Faith and Doubt

Abraham is often described as a man of extraordinary faith. God calls to him and commands him to leave his native home and travel to a new land. And he does. God seals a covenant with him and commands him to circumcise himself at the age of ninety years. And he does. God instructs him to sacrifice his son Isaac. And so, he sets out to Mount Moriah to do God’s bidding. Only when the sacrificial knife is raised against his son does God tell him to stop.

In our tradition Abraham appears as a man of unwavering faith and commitment. He is even willing to do the incomprehensible, fulfilling God’s command to sacrifice his son and for this our commentators commend him.

I prefer, however, to see him in a different light. Abraham was indeed a man of deep faith. He was also beset by doubt.

Faith does not preclude questioning.

What is Abraham’s response to the first hardship he faces? He doubts God’s providence. There was a famine in the land and so Abraham and Sarah travel to Egypt where there is plentiful food. Abraham worries that Pharoah will kill him and take Sarah as his wife. So, he instructs Sarah to say that she is not his wife but his sister. Pharaoh then takes Sarah as his wife.

God intercedes and afflicts Pharaoh and his household with a plague. Pharoah admits his mistake and acknowledges God’s power. He returns Sarah to Abraham and sends them on their way along with even more wealth.

We rarely read this part of Abraham’s story. Take to heart its message. As soon as God calls to Abraham, as soon as he sets out on his journey, doubt begins to occupy his thoughts.

When God promises that he and Sarah will have a child at their advanced age, what is Abraham’s response? He laughs and says, “Can a child be born to a man a hundred years old, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?” (Genesis 17) Abraham doubts God’s power. He laughs at the notion that he will be the beneficiary of God’s miracles.

Doubt and faith are not contradictory. They often go hand in hand.

We tend to tell Abraham’s story by looking at the bookends of his life. We speak about the call of Lech-Lecha and emphasize the binding of Isaac in the Akedah. By doing so we portray a man of unquestioning faith, who does God’s bidding without hesitation and doubt. But when we examine the details of his life, portrayed in the intervening chapters, we discover a person of uncharacteristic faith but also someone who questions and doubts.

This illustrates a far better approximation of the reality of faith. Everyone has doubts. Throughout our lives we are faced with struggles. We are confronted by illness and death. We have to contend with loss of a job or financial hardships. There are any number of difficulties we face throughout our lives. These moments make us question God’s providence. We wonder if God is attentive to our pleas, if God even listens to our heartfelt prayers.

We doubt. We question.

To suggest that such questioning lessens our faith is false. We are human beings. People have doubts!

We must become at ease with the questioning. We must embrace the doubt. It does not weaken our faith but instead strengthens it.

Abraham remains a hero not because of perfect faith, but instead because he was just like everyone of us. He believed. And he doubted. He was not an angel. He was a human being.

Faith and doubt must go hand in hand.

Embrace your questions. Strengthen your faith.