God's Chosen People. But Why?

They were a small ‘nation’. Their army was small and defeated. They weren’t loaded with riches and they barely acknowledged the teachings of their fathers before them. God chose them for one reason.

One man’s faith.

Abraham.

Back up a long time, many generations earlier. Abraham was a man who loved and revered God. He trusted God so explicitly that when God told him to bring his only son Isaac to be a sacrifice, he trusted God. He trusted Him to provide another sacrifice and he trusted Him with his only son. He trusted His promise to him that he would be the father of a nation larger than there are stars in the sky. Abraham never lived to see that, but he still trusted God. And God’s promise was true. And the Israelites became nearly undefeated and massive in size and even wealth.

Faith that strong one has to wonder… where did He get it? How did he know that the LORD could be trusted, that the promises were real?

Faith is not blind, not when it is faith in God. We are not without evidence of the reasons to trust in our Saviour. I most assuredly am not without evidence of perfectly placed trust. I have seen miracles nearly daily. Miracles of provision for my family and miracles of amazing and huge things in the world of international adoption.

Faith may be trusting what you cannot see but it is not because you don’t know the promise is there. It is believing it is there even when you can’t see it.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11.1
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said,  “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
Hebrews 11.17&18