THE patriarchs were in very intimate converse with God. God spoke to Abraham as a man speaks to his friend, and He would not hide from Abraham the thing which He would do. These holy men learned God very deeply, and we find it recorded of Abraham how he proved that God was to him the God of resurrection.
God promised to Abraham a son, and in due time tested and tried His servant on the tenderest part of his heart—He bade him offer up Isaac as a burnt-offering to Himself. In Isaac all the promises of God were centered. No one could take Isaac’s place. But God tried Abraham by calling on him to surrender Isaac in death. And Abraham obeyed God. He rose up early, in ready obedience, and took his journey towards the mount appointed for the sacrifice. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” (Heb. 11:17-1917By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:17‑19).)
In the school of God, Abraham had to learn the sentence of death on his dearest and most cherished hopes, yet he was enabled to trust God, despite death, for the fulfillment of the promise on which his hopes were built. God is above and beyond death, and this Abraham believed. His word would be fulfilled, come what might. What God had promised He would surely perform. Such was the confidence of the patriarch as he accounted that God was able to raise his son from the dead.
We, as Abraham, have the Word of God, and according to our faith in God who gives the Word is our spiritual victory in the trials of daily life. Trials are not sent without an object. They may be sent to humble and to chasten; they are also sent to try our faith. This is part of our life-schooling, He allows the sentence of death to be written upon our hopes, in order that by or in the experience we may prove Him in our trial. Such learning has ever been instruction given and acquired in the upper classes of the school of God. Lessons have to be learned on earth; the object for which they were given shall be better understood in heaven. Certainly learning God, as He who raises the dead, is knowledge that reaches beyond the world and the boundaries of time and death. We must not allow ourselves to think that this life only is that for which we live! Since sin and death have entered the world, God has chosen to give His people their brightest hopes beyond both sin and death; yes, and beyond and outside the world itself. And such being the case, He elects to write upon the hearts of His people, in degree, the practical experience of the fact.