So my cherry picking post spurred this post.
Was Abraham chosen because he believed something? Or was Abraham chosen because he was obedient?
A frequent commentator had this to say:
“Abraham simply BELIEVED what God told him thus far and was declared righteous(Genesis 15:6)
This same commentator also said:
“He made a covenant with Abraham. Abraham lived and was justified 430yrs. before the law was given so WHAT commands?”
So later in Gen 26:4-5
I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”
God swore covenant because Abraham was obedient. So to answer the commentator’s question WHAT commands? I think the answer is in chapter 12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. Clearly, God is feeding him instructions. Do we get all of the instructions and commands in the text? No. But we know explicitly that Abram’s ability to follow God’s commands is why he rewarded him in genesis 26.
God seemingly communicates directly with Abraham all the time, visions “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:“. So, the first question that comes to my head is, “So is the act of Abram believing God and his promise, the same kind of act when Christians believe the claim’s Paul makes about his revelations or the claims of the gospels and word of mouth stories about Jesus they contain?
Are these two instances of believing equivalent? I would argue that its a completely different kind of belief. To believe God will do what what he says he will do directly to you is vastly different than believing that Paul’s revelations are divine. I would say it takes zero faith to believe God can do something. It is virtually a given that God can do what he wants to do.
So for Paul to create an entire theology around believing revealed claims, it seems to me a hollow misguided faith. Especially to say that Abraham was the model for this seems disingenuous. Considering we have the testimony from God stating that he rewarded Abram because he kept his commands.
So in the 500k words of the OT where the word faith appears zero time and the word believe appears less than 15 times, do we have a deity who desires belief in faith?
In the New Testament, who wants to be believed, and who wants you to have faith in their claims? God or Paul?
Roger Mills