“17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” – Hebrews 11:17-19
Those verses have always amazed me. How could a man who had no Bible and no examples of resurrection have enough faith to believe that is what God would do? I think many of us would struggle to believe God would raise a dead loved one when there was no evidence to say God was still doing those sorts of things. Abraham had nothing to go on…or did he? If you go back a few verses you find this,
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” – Hebrews 11:8-12
It seems Abraham did have something to go on…the very fact that God had taken both the body of he and his wife, which were for all intents and purposes, dead when it came to child-bearing and gave them that very same son, Isaac. Maybe they understood more about resurrection than we give them credit for. They knew what it was like to think it was beyond hopeless and find hope.
It is important that we realize that God is still giving life today. It is important to recognize that He is still at work in this world and that resurrection is still reality. Praise God that He has overcome the grave and have given life to our bodies that were dead in sin and were considered nothing less than dead. Resurrection is still reality.
