Abraham obeyed when God ordered him to sacrifice Isaac, the unique son of promise, convinced that God could even raise Isaac from the dead, which God did figuratively by providing a ram to take Isaac’s place, thus pointing powerfully to the death of Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God, who would die in place of guilty rebels like all of us.

God responded to the faithful Old Testament saints (who only greeted the promises from a distance, confessed their alien status, were seeking a true homeland, had no hankering for the home they left and hungered for a better heavenly country) by gladly identifying as their God and preparing a city for them.

Abraham became the father of all who have faith when he obeyed God and traveled with his family to the land of promise, where he lived in tents as a sojourner, looking forward by faith to the permanent heavenly city, trusting firmly in God’s promise that he and Sarah would have innumerable descendants, even though both he and Sarah were well past childbearing age.

God’s grace is powerfully at work in believers so that we may live in a way fitting of God’s call to glory by actively planning good works that are carried out by faith in God’s promises of ever fresh supplies of grace, the only way of living the Christian life that brings glory to God.

Noah showed that he was right with God by faith when he believed God’s warning of yet unseen events and built an ark to save his family, condemning the world of his day and pointing to the way people are saved from God’s wrath through trusting in God’s one means of escape

When Jesus, the Son of God, was born, it was the dawning of the light of Heaven in a world enshrouded in the darkness of sin, as anticipated by the Biblical imagery of darkness and light. When people trust in Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, as Savior and Lo \\rd, they become light-bearers to shine as lights in a dark world.

Enoch (a prophet of the seventh generation after Adam), lived a life of faith and was translated to Heaven without dying, was an example of true faith, which believes in the living God of the Bible who rewards all who truly seek Him in His way as their greatest treasure.

True faith, grounded in the hope of Christ’s 2nd Coming, perseveres in a love that pulls its own weight and is NOT burdensome.

God commended Abel as righteous by faith by accepting his offering of the fat of the first fruits of his flock, but rejected the vegetable offering of unrighteous Cain, who killed righteous Abel in anger. Abel still speaks, his blood crying for God’s judgment on the ungodly who persecute the saints.

We are called to be a people of peace grounded in our holy destiny when Christ returns.