The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-08-16
Test Of Faith
Lesson for August 1S, 1868

| One of the strangest stories
anywhere is the story Of Abra-
ham preparing to kill his only
son Isaac and offer the dead
body as burnt offering to God.
The deeper question is on e
which we shall not pursue here
Can we believe that the G 0 d
whom Christ revealed to us
would for any reason command
murder of this sort? Or if He
did not really mean it, what
kind Of God would perpetrate
such a cruel joke? Many Chris
tians. when they stop to think
about this, find themselves in a
terrible dilemma; and 50 they
take refuge in calling the story
a kind of parable rather than
literal fact.
A Believing Mans Conviction
Let us come down to a more
manageable, even if still diff
cult problem. Let us think about
the state of Abraham m n d.
This good man had a conviction
that the same God who h a d
promised him a son was now
commanding him to sacrifice
that son just as Tin those days.
bull or COW would have been
sacrificed, by knife and fire, a
burnt offering in honor of God.
The difficulty is now not theo-
logical but psychological. How
could good man believe such
a thing? II a good man today
were caught making an attack
with a deadly weapon on his
own son, and if he told the po-
lice to leave him alone, because
God ordered me to do this, :"
the police would turn him over
to a psychiatrlSt. For today any
man who would explain a kill
ing he was about to commit, on
the ground that this was God S
will, would be regarded as OBJ
vislously insane.
The answer, to that is fairly
easily if we imagine ourselves
back in Abraham's time an d
place Child sacrifice human
sacrifice, was common, as the
Bible and archaeology testify
Indeed, Abraham's neighbors
might easily have jeered at him
for having a cheap religion be-
cause he had not sacrificed his
son. Anyhow, Abraham lived at
a time when such an idea as
Gods commanding him to sac
rifice Isaac could not be brushed
off (as it would by any sane
man today as a crazy notion.
He really believed that was what
his God wanted.
A Believers Conscience
Abraham lost no time doing
what he firmly believed to be
Gods command. Now a great
many people have consciences
they do not use. You ought or
You ought not are only little
buzzing static in the mind, faint
er and fainter as time gees on
and the person pays less and
! less attention to what his con-
science is trying to say. The
good man listens to his con-
science; his convictions appear
in his actions. He is not fond
Of saying II know l ought to,
but ;" If he knows or be-
ieves he ought to, he acts &C
cordingly. We can call this con-
scientiousness, but we can call
it also obedience. So far as the
voice of conscience is the voice
Of God, following the conscience
Of obeying the voice of God. 1t
is true, as history shows us, that
a man may think an action is
good which future centuries will
mark down as evil.
A Believers Crown
This strange story ends with
God saying. Il will bless you
because you have obeyed
my voice. The story brings out
the point that sacrificing his on
ly son was the last thing Abra-
ham wanted to do. It is easy
enough to do what is right when
that suits our convenience; but
when what I want and what !
ought to do are not the same
thing, then it's another story. Alb
raham has been honored around
the world ever since, because he
was one man for whom the num-
Der one question always was
is this the will Of God9"
Does a believing man have
any reward except a kind OF
satisfaction in having done the
right thing? Yes, he may have
the reward Abraham had. Every
man has even in this life some
particular rewards for at least
some of the good he has done
and these rewards are not all
the same. Abraham was given
the promise Of a nation descend.
ed from him. and of being a
blessing to all mankind. This
could not come to every one
But isn't it likely that the best
reward he could possibly have