I have a question about this passage:

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Take 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.”
Genesis 22:1-2

 

Did Abraham tell his wife about this command?
I’ve always wondered if Sarah knew what God told Abraham to do.
I’m curious what she might have said.

If I were Sarah, I might have run away with Isaac in an effort to protect him from his seemingly deranged father. “You want to kill our miracle son? I don’t think so.”

Of course, we know the end of the story—God stopped Abraham just as he was about to kill Isaac and told him to offer a ram instead.

But Abraham didn’t know the end. He believed God had the power to raise Isaac up from the dead (Hebrews 11:19), but he didn’t actually know what would happen. This command—to kill his long-awaited, promised son from God—didn’t make sense.

 

What Do You Do When Faith Doesn’t Make Sense?

What do you do when God leads you to spend your money and use your time in a way that doesn’t make sense to you or others around you? What if God leads you to do something that other people find to be strange—maybe even wrong?

Well, first of all, you need to make sure that God is really the one telling you to do it. If you sense he’s leading you in a direction that is against his Word, you can be confident that he’s not the one leading at all. God never leads us to act against his Word. (Related: How Can I Know God’s Will?)

But what if God is leading you to do something that goes against the norm and doesn’t make sense to you? What do you do then?

 

Trust.

What did Abraham do when God told him to offer Isaac?
He trusted.

I love this example of Abraham and Isaac because both of them had a lot of trusting to do.
Abraham had to obey God and offer Isaac as a sacrifice.
But Isaac had to stay on the altar and be the sacrifice.
They both had a choice to make: trust your father or fight him?

Abraham and Isaac trusted their Father.
They trusted when they didn’t know.
They believed when they didn’t understand.

We have the same choice. We can choose to trust our Father or fight him.

Trusting is the groundwork for another step…

 

Obey.

Abraham obeyed even when God’s command didn’t make sense.
Isn’t that the definition of faith?

Faith is believing and obeying even when life doesn’t make sense. That’s why it’s called faith instead of understanding. See, understanding is the part of us that constantly researches every detail. If things don’t add up, we abandon ship and decide this step is not right for us. But faith hears the command of God and responds in trust and obedience.

This doesn’t mean faith blindly plows into situations with zero understanding of the possible pitfalls and outcomes. But it means that you look at those potential outcomes through eyes of faith, believing that God has called you to this and will see you through to his intended end.

If Abraham had viewed this command with eyes of understanding, he would have rejected it completely.
But because he considered it with eyes of faith, he responded with trust and obedience and God blessed him for it.

We are not called to live by what we can see.
We are not called to live by what makes sense.
We are not called to make choices based on the most popular vote.
We are not called to depend on our own understanding.

We are called to live based on what is invisible.
We are called to live in a way that sets us apart as strangers in this world.
We are called to trust in the Lord with our entire selves. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

 

What do you do when faith doesn’t make sense?

You trust the God who gave you that faith in the first place. (Hebrews 12:2)
You run to his Word to deepen your understanding of his character and calling.
You remind him of his promise to complete the work that he’s begun in you. (Philippians 1:6)
And then you trust and obey.

 

When faith doesn’t make sense, trust and obey the God who gave you that faith in the first place.

 

Read. Think. Learn.