4a Abraham [Genesis 11-25]
The Bible passage: [Genesis 11-25]
The Story:
Abram (later called Abraham) was born about 400 years after the flood that we talked about in a previous story. His father’s name was Terah. They lived in Ur of the Chaldeas.
Terah took his son Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and Lot (his grandson by another son, Haran) and left Ur headed toward Canaan. They stopped along the journey in a place they called Haran. Terah died in Haran when he was 205 years old.
God told Abram to leave the place where he was living and go to a land that God would show him. God also promised to make Abram into a great nation.
Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran to follow where God would lead. Abrah took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all of his possessions and servants, and started toward the land of Canaan once again.
After a time, they came to a land that couldn’t support all that they owned. There was quarreling between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen.
Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have this quarreling. You choose the part of the land that you want and I’ll take what’s left.”
Lot looked at the Jordan River valley and saw that it was rich and fertile and decided that he would stay there. Abram took his people and possessions and headed to the east.
After Abram parted from Lot, God told him, “Look around you, as far as you can see, I am going to give you all of this land. I will make your offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth.”
So, Abram moved his tent and lived in Hebron and built an altar to the Lord.
Sometime later, God told Abram in a vision, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, and your reward will be great.”
But Abram said, “Lord God, how can you bless me when I have no child, no heir.”
God told him, “Look at the night sky. I am going to make your descendants so numerous that you won’t be able to count them, just like the stars in the sky.”
Abram believed God, and God considered Abram to be righteous because of his faith. Abram brought a three-year-old cow as an offering to God to seal their covenant.
Sarai and Abram had no children. Abram was now about 85 years old.
Sarai told Abram that he should take her servant Hagar as his wife. She said that perhaps Hagar could give Abram the children that she could not. Abram slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. Once Hagar was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress and this upset Sarai. Sarai then blamed Abram that she was so unhappy.
Abram told Sarai that she could do whatever she wanted with Hagar. Sarai mistreated Hagar so badly that she ran away.
The Angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water and asked her where she was going.
Hagar said she had run away because Sarai had mistreated her.
The Angel of the Lord told Hagar that she should go back and submit to Sarai’s mistreatment. He also told her that he would greatly multiply her son’s offspring so that they would be too many to count.
Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.
When Abram was 99 years old (and Sarai was 90), the Lord again appeared to Abram and repeated his promise to make Abram into a great nation. God told him that this would come through his son with Sarai.
God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. He changed Sarai’s name to Sarah.
He told Abraham that his son was to be named Isaac.
God also told Abraham that he was to circumcise all of his male descendants and servants.
Abraham’s nephew Lot had settled in the town of Sodom. Messengers from God told Abraham that God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the people there were so evil. The Bible gives some stories to show how evil the people were. Abraham asked God if He would spare the towns if there were righteous people there.
God sent messengers (angels) to warn Lot to leave. He took his wife and two daughters and started their retreat. They were instructed not to look back as they fled.
While they were running away, Lot’s wife looked back to see the disaster and she was turned into a column of salt.
The Lessons:
- [Hebrews 11:1] says, “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” (CSB) Basically, it is trusting God based on evidence, but without absolute proof.
- When God told Abraham to go to a land that God would show him, Abraham left the place where he was without knowing where he was going. That is a perfect example of faith.
- The word angel just means messenger. Angels in the Bible are beings created by God. They are created as angels. They aren’t people who have died, as many believe. [Job 38:4-7] indicates that they already existed when God created the earth.
- The Angel of the Lord is a special angel in the Old Testament (before Jesus). This angel is not specifically identified except by this name. Many theologians believe this angel to be Jesus the Christ. One thing leading to this belief is that the Angel of the Lord does not appear in the Bible after the birth of Christ. There are a few places where the Bible talks about the Angel of the Lord as being God Himself in a physical form.
- [Genesis 15:6] says, “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”
- Abram brought a three-year-old cow as an offering to God to seal their covenant.
- God allowed Lot and his family to leave from Sodom and Gomorrah before he destroyed them for their wickedness. God protected them from the punishment that He poured out on the wicked.
- Abram/Abraham was willing to follow wherever God led him. May we all be willing to do the same.
- When God gave Abram and Sarai their new names, he was expanding on the meanings of their names. Abram means something like “Father”, where Abraham means something like “Father of Many”. Similarly, Sarai means something like “My Princess”, and Sarah means something like “The Princess”.
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