Born To Win Podcast - With Ronald L. Dart

How would you feel about having someone else arrange your marriage? Judging by the way people make decisions nowadays, it might not be a bad idea. Half of the marriages people are arranging for themselves are headed for divorce. Maybe we should reconsider?Maybe not, but in the ancient world of the Bible, marriage was, in the main, arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom. I suppose the reasoning behind it was that young people were too frivolous to be making such an important decision. They needed wise, old heads and savvy minds to make those choices for them.Of course, age is relative. Isaac, the son of Abraham, was 40 years old when his father arranged his marriage. In spite of that, it really is a romantic story. Abraham was an old man when Isaac was born, and he was much older than that when he took it in hand to find a wife for his son. He also entrusted the task of actually searching for the woman to an older man, as well. We find the story of this journey in Genesis, chapter 24.

In Genesis 22, we have the story of Abraham’s trial—his test. God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Then God said, Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.Now, it would be hard to overstate the crisis that this represented to Abraham. He had waited so long for this boy. He had been willing to have Ishmael for his heir, but God had promised him a son through Sarah. Finally, he had that son, and he was now being asked to give him up as a burnt offering.We are told nothing about how Abraham felt at this moment. I heard one preacher say that Abraham didn’t question God—didn’t waver. He just went and did as he was told. I really think, though, that misses the whole point of this story. And is there any way we could miss the parallel of this event with the sacrifice of the only son of God?

When God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham nearly talked him out of it. He got God to agree that if ten righteous men were found in the cities, he would not destroy the cities for their sakes.Abraham quit reasoning with God after getting to him to agree to ten. I think Abraham felt there where ten righteous men there. But he was wrong. Ten were not found, only one, and Sodom and Gomorrah were left as smoking ruins (if there were any ruins left to smoke).Why did God, you suppose, agree to save this city for ten people? When one righteous man was found, he got him and his family out of the city. If there had been ten righteous men, he could have just gotten them out of the city, as well. So, why did God respond to Abraham the way he did?

Not long ago, a man stood having pleaded guilty to raping an eight-year-old ten times. The judge had the unpleasant duty of sentencing this man. She wanted to say something appropriate when she sentenced him, so she came up with the words of Jesus: But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and they were drowned in the depth of the sea. She proceeded to sentence the man to 51 years in prison saying, I hope God has mercy on you and the hell you have created. Sounds good to me. But a year later the sentence was overturned by the district court of appeals because the judge had allowed her religious beliefs to influence her in giving the man a harsher sentence. Now, I don't know about you, but I would not have needed to open the Bible to give the man 51 years in prison; that doesn't seem like a terribly excessive sentence for someone who would rape an eight-year-old ten times. But I don't think the the appellate court

There is such a thing as believing God and still having your doubts. The fact that a person doubts on a given point, though, doesn’t mean they don’t trust God. People who read the Bible and try to get it right should know this: God is not offended by our doubts.In fact, it is our willingness to put our trust in him in spite of our doubts that constitutes faith. If there were no doubts, there could be no faith. Faith, in that sense, is trusting God instead of trusting our doubts. And it has to do with the choices we make.We know that Abraham believed God, and that his faith was counted for him as righteousness. This doesn’t mean, however, that Abraham never doubted. In fact, some of the promises that God made to Abraham could easily be viewed as outrageous. Consider this encounter between the two in Genesis, chapter 17.