Genesis 22

God was not testing Abraham’s faith. God has created mankind in such a way that every one of us is born with more than enough faith. Faith is a natural part of who we are. It is not a lack of faith that causes mankind to fail; rather we fail because of where we place our faith.

Abraham had the habit of placing his faith incorrectly. When Abraham was told by God that he would be the father of a great nation he believed. At first he believed in himself, he was still young and he expected to be a father. As the years passed he placed faith in his own intelligence, he had figured out a way to make it happen. He was going to adopt an heir. When God shut that down, he still believed he could make it happen and took his wife’s slave to be his child’s mother. Once again God corrected him. He had placed his faith in the wrong place. God told him, “You have my promise, Sarah is going to be the mother and you are going to be the father of a son.

Abraham believed in the promise. The years passed and the promise was not kept. Once again Abraham had placed as faith the wrong place. God did not want Abraham to believe in a promise; he wanted Abraham to believe in God, the one who made the promise. Abraham was reminded that God was the source of the promise. In the fullness of time, long after humanly possible, God gave Abraham a son. His name was Isaac.

Abraham had learned a lot about placing faith. But he had one final test. The test question was the same as all the tests before. Abraham where have you placed your faith? Abraham had to have been tempted to places faith in Isaac, the child of promise. The test revealed that Abraham had learned to places faith in God, and God provided. Abraham had finally learned the lesson. When you place your faith in a great big God, a little faith is more than enough. When you place your faith in God he will provide.