There are many countless men and women who are very prayerful and spiritual and who faithfully serve God behind the scenes. They hardly desire and even get any attention and praise from others. They, who are with quiet faith, have been the key to the success of many ministries in the church. In keeping with their quiet faith most of them do not desire to get much attention and praise for what they believe.
By reading the brief biblical story of Isaac, the only son of Abraham and Sarai, some may come to know him as a man of quiet faith. Of all the three patriarchs in the Hebrew Scriptures; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the least is said of Isaac. His story shows that Isaac was a man of God who grew in faith throughout his life.
As we know the father of Isaac, Abraham has become the shared ancestor of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Abraham is considered as the first monotheist in the history of religions. One of the characteristics of the faith of Abraham is his patient waiting (at least most of the time) throughout his journey of faith, whose destination was not known. God promised Abraham a son at least twenty-five years earlier (Gen 12). Isaac, like Abraham, was a central figure in the establishment of the Jewish people.
Isaac, who was born in the advanced age of Abraham and Sarai, became the fulfillment of the promise of God to Abraham of making his descendants a blessed nation. The name, ‘Isaac’ meaning “he laughs” was announced by God before the child was born. Hence, naming Isaac became one of the few cases in the Holy Bible in which God selected a name for a child.
Sometime later, God tested the faith of Abraham when He called him to sacrifice his son, Isaac through whom God would honor His promises to Abraham. It is not clear how much later God tested Abraham. But, it is clear that Isaac was old and healthy enough to carry wood for fire. We are also not sure what Isaac thought about his father Abraham who desired to sacrifice him. As they were climbing to the mount Moriah, the comment of Isaac in reference to not having a lamb for the offering although they had the wood for fire, Abraham replied saying that God would provide the lamb. That is how the book of Genesis speaks about how Abraham explained what would happen. Genesis states that Isaac was old enough to have an intelligent conversation. It appears that Isaac was faithful to trust his father even when things did not make sense to him (Genesis 22:6-9). Probably, he would have accepted his father’s willingness to sacrifice him as the will of God (Genesis 22:1-14). Perhaps, it can be that Isaac believed that to sacrifice was to offer God what already belonged to God as its creator. Since Abraham was willing to give up his son whom he loved, Isaac became God’s own in a new way.
However, like his father, he also had to face challenges and difficulties and sometimes made imprudent decisions. Nevertheless, Isaac spent time meditating on God’s Word (Genesis 24:63). It appears that Isaac often chose to avoid confrontation trusting God to provide for him (Genesis 26:17-22). God’s blessing and protection was with him. We hardly see him confronting others even when they wronged him. Instead, Isaac trusted in God to provide in other ways. God reaffirmed to Isaac the covenant He promised to his father Abraham (Genesis 26:4) and he had an encounter with God like his father had (Genesis 26:24-25). Isaac becomes a model for all those who have quiet faith and tells us that our heavenly Father sees our faithfulness.
— Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, Ph.D.
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