The portion of Hebrews which I've heard referred to as "The Faith Hall of Fame" continues in today's reading. Here we get a recitation of the faithful from Abraham down through the return to Canaan.
Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac is one of those moments in scripture I find particularly distressing. God had given a promise that Abraham's many descendants would come through his son Isaac. . .
. . . and then God asked Abraham to kill his son. (Genesis 22)
The kind of faith that would follow through on this command is so extreme it should be made into a Mountain Dew commercial. I know I couldn't do it, and would probably presume insanity on the part of anyone who said he could. (And I would contact child protective services immediately.) I don't think I have even a mustard's seed of faith to carry out something like this. If it were me God were testing, I would fail. But when you read the account in Genesis, you can see that Abraham had confidence that everything would turn out all right. As he leaves to go make God's commanded sacrifice, he tells his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Genesis 22:5) So Abraham trusted that God would deliver the boy somehow, and I guess that's what faith is.
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph . . . by faith these men expressed a confidence that God would continue to bless Israel, and Israel became a nation enslaved. It must have seemed like an ironic joke to the people of Israel. God promised a future, and the future looked doubtful (which also sums up Abraham's obedience to sacrificing Isaac). When in deep despair, having confidence in the promises of God takes an act of faith, because in despair it's so easy to doubt.
I find it interesting that the writer of Hebrews skips from Moses and the exodus from Egypt right to Joshua and the entrance to Canaan. He seems to have forgotten about forty years of wandering in the wilderness -- a time when one might expect faith to be a daily requirement. In fact, it was during this time that God practically eliminated the need for faith.
Writer Philip Yancey addresses this contrast in his book Disappointment With God. He notes that during the time in the wilderness, God was a very real presence. He was a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. He fed the people with the miracle of manna from heaven. He came down to Mount Sinai in a cloud of thunder and lightning, freaking out everyone so much that they asked that God not speak to them directly for fear they might die. And Moses went up to talk with God and became so radiant that the Israelites couldn't even look at him and made him wear a veil.
And then God handed down a set of rules that covered the complete range of human behavior so that there would really be no question from the people what they were to do.
Yancey writes:
[T]he very clarity of God's will had a stunting effect on the Israelites' faith. Why pursue God when he had already revealed himself so clearly? Why step out in faith when God had already guaranteed the results? Why wrestle with the dilemma of conflicting choices when God had already resolved the dilemma? In short, why should the Israelites act like adults when they could act like children? And act like children they did, grumbling against their leaders, cheating on the strict rules governing manna, whining about every food or water shortage.
As I studied the story of the Israelites, I had second thoughts about crystal-clear guidance. It may serve some purpose -- it may, for example, get a mob of just-freed slaves across a hostile desert -- but it does not seem to encourage spiritual development. In fact, for the Israelites it nearly eliminated the need for faith at all; clear guidance sucked away freedom, making every choice a matter of obedience rather than faith. And in forty years of wilderness wanderings, the Israelites flunked the obedience test so badly that God was forced to start over with a new generation.
Is this what faith is for? For spiritual development? Ironically (or maybe not), a reliance on faith brings with it the possibility of doubt. But God provided the Israelites every proof they'd ever need -- it's hard to imagine any atheists among the Israelites -- and they screwed up repeatedly. So where does this leave us?
The kind of faith that Abraham demonstrated when commanded to sacrifice his son -- this is an unfathomable miracle to me. (And, I admit, a little frightening.) The faith I need to make it through each day seems simple in comparison, and I am a miraculous failure at it.
If faith is such a necessary ingredient to a relationship with God, then I guess I'll risk the doubt, trusting that God expected and planned for that, too. I suppose that's also an act of faith, and while I don't imagine I'll ever get into the Faith Hall of Fame, I need the hope and assurance that faith brings. I need it every day, guiding me like a pillar of cloud or fire.
-- Drew Clausen
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