Fighting Faith in Bavinck's Wonderful Works of God
In the Wonderful Works of God, Herman Bavinck writes that God's special revelation of Himself to Abraham is fundamentally a promise: "I will be thy God and the God of thy people." In the stories of the patriarchs we see God calling to Himself a people who must walk by faith. Bavinck finds in the three patriarchs three sub-categories of faith: Abraham's believing faith. Isaac's meek faith. Jacob's fighting faith. Israel as whole, throughout its history, is fundamentally similar to Abraham in that, like him, it must "live by faith, must acknowledge that it owes the land of its inheritance not to its own strength but to God's grace." Jacob, the fighter, embodies the reality that Israel can share in the great promise only when, "refined by suffering, broken in strength, it achieves the victory solely through the struggle of faith and prayer. I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me (Gen. 32:26 and Hos. 12:4)." I used to struggle with