Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now 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.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:1-3)

A Growing Faith

The faith of Abraham was established when the Lord called him to go out to a place he would receive as an inheritance; without knowing where he was going. Abraham was seventy-five years old when the Lord called him to take his sixty-five-year-old wife and dwell in tents as they journeyed from place to place. God promised Abraham and Sarah a child, and that promise did not come to fulfillment until Abraham was one hundred years of age. The womb of Sarah was dead at the age of ninety, yet God provided her with a healthy baby boy named Isaac.

When Isaac was a lad, God came to Abraham and tested his faith beyond measure. The faith of Abraham was tried when the Lord told him to leave his homeland and, for the next twenty-five years, to wait on the promise of a son patiently. It took a great deal of faith to believe, at the age of one hundred years, that Abraham would have a son. God made the impossible possible. The joy Abraham and Sarah had in their son as he grew from a baby boy to a young lad. There is little doubt an incredible bond grew between parents and son. Then, the day came when God would test Abraham’s faith to its limits.

God tells Abraham to take his only son Isaac, whom he loved dearly, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. The faith of Abraham understands the nature of the Lord God he serves. He knows how abominable human sacrifice is to the holiness of God. Animal sacrifices were part of worship from the beginning of the world. Idolatry became blasphemous through human sacrifice. God told Noah that life is sacred as life is in the blood. Abraham is now faced with the command to offer his only son as a human sacrifice. It goes against everything that faith would determine as right and wrong.

Moses writes that Abraham rose early in the morning and began the journey to Moriah. There was no hesitation on the part of the man of faith. He saddled his donkey, took two of his servants along with Isaac, his son, and began the three-day trip to where God told him to go. Only God knows what Abraham thought about those three days. When the company arrived at the mountain prescribed by God, Abraham did not hesitate. He left the servants and told them he and his son were going to worship the Lord, and the two of them would return. Abraham goes to the place instructed by God and builds an altar to sacrifice Isaac. Placing his son on the altar, Abraham took a knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord stayed the hand of Abraham and Isaac was spared.

The test God placed upon Abraham was measured by his faith. Faith is not an immediate feeling of security gained with little effort. Growing faith helps a man decide to leave his family to go where the Lord tells him to go, and then he grows into a mature faith willing to offer his only son a burnt offering because God told him. Abraham did not have that kind of faith earlier. His faith grew in his relationship with the Lord, allowing him to obey the word of the Lord because he trusted in the Lord. Abraham believed he would kill Isaac and God would raise him from the dead. That kind of faith does not come at the beginning.

Growing faith is essential for God’s children to prepare for the days when God asks more than He did yesterday. Faith that is not growing is dead. Abraham could not imagine what God would ask of him, but he was ready. The faith of a child of God is not measured in how often they sit in a pew but how often they sit at the feet of the Savior. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. There will come a day when more is asked than before, and without the growing faith in maturity, the test will fail. Ask yourself a piercing question: would you have acted as quickly and thoroughly as Abraham? The real question is whether God would test you or not.