Key Verse
“Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”
— Genesis 15 : 6 (NIV)
1. The Call of Faith
Abraham’s journey begins with a summons that interrupts ordinary life:
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” (Gen 12 : 1).
God’s command required leaving familiarity for promise, replacing sight with trust. Abraham had no map, only a word. His obedience marks the moment when personal security yields to divine direction. Faith thus emerges not as passive belief but as movement — a pilgrimage shaped by hope in an unseen fulfilment (Heb 11 : 8-10).
2. The Struggle of Human Reason
Although Abraham’s faith was genuine, his story reveals tension between trust and fear.
- Deception in Egypt (Gen 12 : 10-20): Fearing death, he misrepresented Sarah as his sister.
- Hagar and Ishmael (Gen 16): Impatience prompted reliance on human strategy to achieve divine promise.
- Laughter at the Promise (Gen 17 : 17; 18 : 12): Both he and Sarah doubted God’s timetable.
These moments expose faith mixed with anxiety. Abraham believed that God could act but wrestled with how and when. His trust needed to mature from calculation to surrender.
3. Renewal and Covenant
Despite weakness, God reaffirmed His covenant:
“Walk before Me and be blameless.” (Gen 17 : 1)
This was not perfectionism but invitation to deeper alignment. Circumcision became the outward mark of inward dependence. Grace did not cancel responsibility; it transformed it. Each divine encounter refined Abraham’s character until obedience was no longer conditional.
4. The Test on Mount Moriah
The command to offer Isaac (Gen 22 : 1-18) represented the summit of faith’s education. Everything promised now seemed demanded in sacrifice. Abraham obeyed without protest, trusting that God could restore what He required to relinquish.
“Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.” (Heb 11 : 19)
Faith reached maturity when obedience no longer depended on outcome. The ram provided in Isaac’s place revealed that divine testing always conceals divine provision. The mountain became memorial: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” (Gen 22 : 14)
5. Theological Reflection
- Faith is a journey, not a moment. It begins with departure and matures through endurance.
- Obedience reveals trust. Belief without action remains theoretical; action authenticates belief.
- Grace persists through error. God never withdrew His promise even when Abraham faltered.
Paul later interpreted Abraham as the model of justification by faith (Rom 4 : 1-25), while James highlighted obedience as faith’s completion (Jas 2 : 21-24). Together they show that saving faith is both receptive and responsive — receiving grace and returning obedience.
6. Lesson for Today
Faith begins when certainty ends.
Abraham teaches that spiritual maturity develops through testing, not comfort. Delay, disappointment, and impossibility become classrooms for obedience. The believer’s task is to keep walking even when fulfilment seems postponed. True faith trusts the character of God more than the calendar of events.
Every altar built along Abraham’s path marked the same confession: “God will provide.” Such faith does not eliminate fear but obeys in spite of it.
Key References
- The Holy Bible (NIV). (2011). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
- Calvin, J. (1965) Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, Vol. 2. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
- Brueggemann, W. (1982) Genesis: Interpretation Commentary Series. Atlanta: John Knox.
- Wright, N. T. (2012) Paul and the Faithfulness of God. London: SPCK.
- Wenham, G. J. (1994) Genesis 16–50 (WBC Vol. 2). Dallas: Word Books.