II. Abraham’s Attitude Toward God’s Words

Now let us look at the things in Abraham that are worthy of emulation by later generations. Abraham’s chief act before God was the very one which later generations are very familiar with and know very well: the offering of Isaac. Every aspect of what Abraham manifested in this matter—be it his character, his faith, or his submission—is worthy of emulation by later generations. So just what, exactly, were the specific manifestations he displayed that are worthy of emulation? Naturally, these various things that he manifested were not hollow, and even less were they abstract, and they certainly were not fabricated by any person, there is evidence for all of these things. God bestowed upon Abraham a son; God personally told Abraham of this, and when Abraham was 100, a son named Isaac was born to him. Clearly, the origin of this child was not ordinary, he was like no other—he was personally bestowed by God. When a child has been personally bestowed by God, people think that God is surely going to perform something great in them, that God will entrust them with something great, that God will perform extraordinary acts on them, that He will make the child exceptional, and so on—these were the things that Abraham and other people had high hopes for. And yet, things took a different course, and something happened to Abraham that no one could have expected. God bestowed Isaac upon Abraham, and when the time of offering came, God said to Abraham, “You don’t need to offer anything today, just Isaac—that is enough.” What did this mean? God had given Abraham a son, and when this son was just about to grow up, God wanted to take him back. Other people’s perspective on this would be: “You were the One who gave Isaac. I did not believe this, yet You insisted on giving this child. Now You’re asking that he be offered as a sacrifice. Isn’t this You taking him back? How can You take back what You have given to people? If You wish to take him, then take him. You can just take him back silently. There’s no need to bring me such pain and hardship. How could You ask that I sacrifice him by my own hand?” Was this a very difficult demand? It was extremely difficult. Upon hearing this demand, some people would say, “Is this really God? Acting in this way is so unreasonable! It was You who gave Isaac, and now You are asking for him back. Are You really always justified? Is everything You do always right? Not necessarily. People’s lives are in Your hands. You said You would give me a son, and You did just that; You have that authority, just as You have the authority to take him back—but isn’t the manner of Your taking back and this matter a bit unjustifiable? You gave this child, so You should allow him to grow up, do great things, and behold Your blessings. How could You ask that he die? Instead of ordering his death, You may as well not have given him to me! Why did You give him to me then? You gave Isaac to me, and now You’re telling me to offer him—is this not You bringing me extra pain? Aren’t You making things hard for me? What was the point of You giving me this son in the first place, then?” They can’t make sense of the logic behind this demand, no matter how they try; no matter how they put it, it sounds untenable to them, and no person is able to understand it. But did God tell Abraham the reasoning behind this? Did He tell him the reasons for it, and what His intention was? Did He? No. God only said, “During tomorrow’s sacrifice, offer Isaac,” that was all. Did God provide an explanation? (No.) So what was the nature of these words? Viewed in terms of God’s identity, these words were an order, one that ought to be carried out, that ought to be obeyed and submitted to. But viewed in terms of what God said and the matter itself, wouldn’t it be hard for people to do what they ought to do? People think things that ought to be done must be reasonable, and accord with human feelings and universal human sensibilities—but did any of this apply to what God said? (No.) So should God have given an explanation, and expressed His thoughts and His meaning, or revealed even a little of what He meant in between the lines of His words so that people could understand? Did God do any of this? He did not, nor did He plan to. These words contained what was required by the Creator, what He ordered, and what He expected of man. These very simple words, these unreasonable words—this order and demand that lacked consideration for people’s feelings—would merely be thought of as difficult, arduous, and unreasonable by other people, by any person who viewed this scene. But to Abraham, who was actually involved, his first feeling after hearing this was heart-rending pain! He had received this child bestowed by God, he had spent all those years raising him, and enjoyed all those years of familial joy, but with one sentence, one order from God, this happiness, this living human being, would be gone and taken away. What Abraham faced was not merely the loss of this familial joy, but the pain of everlasting loneliness and longing after losing this child. For an elderly man, this was unbearable. After hearing such words, any ordinary person would cry floods of tears, would they not? What’s more, in their heart they would curse God, complain about God, misunderstand God, and try to reason with God; they would exhibit all that they are capable of doing, all of their abilities, and all of their rebelliousness, rudeness, and unreasonableness. And yet, though he was equally pained, Abraham did not do this. Like any normal person, he instantly felt that pain, he instantly experienced the feeling of his heart being pierced, and instantly felt the loneliness of losing a son. These words of God were inconsiderate of human feelings, unimaginable to people, and incompatible with people’s notions, they weren’t spoken from the perspective of human feelings; they took no account of human difficulties or human emotional needs, and they certainly took no account of human pain. God coldly hurled these words at Abraham—did God care just how painful these words were to him? On the outside, God seemed both uncaring and unconcerned; all that he heard was God’s order, and His demand. To anyone, this demand would seem incompatible with human culture, conventions, sensibilities, even human morality and ethics; it had crossed a moral and ethical line, and had gone against man’s rules for comportment and dealing with people, as well as man’s feelings. There are even those who believe, “These words are not only unreasonable and immoral—even more so, they are just causing trouble for no good reason! How could these words have been uttered by God? God’s words should be reasonable and fair, and should thoroughly convince man; they shouldn’t cause trouble for no good reason, and they shouldn’t be unethical, immoral, or illogical. Were these words really uttered by the Creator? Could the Creator say such things? Could the Creator treat the people He created like this? There’s no way that’s the case.” And yet, these words indeed came from the mouth of God. Judging by God’s attitude and by the tone of His words, God had decided what He wanted, and there was no room for discussion, and people had no right to choose; He was not giving man the right to choose. God’s words were a demand, they were an order that He’d issued to man. To Abraham, these words of God were uncompromising and unquestionable; they were an uncompromising demand that God was making of him, and were not up for discussion. And what choice did Abraham make? This is the key point that we will fellowship on.

After hearing God’s words, Abraham began his preparations, feeling anguished and like a great weight was pressing down on him. He prayed silently in his heart: “My Lord, my God. All that You do is worthy of praise; this son was given by You, and if You wish to take him back, then I ought to return him.” Abraham may have been in pain, but wasn’t his attitude evident from these words? What can people see here? They can see the weakness of normal humanity, the emotional needs of normal humanity, as well as the rational side of Abraham, and the side of him with true faith and submission to God. What was his rational side? Abraham was well aware that Isaac was given by God, that God had the power to treat him however He wished, that people should not pass any judgments on this, that everything spoken by the Creator represents the Creator, and that whether it seems reasonable or not, whether it coheres with human knowledge, culture, and morality or not, God’s identity and the nature of His words do not change. He clearly knew that if people cannot understand, comprehend, or figure out God’s words, then that is their business, that there’s no reason why God has to explain or elucidate these words, and that people shouldn’t only submit when they understand God’s words and intentions, but should have but one attitude toward God’s words, regardless of the circumstances: listening, then accepting, then submitting. This was Abraham’s clearly discernible attitude toward all that God asked him to do, and in it is contained the rationality of normal humanity, as well as true faith and true submission. What, above all, did Abraham need to do? To not analyze the rights and wrongs of God’s words, to not examine whether they were said in jest, or to try him, or something else. Abraham did not examine such things. What was his immediate attitude toward God’s words? It was that God’s words cannot be reasoned out with logic—whether they are reasonable or not, the words of God are the words of God, and there should be no room for choice and no examination in people’s attitude toward God’s words; the reason people should have, and what they should do, is to listen, accept and submit. In his heart, Abraham knew very clearly what the Creator’s identity and essence are, and what station a created human being ought to occupy. It was precisely because Abraham possessed such rationality and this kind of attitude that, even though he bore immense pain, he offered Isaac to God without qualms or any hesitation, returning him to God as He desired. He felt that since God had asked, he had to return Isaac to Him, and should not try to reason with Him, or have his own wishes or demands. This is precisely the attitude that a created being ought to have toward the Creator. The hardest thing about doing this was the most precious thing about Abraham. These words that God spoke were unreasonable and inconsiderate of human feelings—people can’t figure them out or accept them, and no matter what the age, or whom this happens to, these words don’t make sense, they are unachievable—yet God still asked for this to be done. So, what should be done? Most people would examine these words, and after several days of doing so, they would think to themselves: “God’s words are unreasonable—how could God act in this way? Is this not a form of torture? Doesn’t God love man? How could He torment people so? I do not believe in a God that torments people so, and I can choose not to submit to these words.” But Abraham did not do this; he chose to submit. Though everyone believes that what God said and required was wrong, that God ought not to make such demands of people, Abraham was able to submit—which was what was most precious of all about him, and precisely what other people lack. This is Abraham’s true submission. In addition, after hearing what God required of him, the first thing he was sure about was that God had not said this in jest, that it was not a game. And since God’s words were not these things, what were they? It was Abraham’s profound belief that it is true that no man can change that which God determines must be done, that there are no jokes, testing, or tormenting in God’s words, that God is trustworthy, and everything He says—whether it seems reasonable or not—is true. Wasn’t this Abraham’s true faith? Did he say, “God told me to offer Isaac. After I got Isaac, I did not thank God properly—is this God requesting my gratitude? Then I must show my thanks properly. I must show that I am willing to offer Isaac, that I am willing to thank God, that I know and remember God’s grace, and that I won’t cause God to worry. Without a doubt, God said these words to examine and test me, so I should go through the motions. I will make all the preparations, then I’ll bring a sheep along with Isaac, and if at the time of sacrifice God says nothing, I will offer the sheep. It’s enough just to go through the motions. If God really does ask me to offer Isaac, then I should just get him to make a show of it on the altar; when the time comes, God might still let me offer the sheep and not my child”? Was this what Abraham thought? (No.) If he had thought that, there would have been no anguish within his heart. If he had thought such things, what kind of integrity would he have had? Would he have had true faith? Would he have had true submission? No, he would not have.

Judging from the pain that Abraham felt and gave rise to when it came to the matter of sacrificing Isaac, it is clear that he absolutely believed in God’s word, that he believed in every word that God said, understood everything that God said in exactly the way God meant it from the very bottom of his heart, and had no suspicions toward God. Is this or is this not true faith? (It is.) Abraham had true faith in God, and this illustrates a matter, which is that Abraham was an honest person. His sole attitude toward God’s words was one of obedience, acceptance, and submission—he would obey whatever God said. If God were to say something was black, then even if Abraham could not see it as black, he would believe what God said to be true, and be convinced that it was black. If God told him something was white, he would be convinced that it was white. It’s as simple as that. God told him that He would bestow a child upon him, and Abraham thought to himself, “I’m already 100 years old, but if God says He is going to give me a child, then I am thankful to my Lord, God!” He didn’t have too many other ideas, he just believed in God. What was the essence of this belief? He believed in the essence and identity of God, and his knowledge of the Creator was real. He was not like those people who say they believe God to be almighty and the Creator of mankind, but hold doubts in their hearts such as “Are humans actually evolved from apes? It is said that god created all things, but people haven’t seen this with their own eyes.” No matter what God says, those people are always halfway between belief and doubt, and rely on what they see to determine whether things are true or false. They doubt anything they can’t see with their eyes, therefore whenever they hear God speak, they put question marks behind His words. They carefully, diligently, and cautiously examine and analyze every fact, matter, and command that God puts forward. They think that, in their belief in God, they ought to examine God’s words and the truth with an attitude of scientific research, to see if these words are actually the truth, otherwise they’ll be liable to be scammed and deceived. But Abraham was not like this, he listened to God’s word with a pure heart. However, on this occasion, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to Him. This caused Abraham pain, but he still chose to submit. Abraham believed that God’s words were immutable, and that God’s words would become reality. Created humans should accept and submit to God’s word as a matter of course, and in the face of God’s word, created humans have no right of choice, much less should they analyze or examine God’s word. This was the attitude that Abraham held toward God’s word. Even though Abraham was in great pain, and even though his love for and reluctance to give up his son caused him extreme stress and pain, he still chose to return his child to God. Why was he going to return Isaac to God? When God hadn’t asked Abraham to do this, there was no need for him to take the initiative to return his son, but since God had asked, he had to return his son to God, there were no excuses to give, and he should not try to reason with God—this was the attitude that Abraham held. He submitted to God with this kind of pure heart. This was what God wanted and this was what God wished to see. Abraham’s behavior and what he achieved when it came to the matter of sacrificing Isaac was exactly what God wanted to see, and this matter was God testing and verifying him. And yet, God did not treat Abraham as He treated Noah. He did not tell Abraham the reasons behind this matter, the process, or everything about it. Abraham only knew one thing, which was that God had asked him to return Isaac—that was all. He did not know that in doing this, God was testing him, nor was he aware of what God wished to accomplish in him and his descendants after he was subjected to this test. God didn’t tell Abraham any of this, He just gave him a simple command, a request. And though these words of God were very simple, and inconsiderate of human feelings, Abraham lived up to God’s expectations by doing as God wished and required: He offered Isaac as a sacrifice upon the altar. His every move showed that his offering of Isaac was not him going through the motions, that he was not doing it in a perfunctory way, but was sincere, and doing it from his innermost heart. Even though he couldn’t bear to give up Isaac, even though it pained him, when faced with what the Creator had asked, Abraham chose that method which no other person would: absolute submission to what the Creator asked, submission without compromise, without excuses, and without any conditions—he acted just how God asked him to. And what did Abraham possess, when he could do what God asked? In one respect, there was within him the true faith in God; he was sure that the Creator was God, his God, his Lord, the One who is sovereign over all things and who created humankind. This was true faith. In another respect, he had a pure heart. He believed every word uttered by the Creator, and was able to simply and directly accept every word uttered by Him. And in yet another respect, no matter how great the difficulty of what the Creator asked, how much pain it would bring him, the attitude he chose was submission, not trying to reason with God, or resist, or refuse, but complete and total submission, acting and practicing in accordance with what God asked, according to His every word, and the order He issued. Just as God asked and wished to see, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice on the altar, he offered him to God—and all that he did proved that God had chosen the right person, and that in God’s eyes, he was righteous.

What aspect of the Creator’s disposition and essence was revealed when God asked Abraham to offer Isaac? That God treats those who are righteous, who are recognized by Him, wholly according to His own required standards, which is completely in line with His disposition and essence. There can be no compromise in these standards; they cannot be more or less satisfied. These standards must be met exactly. It was not enough for God to see the righteous deeds that Abraham performed in his daily life, God had yet to observe Abraham’s true submission toward Him, and it was because of this that God did what He did. Why did God wish to see true submission in Abraham? Why did He subject Abraham to this final test? Because, as we all know, God wished Abraham to be the father of all nations. Is “the father of all nations” a title that any ordinary person could shoulder? No. God has His required standards, and the standards that He requires of anyone He wants and makes perfect, and anyone He sees as righteous are the same: true faith and absolute submission. Given that God wanted to perform in Abraham such a great thing, would He have rashly gone ahead and done it without seeing these two things in him? Absolutely not. Therefore, after God gave him a son, it was inevitable that Abraham would undergo such a test; this was what God had determined to do, and what God had already planned to do. Only after things went as God wished, and Abraham had met God’s requirements, did God begin planning to do the next step of His work: making Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore—making him the father of all nations. While the outcome of Him asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac remained unknown and had yet to materialize, God would not act rashly; but once it had materialized, what Abraham possessed met the standards of God, which meant that he was to receive all the blessings that God had planned for him. From the offering of Isaac, then, it can be seen that God has expectations and required standards of people for whatever work He does in them, or whatever role He requires them to play or whatever commission He requires them to accept in His management plan. There are two kinds of results for God’s expectations of people: One is if you cannot do that which He asks of you, you will be eliminated; the other is if you can, God will continue to accomplish in you that which He wishes to in accordance with His plan. The true faith and absolute submission that God demands of humans are, in reality, not too difficult for people to achieve. But whether they are easy or hard, these are the two things that, for God, must be found in people. If you can meet this standard, then God will find you to be adequate, and God will ask for nothing more; if you cannot, then that’s a different matter. The fact that God asked Abraham to offer his son shows that He did not feel that Abraham hitherto possessing a God-fearing heart and true faith in Him was all that was needed, that more or less was good enough. That was absolutely not the manner of God’s demand; He makes demands by His means, and according to what people are able to achieve, and this is non-negotiable. Is this not God’s holiness? (It is.) Such is the holiness of God.

Even a good person such as Abraham, who was pure, had true faith, and possessed rationality, had to accept God’s testing—so in the eyes of humankind, was this testing not somewhat inconsiderate of human feelings? But this lack of consideration for human feelings is precisely the embodiment of God’s disposition and essence, and Abraham underwent this kind of testing. In this testing, Abraham showed to God his uncompromising faith and uncompromising submission to the Creator. Abraham passed the test. Ordinarily, Abraham had never experienced any vicissitudes, but after God tested him like this, his usual faith and submission were proven to be real; it was not external, it was not a slogan. That Abraham was still capable of uncompromising submission under this circumstance—after God had spoken such words and made such a demand of him—meant one thing for sure: In Abraham’s heart, God was God, and would always be God; the identity and essence of God was immutable regardless of any changing factors. In his heart, humans would forever be human and were not entitled to contest, try to reason, or compete with the Creator, nor were they entitled to analyze the words spoken by the Creator. Abraham believed that when it came to the words of the Creator or anything that the Creator asked, people did not have the right to choose; the only thing they were supposed to do was submit. Abraham’s attitude was very telling—he had true faith in God, and in this true faith was born true submission, and so no matter what God did to him or asked of him, or whatever deed God carried out, whether it be something that Abraham saw, heard of, or personally experienced, none of this could affect his true faith in God, much less could it affect his submissive attitude toward God. When the Creator said something that was inconsiderate of human feelings, something that made an unjustifiable demand of man, no matter how many people took offense to these words, resisted them, analyzed and examined them, or even scorned them, Abraham’s attitude remained undisturbed by the environment of the outside world. His faith and submission to God did not change, and they were not merely words spoken from his mouth, or formalities; instead, he used facts to prove that the God he believed in was the Creator, that the God he believed in was the God in heaven. What do we see from all that was manifested in Abraham? Do we see his doubts about God? Did he have doubts? Did he examine God’s words? Did he analyze them? (He did not.) Some people say, “If he did not examine or analyze God’s words, what was he feeling distressed for?” Do you not permit him to feel distressed? He felt so distressed and was still able to submit—are you able to submit even when you don’t feel distressed? Just how much submission is within you? That such distress and pain had no effect on Abraham’s submission proves that this submission was real, that it was not a lie. This was a created human being’s testimony to God before Satan, before all things, before all creation, and this testimony was so powerful, so precious!