Acts 7:55-56). Stephen saw Jesus watching his act of faith. Jesus was so in tune with Stephen that He stood up and watched. Our God is always watching us and our acts of faith.
In each instance of faith someone is doing something faithful to God. Faith is not an intellectual exercise of study and doing nothing! Real faith has to do with doing what God says to do and relying on Him. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. (Heb. 11:1-2). The elders, the heroes of God DID something with their faith. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, “who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. (Heb. 11:33-35). What they all had in common in their acts of faith was they did something faithful.
James, brother of Jesus forcefully tells us, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead [Intellectual faith has no works]. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:17-18). Doing acts of faith.
Faith is about doing; it is not an intellectual exercise. God sees our acts of faith. Jesus is standing there watching us do our acts of faith. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26). Do we have the faith of Abraham, the prophets, and the heroes listed in Hebrews 11? Throw away, discard our intellectual faith and totally rely on God and His acts of faith in us. Do something faithful today!!
