Examples of Faith in God in the Old Testament

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An excellent example of faith in God in the Old Testament would be Abraham being tested by God. It starts in Genesis 22:1-19 and provides a resounding story of faith in God. After asking Abraham and Sarah to wait all those years and then miraculously giving them a son, God here asks Abraham to give Isaac back as a sacrifice. God had already shown Abraham that when his human reason disagreed with God’s reason, he could always trust God to be correct – and that’s a tough lesson for many people to understand. It would seem Abraham, if he cared to, could have argued from many positions that God had no logic reason to sacrifice Isaac. First, Isaac was the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promise! Second, God had clearly stated through Noah that shedding a man’s blood was prohibited (Gen 9:5-6). Even so, the text makes no reference to Abraham hesitating or debating. It simply accounts that he obeyed God. (v. 3). I look back on the beginning of the chapter once more and I can’t help but reflect, why did God want to test Abraham? Abraham earnestly answered when God called, “Here I am.” (v. 1) While God knew he would not require Abraham to kill Isaac; Abraham didn’t know that. This ultimately leads me to think that this was God’s test of Abraham’s faith, of his ability to trust God when his reason ran out of reasons. Although Abraham claimed to have faith in God (Gen 15:6), this act proved the veracity of his faith. (James 2:20-24) It would seem that history could show that many people espouse faith, but show little evidence of it. Inversely it is also true; many quiet people demonstrate heroic faith. It would seem, just like in this case, God will, undoubtedly, never ask you to offer one of your children on an altar. This story shows tha...

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...f the process by which God perfected Abraham’s faith. Both the story in Genesis and God’s explanation of it in James 2:20-24 tell us that God was showing Abraham what Abraham was made of. 5) To discipline and correct us. All people, even the most godly among us, sin. Proverbs 3:11-12 and Hebrews 12:4-11 tell us that God uses suffering to guide us back to his way when we stray from it. Both passages show God as a loving Father who wants to correct behavior that will destroy us if we persist in it. Throughout Scripture, God deals with sin; not to vindictively punish us, but to lovingly correct us. In the final analysis of this passage from Job as an example of faith in the Old Testament, faith in God’s sovereign love must step in. The story of Job, with all his pain, is not only a story of one man’s faith in God’s love; it is an exercise of man’s faith in God’s love.

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