# Why "for now I know that you fear God" in Gen 22:12?



## Tirian (Jul 28, 2013)

In the story of Abraham's obedience to God's commands to sacrifice his son, what does "for now I know" mean and why was it phrased like this? 

Commentary references are helpful but I'm not really sure I own a solid understanding of this myself. Any help you can offer to help me get my head around this would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt


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## Tirian (Jul 28, 2013)

Also, why does God refer to Himself in the third person here? Why not "now I know you fear Me"?


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## Peairtach (Jul 28, 2013)

Maybe the Lord refers to Himself in the third person, because He is speaking about Abraham and his faith subjectively in relation to Himself as the object of Abraham's faith.

Re "for now I know that you fear God", this is somewhat "anthropomorphic", since God knows all things, past, present and future, in an eternal moment. But Abraham had practically demonstrated to the Lord and himself, not just in the mind of God but in time and space, the reality of His faith by this incident. Also, the reality of Abraham's faith had been demonstrated and tested in a new way and to a new degree, before the Lord and himself, and had come forth as gold.

Hence the Lord graciously rewards the imperfect but real faith he has given him in Christ, with these encouraging words.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2


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## rookie (Jul 28, 2013)

I have to agree with Richard on this one. There are many verses that give God "human characteristics", or the technical term is as mentioned above - anthropomorphic. There are many things that God says about Himself that we need human terms to understand what He is saying.
Look at the following verses for examples.

Human actions - changed mind, relented, remembered, rested.

Exodus 32:14, "So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people."
2 Sam. 24:16, "When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!”
Gen. 9:16, “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Gen. 2:2, "And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done."

Human emotions - sorrow, jealousy, pity, regret.

Gen. 6:6, "And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
Exodus 20:5, "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me."
Judges 2:18, "...for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them."
1 Sam. 15:35, "And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel."
Human physique - hands, face, mouth, eyes, arm.

Exodus 7:5, "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.”
Num. 6:24, "The Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you."
Psalm 33:6, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host."
Psalm 34:15, "The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry."
Psalm 89:10, "Thou Thyself didst crush Rahab like one who is slain;
Thou didst scatter Thine enemies with Thy mighty arm."

God doesn't actually have arms, He is unchanging and doesn't repent (if he did, he would change). However, for us in human terms, He has to translate some to "our attributes" so we can understand a "picture" of what he is trying to say. 

Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, [even] my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. 

Isa 48:13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: [when] I call unto them, they stand up together. 

Hbr 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

These verses claim he has hands and arms...we know God doesn't have arms or hands. But with this basic human illustration, we get the idea that nowhere in the universe are you too far from Him reaching you. And everything is in his control.

And for the part about "now I know you fear God", it's just like Richard mentioned. To God, a day is like a thousand years, and vice versa. To us, a 1000 yrs is a 1000 yrs...(otherwise, it's one heck of a long day). So for God, He's atemporal, He's outside of time, so technically, you were right, it's been known since the beginning that Abraham's obedience was known to God. But for us to relate, he has to put a time stamp on it...


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