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This week, we’ve been looking at the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11. It’s like a hall of fame, describing the faith of several characters in the Old Testament. It describes how they were sure of what they hoped for and certain of what they did not see. Some of them did amazing things. Take Noah, he and his sons worked for years, maybe a few decades to build an ark. They’d never seen one, but God gave them the mission and basic design.
But if you want to talk about believing in something you’d never seen before, Abraham takes the cake! Hebrews 11:17-18 tells us the situation, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’”(NIV)
How could Abraham prepare to kill his promised son? Because he believed in the power of God. Verse 19 says, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead.” Where did that belief come from? No resurrections had yet happened when Abraham lived. God didn’t promise to raise Isaac when he told Abraham to sacrifice him. Abraham’s faith trusted that God would raise Isaac to fulfill his promise of descendants forming a great nation. Like Abraham, we need to trust in God’s promises, even if we’ve never seen them before!
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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.