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Benei Avraham
The Narrow Path · Lesson 4 · Study questions & answers

Pearl of Great Price

Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) · Discussed Sunday, November 1, 2026

The kingdom of heaven is a treasure worth more than everything we own, and the disciple gladly gives up the rest to gain it. Avraham found that treasure. Hashem tested him ten times, and the last test, the binding of Yitzchak, proved his faith in deeds. This lesson looks at why tests come, how they reveal and strengthen faith, what Yeshua meant by “hating” one’s family and taking up the cross, and why Hashem swore His promises to Avraham “because thou hast done this thing.”

All lesson answersNext: Lesson 5 (coming soon)

These are our answers to the Lesson 4 study questions for The Narrow Path, our teen and family Torah study: 21 study questions, 4 “Thinking About It” prompts, a “Look It Up” passage and two prayers. The questions are summarized in our own words. Each answer gives the main point first, then supporting sources from the Tanakh, the Brit Hadashah and Jewish tradition.

Focus Section 1

Pearl of Great Price

Study question 1

What does the treasure hidden in the field stand for?

Answer: The kingdom of heaven: the Messianic Era, the reward of the resurrection of the dead and a share in the World to Come. In other words, it is the good news itself, the hope of being “born again” in the resurrection.

Tanakh

  • Daniel 2:44: “The God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed … it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”
  • Daniel 12:2: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”
  • Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 4:16: “This world is like a vestibule before the World to Come. Prepare yourself in the vestibule so that you may enter the banquet hall.”
Study question 2

Why were the laborer and the merchant willing to give up everything they owned?

Answer: Because what they found was worth far more than everything they had. They did not give it up grudgingly. The man in the field sold all he had “for joy,” knowing the treasure would more than repay the loss. The disciple who sees the worth of the kingdom feels the same way about the things of this world.

Tanakh

  • Proverbs 3:13–15: “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom … For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver … She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Philippians 3:7–8: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Messiah. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Messiah Yeshua my Master”
  • Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 6:9: offered a fortune to move to another town, Rabbi Yose ben Kisma answered that even for all the silver, gold, precious stones and pearls in the world he would live only in a place of Torah, because at death a person is accompanied “only by Torah and good deeds.”
Study question 3

What is the main difference between the man who finds the hidden treasure and the merchant who finds the pearl?

Answer: The man in the field found the treasure by chance; he was not looking for it. The merchant was already searching for fine pearls, knew what he was looking for, and recognized it when he saw it. Some people stumble onto the kingdom, and others find it after a long search. Both respond the same way: they act at once and give everything to gain it.

Tanakh

  • Isaiah 65:1: “I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not”
  • Jeremiah 29:13: “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Matthew 13:45–46: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
  • Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Megillah 6b: “If someone says, ‘I labored and found,’ believe him.” The sages teach that what is truly worth having comes to those who seek it.
Prayer

Father in heaven, show us Your pearl of great price and make it real to us. Help us gladly set aside the things of this world for the sake of gaining it.

Comment: This is the lesson’s prayer in our own words. It asks for two things: eyes to see how valuable the kingdom is, and the will to let go of whatever stands in the way. Like the man in the field, we ask to give things up with joy, not regret.

Sources

  • Matthew 6:10: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
  • Psalm 119:18: “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy Torah.”
  • Psalm 27:4: “One thing have I desired of Hashem, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life”
Focus Section 2

The Joy Set Before Him

Study question 1

According to Jewish tradition, how many times was Avraham’s faith tested?

Answer: Ten times. The binding of Yitzchak (the Akedah) on Mount Moriah was the tenth and hardest. The words “after these things” in Genesis 22:1 are read as pointing back to the tests that came before it.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 22:1: “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Avraham, and said unto him, Avraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.” The Hebrew word nisah means “tested.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Hebrews 11:17: “By faith Avraham, when he was tried, offered up Yitzchak: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 5:3: “With ten trials was Avraham our father tested, and he withstood them all, to show how great was the love of Avraham our father.”
  • Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 26–31 and Rambam’s commentary on m. Avot 5:3: give lists of the ten tests. The lists differ, but both end with the binding of Yitzchak.
Study question 2

What should believers do when they meet trials that test their faith?

Answer: Rejoice, and meet the trial with faith and obedience. Yaakov says to “count it all joy,” because testing produces endurance and shows whether our faith is real. Hard times should not surprise us. They are a chance to prove that our faith has substance.

Tanakh

  • Habakkuk 3:17–18: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines … Yet I will rejoice in Hashem, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
  • Psalm 66:10: “For Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.”

Brit Hadashah

  • James 1:2–3: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
  • 1 Peter 1:6–7: “Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Berakhot 9:5: “A person is obligated to bless over the bad just as he blesses over the good.”
  • b. Berakhot 60b: Rabbi Akiva taught, “Everything the Merciful One does, He does for good.”
Study question 3

What did Avraham have in common with the laborer and the merchant in the parables?

Answer: He gladly gave up everything for something worth far more. He left his country, his family and his father’s house, lived as a stranger in tents, and was even willing to give up Yitzchak, because he was looking for “a better country, that is, an heavenly.” Like the laborer and the merchant, he did not count the cost as a loss.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 12:1: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee”
  • Genesis 22:2: “Take now thy son, thine only son Yitzchak, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah”

Brit Hadashah

  • Hebrews 11:8–10: “By faith Avraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went … For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” See also Hebrews 11:16.
  • John 8:56: “Your father Avraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Pesachim 4a: the sages learn from “Avraham rose up early in the morning” (Genesis 22:3) that the eager do a mitzvah at the first opportunity. Avraham did not drag his feet.
Think about it

Is it possible to “consider it all joy” when you are tested without being happy about it?

Answer: Yes. Biblical joy is not the same as a happy feeling. It is a settled confidence in Hashem and in what lies ahead, and it can live side by side with tears. A midrash pictures Avraham walking to Moriah with tears falling from his eyes, while his heart rejoiced to do the will of his Creator. Yeshua endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him,” not because the cross felt good. We can grieve, and still choose to trust and obey with a willing heart.

Tanakh

  • Psalm 126:5: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
  • Nehemiah 8:10: “Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of Hashem is your strength.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Yeshua the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame”
  • 2 Corinthians 6:10: “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing”

Jewish tradition

  • Genesis Rabbah 56:8: Avraham’s eyes shed tears out of a father’s compassion, “yet his heart rejoiced to do the will of his Creator.”
Focus Section 3

Testing Mettle

Study question 1

What is the purpose of a test?

Answer: To reveal, measure and prove a quality that is otherwise hidden. A medical test shows whether a treatment works, and a pop quiz shows whether a student has really been studying. In the same way, a test of faith shows whether our faith is real and has substance, or is only an idea.

Tanakh

  • Deuteronomy 8:2: “Hashem thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no.”
  • Proverbs 17:3: “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but Hashem trieth the hearts.”

Brit Hadashah

  • 1 Peter 1:7: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory”

Jewish tradition

  • Genesis Rabbah 55:2: a potter does not test cracked jars, which would break at one tap, but only his strong ones. So Hashem tests the righteous, not the wicked.
  • Ramban on Genesis 22:1: Hashem already knows the heart. The test is for the person tested, to bring his faith out of potential and into actual deed, so that he is rewarded for a good deed and not only for a good heart.
Study question 2

What is “the testing effect”?

Answer: The finding that practicing recall makes learning stick. Students who have to pull information out of memory, as in a quiz, remember it much longer than students who only reread or review it. A test does not just measure learning; it improves it. Tests of faith work the same way: they do not only prove our faith, they strengthen it.

Tanakh

  • Deuteronomy 6:6–7: “These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them”

Brit Hadashah

  • James 1:23–25: the hearer who is not a doer is like a man who looks in a mirror and “straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was,” but the one who does the work “shall be blessed in his deed.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Kiddushin 30a: reading “thou shalt teach them diligently” (ve-shinantam) as “sharpen them,” the sages say the words of Torah should be so sharp in your mouth that when someone asks you, you answer at once without stammering.
  • b. Chagigah 9b: “One who reviews his learning a hundred times cannot be compared to one who reviews it a hundred and one times.”

Research

  • Henry L. Roediger and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, “Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention,” Psychological Science 17 (2006): the study the lesson cites.
Study question 3

How can even a failed test of faith make a person stronger?

Answer: A failed test shows us where we fall short. If we admit the failure, repent and learn from it, we are better prepared the next time the same test comes. That is how “the trying of your faith worketh patience.” The goal is not to fail the same test over and over, but to grow through it.

Tanakh

  • Proverbs 24:16: “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again”
  • Micah 7:8: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise”

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 22:31–32: Yeshua tells Peter, who is about to deny him, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Peter failed, repented, and became a pillar.

Jewish tradition

  • Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 2:1: complete repentance is when the same opportunity to sin comes again, and the person holds back because he has repented, not because he is afraid or too weak.
  • b. Berakhot 34b: “In the place where those who return in repentance stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand.”
Prayer

Father, help us recognize our tests when they come, and learn from our mistakes instead of failing the same tests again and again.

Comment: This is the lesson’s prayer in our own words. It asks for two kinds of wisdom: to notice that a moment is a test while we are still in it, and to learn from a failure so that we do better next time. David asked Hashem to search his heart for the same reason.

Sources

  • Psalm 139:23–24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
  • Psalm 26:2: “Examine me, O Hashem, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”
Focus Section 4

Different Type of Tests

Study question 1

What are some small, everyday tests in your life?

Answer: Ordinary moments that call for a godly or a selfish reaction. A brother or sister takes your things. Someone is rude to you online. You are tempted to gossip, to tell a small lie to get out of trouble, to copy someone’s homework or to roll your eyes at a parent. You can do your chores without being asked, or not. What you scroll, watch and listen to when no one is looking is a test too. Each one is a small choice to obey Hashem or to follow the self.

Tanakh

  • Proverbs 16:32: “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 16:10: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 4:1: “Who is mighty? One who conquers his inclination.”
  • m. Avot 2:1: “Be as careful with a light commandment as with a weighty one, for you do not know the reward for each commandment.”
Study question 2

What are some larger tests in your life?

Answer: The big moments that shake us. Serious illness, a family crisis, the death of someone we love, a move, money trouble, betrayal by a friend, major decisions about school, work or marriage, pressure to give up our faith to fit in, and strong temptations. In each one we can still respond in a godly way, trusting Hashem, or in a godless way.

Tanakh

  • Job 1:21: “Hashem gave, and Hashem hath taken away; blessed be the name of Hashem.”
  • Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me”

Brit Hadashah

  • 1 Corinthians 10:13: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Berakhot 5a: when suffering comes, a person should examine his deeds. If he finds nothing to correct, his sufferings may be “afflictions of love,” sent not as punishment but to refine him.
Study question 3

How does the authority of the Bible create regular tests of faith?

Answer: Because every command we accept as binding forces a choice: obey, or not. If “honor thy father and thy mother,” “love thy neighbour” or “turn the other cheek” were only good advice, we could take it or leave it. Because they come with Hashem’s authority, each one tests whether we will stay on the narrow path. Obedience turns faith into faithfulness and makes an invisible conviction visible.

Tanakh

  • Exodus 16:4: Hashem gave the manna with rules for gathering it, “that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My Torah, or no.”
  • Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life”

Brit Hadashah

  • John 14:15: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
  • Matthew 7:24: “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 2:4: “Make His will your will, so that He will make your will His will.”
Think about it

In the lesson’s imagined conversation between Dick and Jane, why can Jane show her faith while Dick cannot?

Answer: Because faith becomes visible only in deeds. Dick says he has faith without deeds, but when Jane asks him to show it, he has nothing to point to. Only Hashem can see the heart. Other people can see only what we do. Jane simply lives out her faith in obedience and kindness, and Dick can see it. Faith that never acts cannot be shown, because there is nothing there to show.

Tanakh

  • 1 Samuel 16:7: “For man looketh on the outward appearance, but Hashem looketh on the heart.”

Brit Hadashah

  • James 2:18: “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”
  • Matthew 7:16: “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Avot 1:17: “Not study but deed is the main thing.”
Focus Section 5

Hating Your Family

Study question 1

Does the Bible allow us to hate our families?

Answer: No. The Torah commands us to honor our father and mother and forbids hating a brother in our heart. The apostles tell husbands to love their wives and children to obey their parents. Whatever Yeshua meant by “hate,” he did not mean contempt for our families.

Tanakh

  • Exodus 20:12: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which Hashem thy God giveth thee.”
  • Leviticus 19:17: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart”

Brit Hadashah

  • Ephesians 5:25 and 6:1–2: “Husbands, love your wives” and “Children, obey your parents in the Master … Honour thy father and mother.”
  • 1 John 4:20: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Kiddushin 30b: the sages note that the Torah speaks of honoring parents in the same words it uses for honoring Hashem, comparing the honor of parents to the honor of the Holy One.
Study question 2

What does Yeshua’s command to “hate” one’s family mean?

Answer: To love them less than him. In Hebrew, “love” and “hate” set side by side often show an order of preference, not absolute opposites. When the Torah says Leah was “hated,” it means Yaakov loved Rachel more. So Luke 14:26 means: whoever does not love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, less than he loves me, cannot be my disciple. Matthew’s version says exactly that.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 29:30–31: Yaakov “loved also Rachel more than Leah … And when Hashem saw that Leah was hated, He opened her womb”
  • Deuteronomy 21:15: “If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated”. The law that follows protects the son of the less-loved wife.
  • Deuteronomy 33:9: the Levites are praised as those who “said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him,” putting loyalty to Hashem first.

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 14:26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
  • Matthew 10:37: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Yevamot 5b: from Leviticus 19:3, “Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep My sabbaths: I am Hashem,” the sages teach that if a parent tells a child to break the Sabbath, the child must not obey, because both parent and child are bound to honor Hashem. Loyalty to Hashem comes before loyalty to family.
Study question 3

According to the Mishnah, why should a person’s teacher rank higher than his father?

Answer: Because his father brought him into this world, but his teacher, who taught him wisdom, brings him into the life of the World to Come. So if a disciple must choose, his teacher’s needs come first: he helps his teacher with a heavy load first and ransoms his teacher from captivity first. If his father is also a sage, his father comes first. Yeshua asked his disciples for the same first loyalty, and to share his burden by carrying their own cross.

Tanakh

  • 2 Kings 2:12: as Eliyahu is taken up, his disciple Elisha cries, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 14:27: “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”
  • Mark 10:29–30: no one who has left house or family for Yeshua’s sake “shall receive an hundredfold now in this time … and in the world to come eternal life.”

Jewish tradition

  • m. Bava Metzia 2:11: the teacher’s needs come before the father’s, “for his father brought him into this world, but his teacher, who taught him wisdom, brings him into the life of the World to Come.”
  • b. Sanhedrin 19b: whoever teaches another person’s son Torah, Scripture counts it as if he had fathered him.
Look it up

Compare Matthew 10:33–38 and Luke 12:51–53

The lesson asks you to read the discussion of “hating” your family alongside these two passages.

Comment: Both passages quote or echo Micah 7:6, and both describe what happens when family members respond differently to Yeshua: households divide. Yeshua is not calling for division; he is warning that loyalty to him will sometimes cause it, and that he must still come first (Matthew 10:37). The Mishnah uses the same verse to describe the troubled days before the Messiah. The prophets also promise healing: in the end Eliyahu will turn the hearts of parents and children back to each other.

Sources

  • Micah 7:6: “For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.”
  • Matthew 10:34–36: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father … And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”
  • Malachi 4:6 (3:24 in Hebrew Bibles): Eliyahu “shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” See Luke 1:17.
  • m. Sotah 9:15: describing the days before the Messiah comes, the Mishnah quotes Micah 7:6: “a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.”
Focus Section 6

Like One Who Carries His Cross

Study question 1

What two Roman images may have shaped the way the disciples understood “taking up the cross”?

Answer: The legionary’s pole and the condemned man’s crossbeam. A Roman soldier on the march carried his pack on a forked or T-shaped pole over his shoulder and had to pick it up every day to keep pace with his legion. And the Romans crucified thousands of Jews; the condemned carried the crossbeam on their shoulders to the place of execution. One picture speaks of daily discipline, the other of being ready to die.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 22:6: “And Avraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Yitzchak his son … and they went both of them together.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 9:23: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
  • John 19:17: “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull”

Jewish tradition

  • Genesis Rabbah 56:3: “Like one who carries his own stake on his shoulder,” Yitzchak carried the wood up Mount Moriah.
  • Josephus, Jewish War 5.449–451: during the siege of Jerusalem the Romans crucified as many as five hundred Jews a day, until there was no room left for the crosses.
Study question 2

What is a furca?

Answer: A forked or T-shaped wooden pole that a Roman legionary carried over his shoulder on the march, with his pack and equipment hung near the top. The word is Latin for “fork.” Each day he had to take up his furca to keep pace with the legion.

Brit Hadashah

  • Luke 9:23: “Take up his cross daily.” Like a soldier’s pack, the disciple’s burden is picked up again every day.

History

  • Plutarch, Life of Marius 13: after the general Marius made his soldiers carry their own gear on poles, they were nicknamed “Marius’ mules.”
Study question 3

According to the passage the lesson quotes from the Mechilta, for what “crime” might someone be crucified in a time of persecution?

Answer: For eating the unleavened bread, that is, for keeping Passover. In the same passage, others are led out to execution for circumcising a son or for reading the Torah. The sages applied “them that love Me and keep My commandments” to Jews who risked their lives to keep the commandments.

Tanakh

  • Exodus 20:6: “And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jewish tradition

  • Mechilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Bachodesh 6 (on Exodus 20:6): “Why are you being led out to be crucified? Because I ate the unleavened bread.” A parallel appears in Leviticus Rabbah 32:1.
  • b. Berakhot 61b: under the Roman decrees after the Bar Kokhba revolt, Rabbi Akiva was executed for teaching Torah in public.
Think about it

What is the difference between the picture of carrying a furca every day and the picture of carrying a crossbeam?

Answer: The furca pictures daily discipline; the crossbeam pictures total surrender. The soldier’s pole stands for the steady, everyday burden of discipleship: getting up each day, shouldering our duties and keeping pace with the Master. The crossbeam stands for being willing to lose everything, even life itself, rather than deny him. The two belong together. Faithfulness in small things every day is what prepares a person to stand firm in the great test.

Tanakh

  • Psalm 44:22: “Yea, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” Shaul quotes it in Romans 8:36.

Brit Hadashah

  • Mark 8:34–35: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”
  • 1 Corinthians 15:31: “I die daily.”

Jewish tradition

  • b. Berakhot 61b: as he was being executed, Rabbi Akiva recited the Shema and said that all his life he had wondered when he would be able to fulfill “with all thy soul,” even if Hashem takes your life. Daily recitation of the Shema prepared him for that hour.
Focus Section 7

Because You Have Done This Thing

Study question 1

How did the Reformers describe the promises of the covenant with Avraham?

Answer: As unconditional promises of free grace, with no strings attached. All Avraham had to do was believe. They saw the covenant with Avraham as a preview of the gospel of faith alone, and they struggled to explain why Hashem tested Avraham’s faith at all.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 15:6: “And he believed in Hashem; and He counted it to him for righteousness.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Romans 4:13: “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Avraham, or to his seed, through the Torah, but through the righteousness of faith.” The Reformers built on verses like this one.

Jewish tradition

  • m. Kiddushin 4:14: “We find that Avraham our father kept the whole Torah before it was given,” as it says, “Because that Avraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge” (Genesis 26:5). Jewish tradition never pictured Avraham’s faith without his obedience.

Church history

  • Martin Luther, Preface to the New Testament (1522): called James “an epistle of straw” compared with the letters he valued most, and in his German Bible he moved James, with Hebrews, Jude and Revelation, to the back.
Study question 2

What is the “because” relationship in Genesis 22:16–18?

Answer: Hashem swore to fulfill His promises because Avraham obeyed. The promises had been spoken before (Genesis 12, 13 and 15), but only after the binding of Yitzchak did Hashem swear by Himself to keep them, “because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son” and “because thou hast obeyed My voice.” The blessing is tied directly to Avraham’s deed.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 22:16–18: “By Myself have I sworn, saith Hashem, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee … And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.”
  • Genesis 26:3–5: Hashem tells Yitzchak, “I will perform the oath which I sware unto Avraham thy father … Because that Avraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

Brit Hadashah

  • Hebrews 6:13–15: “For when God made promise to Avraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself … And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”

Jewish tradition

  • Rosh Hashanah prayers (Zichronot): “Remember for us the binding of Yitzchak. As Avraham our father held back his compassion to do Your will with a whole heart, so may Your compassion hold back Your anger from us.” Israel still appeals to Avraham’s obedience at the Akedah.
Study question 3

According to James 2:21–23, when was Genesis 15:6 fulfilled?

Answer: When Avraham offered Yitzchak on the altar. Avraham believed Hashem in Genesis 15, but Yaakov says the Scripture “was fulfilled” when his faith worked together with his deeds and was “made perfect” at Moriah. His faith was real from the start; the Akedah proved it and made it complete.

Tanakh

  • Genesis 22:12: “For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.”
  • 2 Chronicles 20:7: “The seed of Avraham Thy friend for ever.”

Brit Hadashah

  • James 2:21–23: “Was not Avraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Yitzchak his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Avraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”

Jewish tradition

  • 1 Maccabees 2:52: “Was not Avraham found faithful in temptation, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness?” Jewish writers before Yaakov already linked Genesis 15:6 with Avraham’s testing.
  • Ben Sira 44:20: Avraham “kept the law of the most High … and when he was proved, he was found faithful.”
Think about it

What do you think would have happened if Avraham had failed his tests of faith?

Answer: We cannot know for sure, but Scripture gives some clues. His faith would have been shown to be words without substance, and Hashem’s oath came “because thou hast done this thing.” Shaul, Israel’s first king, is a sobering example: chosen by Hashem, he failed his test of obedience and lost his kingdom. The sages also teach that Hashem tests only those He knows can stand, like a potter who taps only his strong jars. Avraham’s tests were not traps; they were the way his faith became visible and complete. The same is true of the tests that come to us.

Tanakh

  • 1 Samuel 15:22–23: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams … Because thou hast rejected the word of Hashem, He hath also rejected thee from being king.”

Brit Hadashah

  • James 2:17: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
  • Hebrews 3:18–19: the wilderness generation did not enter Hashem’s rest because they “believed not … they could not enter in because of unbelief.”

Jewish tradition

  • Genesis Rabbah 55:2: the potter does not test his weak jars, only his strong ones. Hashem tested Avraham because He knew he would stand.

Scripture quotations follow the King James Version, with Hashem for the Divine Name (LORD), Torah for “the law,” Hebrew names (Moshe, Yochanan, Avraham, Shaul), Messiah for “Christ,” and Master for “Lord” when it refers to Yeshua. Abbreviations: m. = Mishnah, b. = Babylonian Talmud, Rambam = Maimonides, Ramban = Nachmanides. Rabbinic sources are given in short translation or paraphrase.

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