The Testing of Abraham: When God Doesn’t Make Sense

“Some time later God tested Abraham. . . He said to him[later], ‘Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy[Isaac],’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son’ “Genesis 22: 1, 12.

This passage refers to the account of the testing of Abraham. God told Abraham in no uncertain terms, to sacrifice his son Isaac. Verse one tells us “God tested Abraham”. Read the whole account here.

This situation is exactly what it means to have your faith tested. A test of your faith is a situation that seems to be a contradiction of God’s promise to you.

Will God Tell Me To Do Something That Doesn’t Make Sense?

The wilderness experience was a test for the Children of Israel because it was a contradiction of God’s promise to them. It was a dead, dry, barren desert that could not even sustain life. It was about as far from “a land flowing with milk and honey” which is what He promised them, as you could get.

God had promised Abraham that “through Isaac your descendants shall be named”. In other words, through Isaac he would have grandchildren and great grandchildren etc.

And yet now, he was telling him to kill the one through whom those descendants would come. This was a clear contradiction of God’s promise.

I am convinced that this principle is at the heart of every test. Will we continue to believe God’s promise, even though we are experiencing something that seems to be a contradiction of it? And is diametrically opposed to it?

Will we continue to believe God’s message of “welfare”, even in a situation that screams “calamity” in our ears?

The Testing of Abraham Looks Like Calamity, Not Welfare

I believe this principle of tests that contradict God’s promise is one reason Jeremiah 29:11 is worded the way it is. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'”.

When our faith in the welfare promise is being tested, it looks like God is giving us calamity rather than welfare.

But it’s these very tests that make our faith complete if we endure them (see James 1: 2-4). Because if you can still believe God’s promise when you are experiencing its opposite, its contradiction, then you can believe it through anything.

At this point, when you can believe God’s promise despite and through anything, your faith is made complete.

An interesting aside to this account is the idea that God will never speak something to you that is contrary to His Word. But the Word God spoke to Abraham in this instance is a complete contradiction to the first Word God spoke to him (“through Isaac your descendants shall be named”).

Now, God is telling him to kill Isaac, the one through whom those descendants would come. This second message is in complete opposition to the first.

Without Faith We May Mistake God for the Devil!

Now if Abraham would have been operating under the assumption that God will never speak something that contradicts His word, he certainly would not have believed or acted on this second word. He would have said, “get behind me satan!”

There are several other examples in the Bible where God spoke things that seemed to contradict other things He said. One example that comes to mind is when Jesus told His disciples to take someone’s donkey (Mathew 21:2).

The disciples could have reasoned that that can’t be right, because that is stealing. And God wouldn’t tell us to do something that contradicts His commandments. Why would God tell me (us) to do something that doesn’t make sense?

The Testing of Abraham Didn’t Make Sense on Purpose

In the same way, it would have been so easy for Abraham to reason his way out of obedience. First of all, he could have said that that word (to kill Isaac) can’t be from God because He would never tell me to do something that contradicts His word.

Or he could’ve reasoned that to kill someone isn’t in keeping with the law of love.

If he managed to get past those objections, he could’ve stumbled over the idea that Isaac (if he spared his life) would lose all trust in his father. And looking at it purely from a human perspective, that would be true.

He had to trust that God would take care of the details. If Abraham could work everything out in his head and if it all made sense, it wouldn’t require faith.

I’m Scared God Will Tell Me To Do Something That Doesn’t Make Sense

At this point, you may be saying, I’m scared God will tell me to do something that doesn’t make sense. Here’s the thing: if everything God tells us to do makes sense, it wouldn’t require any faith. And we wouldn’t grow in our relationship with Him. That requires trust. But God is completely trustworthy.

Take my cat Henry as a (lame) example. She purrs and meows and kneads because she is a cat. That’s her nature. That’s what cats do. In a similar way, God is love. He is kind and forgiving and trustworthy because He is love. That’s His nature. That’s what love does.

We can see from our passage that God did not require Abraham to give up his son. He only required him to be willing to do so. Abraham “trust[ed] in the Lord with all his heart and lean[ed] not on his own understanding. . . ” Consequently, “. . . He [God] made [his] paths straight” Proverbs 3: 5, 6.

I wonder how many times we disobey God because we allow reason and human understanding to get in the way. An important purpose of this trial in the testing of Abraham was to complete his faith. Faith produces hope and hope love. Love is maturity or completion.

When we walk in love at all times, our character lacks nothing. An important purpose of the trial then, was to make Abraham “complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1: 3,4.).

This is always an important goal of the testing of our faith too. For other posts similar to The Testing of Abraham: When God Doesn’t Make Sense, see Tempted by the Devil or Tested by God.

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