Without faith it is impossible to please him

As faith is necessary to please God, we are told its characteristics. Faith covers two areas: things hoped for, and things unseen. It is equally sure of the fulfilment of the one, and of the present reality of the other. Faith is the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It makes ‘the future present and the unseen evident’. It makes things future as real as if we already had them, and provides unshakeable evidence that the unseen blessings are absolutely certain. It is fully necessary to believe in the existence of God, so that He becomes the repository of faith and His very word is totally accepted, and to believe that He rewards those who seek Him. How else can we have dealings with One who is unseen and whose chief rewards lie beyond this present life? Abraham’s faith was in a marked way an evidence of the unseen, and a guarantee of something to be enjoyed in the future. He had the promise of an inheritance, v. 8. He believed the promise, though he did not know how it would be fulfilled. He left Ur, resting on the reality of an unseen God, not knowing what he was to receive, or where he was going. All that he knew was that the land he was going to in the end was to be his. When he reached it, he lived in it as a sojourner. The only land he possessed in it was a cave for a tomb, Gen. 23. 17. He believed his descendants would have the land and he would leave his bones there, the witness that he laid claim to it for them. It was by faith he offered up his beloved son, Isaac, Heb. 11. 17. The demand of God seemed to run counter to God’s promises. If Isaac were slain, what of the promised seed? Gen. 17. 16, 19.

Abraham did not doubt the promise; the solution of the problem he left to God. The obedience of Abraham rested on his faith in the creative power of God. He had seen God bring life out of death already, Heb. 11. 11, 12. He could do it again, and father and son would come again, Gen. 22. 5. Abraham’s faith extended beyond Canaan. He lived in a tent like a stranger in a foreign country. Nothing on this earth could be his main goal. He looked for an eternal city whose Builder and Maker was God. How deep are our tent pegs here?