January 4th, 2008
Genesis 12
Abraham stands as the greatest figure to be found in the ancient world. Three world religions—Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—revere him as the father of their faiths. Archeologists have explored the city of his origin, traced his journeys, probed the ruins of towns mentioned in Genesis, and have reconstructed a striking portrait of life 2,000 years before Christ that in detail after detail confirms the accuracy of the Old Testament account.
But what makes Abraham important to the Bible student is not the reverence in which he is held. It is not even the belief The National Geographic once expressed, that “Abraham the patriarch conceived a great and simple idea: the idea of a single Almighty God” (Dec. 1966, p. 740). Abraham’s importance is not even found in the fact that he is today a prime model of saving faith. No, the importance of Abraham in Genesis is that through Abraham God reveals His purpose and His goal for the universe. In promises to Abram God revealed that He had a plan!
To Abraham were given wonderful covenant promises that show us history’s direction, and reassure us that our personal universe is a purposive universe as well.
COVENANT. In Old Testament times the berit was at the foundation of social relationships. It might represent a treaty between nations, or a business contract, or a national constitution. In each case it represented a binding agreement, and expressed a firm commitment which was to be faithfully honored by all.
Genesis 13
Lot went against custom when he failed to give Abraham, his elder, first choice, even though Abraham offered it to him. Lot chose the more prosperous and populated valley areas; Abraham had less-populated hill country.
Genesis 14
Until recent years the story of the invasion of the five kings reported here was questioned by liberal scholars. Archeology has now shown that kings from as far away as lower Mesopotamia did make such incursions, and both people and place-names fit what we know of Abraham’s time. Even the reason for such invasions is now known: copper, asphalt, and manganese were valuable natural resources of the region.
Genesis 15
Abraham considered God faithful. We see the next great act of faith in Genesis 15. God had given Abraham great promises which hinged on the founding of a family line. But Abraham had no child. When Abraham raised this issue with God, the Lord promised, “A son from your own body shall be your heir” (v. 4). God then went on to promise Abraham uncountable descendants. “Abram believed the Lord; and He credited it to him as righteousness” (v. 6).
The New Testament emphasizes the great trust this act of faith required. “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised” (Rom. 4:19-21).
In this event we gain deep insight into saving faith. Faith faces the facts. Abraham had no illusions about his own ability to father a son, or Sarah’s to become a mother. Physically speaking this was impossible. The two were, as far as parenthood was concerned, “as good as dead.” Yet Abraham’s kind of faith also faced the fact of God. And God changes every equation!
Abraham stands here as evidence that God can be trusted to keep His word, and that such trust is never disappointed.
Several factors need to be noted to grasp the message God is communicating.*The promises. Abraham did not exercise blind faith. Instead, he responded to a word spoken by the Lord. It is the concrete, objective expression of God’s promise that calls out response.
“Faith” in what we imagine to be God’s will is not Abraham’s kind of faith. Abraham’s faith is a response to divine revelation.
*The Person. Abraham’s confidence was in God as a Person who is both able and committed to do what He promises. At times we think of “faith” as subjective; as something we do Abraham’s kind of faith does not rely on its own intensity or sincerity. Abraham’s kind of faith puts reliance on the object of faith: God Himself. It is God’s trustworthiness and not our trusting that is critical.
*The perspective. Abraham boldly faced the fact of his and Sarah’s ages. He realistically looked at the situation, and just as realistically ignored the circumstances! Realism understands that physical and other limitations do not apply to God, for God is the underlying reality; and whatever the circumstances, God can bring to pass what He promises.
Abraham might very well have cried out, “I can’t!” And he would have been right. Instead Abraham cried, “God can!” This perspective, which sees God as the touchstone of reality, is to characterize our faith as well.
*The product. God announced it: “It was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:22). Like you and I, Abraham was not a righteous person. There was no basis on which God and Abraham could fellowship until God revealed that He would accept faith and, because of it, credit Abram’s account with righteousness.
More is involved here than a divine bookkeeping transaction. Through faith God works to produce actual righteousness in us. As we learn to live by Abraham’s kind of faith, facing each test and trial with our eyes on God and His trustworthiness, God the Holy Spirit produces in our lives the fruit of a righteousness which we ourselves do not possess (see Gal. 5:18-23). God counts faith as holiness, and then through faith produces in us the very holiness He has promised is—and will be—ours.
The Nuzi tablets, about 20,000 documents written on hardened clay discovered in 1925-41, date within 400 or 500 years of the patriarchs. They show customs like those mentioned in Scripture. One custom involves adoption of a slave or freeman who in return for serving his benefactor becomes his heir. The contract of adoption also contained provisions stating that if the patron later had a son, the son would be the heir. This is reflected in verses 1-4, with Eliezer designated as “the one who will inherit [Abraham’s] estate.”
Genesis 16
Ten years after the promise of a son to be Abraham’s heir, Sarah suggested that Abraham take her maid, Hagar, as a secondary wife. This was by custom a moral action, and may have seemed to Abraham the way God would keep His promise. But it was not God’s plan.
Sarah’s bitterness and her insistence that Hagar and Ishmael be expelled went against custom (21:10). God had to personally intervene to move Abraham to do what the patriarch felt was a wrong action.
Abraham’s statement in 16:6, “Your servant is in your hands,” was not, however, permission to mistreat Hagar. Instead it recognized the existing legal right of Sarah to “deal harshly” with a slave.
Reflection
Has there ever been a time in your life where you go tired of waiting on God and went ahead on your own. What did you learn from that experience? What can you learn from Abraham’s experience?
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