God is telling us to do something today. Indeed his word tells us to do many things. The question isn't so much whether we know which thing to do, or how to do it, but rather "Will you obey?" I was amazed, humbled, and convicted after reading this passage from Genesis recently.
When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Did you notice the immediacy and completion of Abraham's obedience? Consider this:
- He obeyed that very day. Twice the passage uses that phrase. As soon as God stops speaking, Abraham sets about doing His word.
- He finished the full task that very day. The passage is very clear about who got the knife: all the males. Abraham didn't start with his shepherds the first day, and wait until the next day to finish the job. No, he did it all, right away.
- He didn't make any excuses to God. He didn't wait until the end of harvest, or until all the animals were taken care of, or until the political situation was favorable. A few chapters later an entire town is destroyed because Jacob's sons trick them into getting circumcised. But Abraham isn't worried about these things.
God wasn't exactly commanding something easy. He wasn't asking Abraham to feeds his sheep a new brand of oats, or not to eat pork, or get up a few minutes earlier to pray. God asked Abraham to do something hard, painful, and quite gross. Remember Abraham wasn't just doing it to himself. Imagine Abraham walking into a little tent filled with lunching servants, his knife in hand, to obey God. I bet those guys didn't see that coming.
Abraham did not ask God for some time to think it over and pray about it. He did not wait until the Lord helped him to "emotionally prepare" to obey. He just obeyed.
All too often I make so many excuses for not doing so many lesser things. I pretend like there is a lot of time left to obey God. I need time to understand, to think, to "pray about things," to figure out what I'm supposed to do. Abraham's faith, a faith God counted as righteousness, is showing me how stupid my unbelief is. God isn't all that interested in my excuses. And really, if I think about it myself, their pretty foolish.
The Lord is telling me today, "Ryan, be a doer of my Word, not just a hearer. Don't deceive yourself. Your really not doing OK by just listening. You need to obey. But if you obey, if you listen to my perfect words and do them, I will bless you in your feeble, faith-filled obedience" (James 1:22-25).
Related posts:
Holiness Is Good News
The Clarity of the Bible, and Why It Matters for You Today
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