Did God tell Abram to do the impossible?

Question

1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

since people say it's impossible to be perfect, I guess God lied to abram by telling him to do something that was impossible to do. once again, tell me what God's perfection is since people say we can't be perfect. define God's perfection for my life? What God perfection for me may not be the same for you, When he told Abram to be perfect, what was his perfection for him? now if you know it, l want you to explain how do you know. I'm wanting to learn.

Answer 1

Perfection is a goal .....to reach out for.

We can not attain it now.

However, we can give it a good try.

God doesn't want half-hearted attempts.

He asks for a serious try.

Our best is what is expected.

God will accept our best efforts ..if we're serious.

Answer 2

My translation doesn't use the word "perfect," it says "wholehearted."  The actual Hebrew word used, tamim, is generally translated as perfect, or "without blemish" - but it applies to animals for sacrifice as well as people... it's a tricky word.  Noah was called an "ish tamim b'dorotav," which means a perfect man in his generation - and we know from his post-flood activity that he was hardly perfect.

The Jewish interpretation of this is that G-d was asking Abram to strive for wholeness - to never stop aiming for perfection.  

There is a difference between being told to reach a goal you can never achieve, and being told to strive for something.  If you ever had a mentor tell you to "reach for the stars," did you tell him that it was impossible to touch a star from the earth, or did you understand that he/she was telling you that anything is possible if you believe in yourself?   Yes, we all know that some things actually are impossible.  But that doesn't mean we should be dissuaded from trying to stretch as far as humanly possible, to reach our goals.  And striving for perfection - for completely dedicating yourself to being your best, and in doing so, being what G-d wants from you - is not impossible, regardless if we ever get there or not.  

In other words, this was G-d's way of telling Abram, "I have high expectations of you, but I know you can achieve them."  If G-d had simply told him to be good enough, why would he ever strive to be better?  Why would anyone do anything amazing if they were always told that good enough was good enough?

In case this helps, here's an essay that I think explains this really well (it's from an Orthodox Jewish perspective, though, so it might not be as meaningful for you as you were hoping - if not, I apologize):

http://www.e-wellsprings.org/Article.asp...