Do you have absolute confidence in God’s promise?
Abraham has complete confidence in God’s promise, even though he does not know how God will follow through. When, in the Book of Genesis, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham does not hesitate: he is willing to do as God commands. Here I am, Abraham says, present to you, ready to listen, to hear your word, to act upon what I hear. Although he knows that the sacrifice of Isaac would mean that the hope of generations to come would be sacrificed, Abraham is willing to comply because he has great trust in God and in God’s intent to prosper what God has made. And God blesses Abraham abundantly for his faith: I will make your descendants as countless as the stars in the sky and the sands of the seashore.. Abraham might well have prayed Psalm 116, To you I offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Whatever held the psalmist back was a kind of binding, yet he sings, you have loosed my bonds. The psalmist believes, even at his most difficult moment, as Abraham believed and had faith in God’s promise.
In a similar way, the disciples are called to have faith, even when Jesus predicts his own death. In Mark’s version of the Transfiguration, God says, This is my beloved Son; listen to him. The Transfiguration is a revelation of what is to come; the disciples must have faith and trust and confidence in the promise. In similar fashion, Paul tells the Romans to have confidence, no matter what life might bring. If God acquits us, who will condemn? We are to see in the death and rising of Jesus an absolute hope, and have absolute confidence in the promise. We are all called to the faith of Abraham, according to which God’s love will be victorious. We have nothing to fear, so long as we have confidence in that absolute love.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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