Mornin' David. Here is how I see it.
1.There is no question that God rewards faith. Sometimes He even does
it here and now as well as in the sweet bye and bye. In the old
testament, many of the promises were the here and now variety because
God was, through the Jews, establising Himself as the only true God, and
He used these rewards for faith to prove His existance and power to the
world.
2. God is God. He can make exceptions to His rules any time He wants
to, and none of us are qualified to question that. What He did with
Abraham was His business. He is the potter. None of us can question
how right God was, and none of us can demand an explanation for what we
might perceive to be a bending of the rules in this case.
3. Abraham and David are not the only rascals in this story. If you go
down the list in Matthew one, you will find whores, thieves, liars,
murderers, and adulterers, all part of the family of God. I am glad
they are there. If you had to be perfect, I wouldn't have a chance.
Neither would Abraham. I would die without a moments hesitation before
I let another man take my wife. That would appear to make me a better
man than him. Yet I doubt that I would have enough faith to kill my son
on an alter. That makes Abe appear to be a better man than me. The
truth is, Jesus Says that there are "none good", and Paul backs that up
by saying "All have sinned". That doesn't leave much to discuss. We
are all sinners.
Terry
Amen, Terry. And I do agree with point 2 above. But, as I read this passage (Gen 20), I do not see God as involved with this event as some do. God does not give instruction to Abraham in the questionable areas of this narration and really does not need defending. I do think that your point 2 is an important consideration when it comes to Abrahams sacrifice of Isaac. As I understand that event in light of the Law, it was wrong to sacrifice humans. That, of course, did not happen. It is interesting to me that "intent" has little to do with God's veiw of sin at this juncture in time. I mean, Abimelech thought Sarah was single. But he was going to catch hell, so to speak, if he had commited the act. Whith the Isaac sacrifice story -- perhaps part of that solution is found in the fact that the event was pre-Law. I don't know. What do we do with this sacrifice request?
John
