As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Gen. 17.4.
Devotional by Mark Finley
The single hallmark of Abraham's experience is his steadfast faith in the will of God.
This is certainly not to imply that Abraham never questioned. His life was marked with failure. The Old Testament revels his human lack of trust. Sometimes he was impatient. Sometimes he was deceitful, but his faith was constantly growing. Throughout his life experience he developed an unwaivering trust in God.
God summoned Abraham to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees. God selected this patriarch as a special recipient of His blessings. Abraham was given his first great test of faith when he was 75 years old. God promised that he would become the father of a great nation, but only if he passed the test of faith by heading for the unknown land of Canaan, 400 miles south. God promised, "I will bless those who bless you... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 12:3).
Abraham believed God and stepped out in faith. His faith must have been unusually strong, because when God called, he packed his family belongings and left. Yet Abraham's faith was not complete. When a famine swept through Canaan, he did not wait for the Lord to provide for him; he fled to fertile Egypt in search of food. There he resorted to lying, claiming that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. He did not object when she was taken to Pharaoh's household. Only God's intervention prevented Sarah from becoming one of the Egyptian ruler's wives.
Abraham's faith was tested again as he waited longer and longer for a child. Again he failed the test by conceiving a child with Sarah's maid, Hagar. With great guilt he repented, and Sarah at last bore Isaac.
Abraham's final test of faith came at the climax of his life story. God commanded him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He woke his son. He cut the wood. He climbed Mount Moriah and erected the altar. He even lifted the knife. As the old man prepared to slay his faithful, obedient son, God cried out, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God" (Gen. 22:12). God Himself provided a ram for sacrifice. Faith conquered.
God led Abraham to the same test again and again. Each test challenged his faith, and at each test his faith deepened. God is daily leading us to the "test of faith." Each day He appeals to us to trust Him more. When we fail the test of faith like Abraham once did, He prepares another one. He will never give up on us. He strengthens us for each test until that day we pass the final test and can go home with Him.
