make sure

I wonder if dying took more faith for Abraham than living?

I read about Abraham’s death this morning, in Genesis 24, and what made me wonder is verses 6 and 7, which are part of a passage telling how Abraham instructed his servant to go back to Terran and find a wife for Isaac.

“’Make sure that you do not take my son back there,’ Abraham said. ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, “To your offspring I will give this land”—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.’”

As I read this, I thought first that Abraham was worried that if Isaac went home, he’d never come back. God’s promise wouldn’t be fulfilled.

But then I realized that God’s promises are always fulfilled, and Abraham would know this. In that light, Abraham’s wish to keep Isaac in Canaan seemed like an expression of faith, that everything God said would be true. Abraham was so confident that he knew Isaac’s place of blessing would be in this promised new life.

Either way, Abraham was considering a promise from God that he would never see fulfilled. No matter how he looked at it, he needed faith to let go and let God do what he said he would. Abraham left his hope for a future in God’s hands just a surely as he left hope for a bride for Isaac in his servant’s hands.

It’s another example of simple but complete faith. I see it so often in scripture, and so seldom in my own life. My faith is complicated. My faith often requires my help. My faith can be full of “what ifs” and “yeah, buts.” 

Today Abraham reminds me simply to trust. Don’t overthink anything that God has said he would do. I hope I can do that, at least some of the time. I think life would be easier.