The Instinct of Apathy: The Story of Abrahamنموونە

Abraham's Faith

There is a kind of ambiguity in God’s test that is not immediately obvious to us. God called Abraham to prepare Isaac as a sacrifice. How far would those preparations go? Just the trip up the mountain? Would it require Isaac to be laid bound on the altar? Would it require the knife to be plunged?

At first reading, there seems to be little ambiguity in Abraham’s actions. He moves quietly and deliberately. He makes the trip. He rises early, gathers the supplies, and sets out resolutely with Isaac naively at his side.

But as you read closer, there is ambiguity. Abraham commanded his servants to wait until he and Isaac returned. When Isaac asked about the animal for the sacrifice, Abraham calmly explained that God would provide it.

The book of Hebrews says that Abraham trusted that God was able, even to raise Isaac from the dead. I’ve always been struck by that word, even. It suggests Abraham saw an entire spectrum of ways God might work, even resurrection. Abraham had not drawn an arbitrary line. There was no negotiation for a position. He trusted God to act, though he wasn’t sure where and when that divine action would come.

It is an image of faith. Not the kind that puts a saved card in our back pockets or allows us to speak in some abstract or theoretical way. Abraham acts by this faith. Moves by it. Lives by it. Raises the knife by it.

It is this faith that shakes him out of his apathy. It is this faith that accepts the complexity of the calling and acknowledges how little control he has. He must continue to obey, to sacrifice until God acts, which Abraham is fully convinced he will.

We often think of faith in moments, bursts of energy, or prayers that feel like supernatural confidence. Certainly, there are these moments of faith as a gift, divinely given. But there is also a kind of faith that continues to move us forward. A kind of faith that keeps us going, a long obedience in the same direction. A kind of faith, that, though it may not see a way forward, believes that God is capable, even though what we imagine is the end.

This test reawakes Abraham to who he is. This is Abraham, who though often discouraged and tested, proved to be faithful. He kept going. He kept believing.

It is said that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Righteousness is not a reward for getting it right. Abraham certainly failed many times. But he did not give up. He did not check out. He kept following, kept learning, kept sacrificing.

It is this perseverance of faith that always welcomes us into the promised land, into righteousness not our own.

How does faith keep you from succumbing to apathy?