Abraham

Today we want to pull some relevant truth from the ancient story of Abraham. So, how long ya got? The story of Abraham begins at the end of Genesis 11 and goes all the way through Genesis 25—and that doesn’t account for his mention in the New Testament! That means of the four sermons so far in this series, we have more chapters about Abraham than Adam & Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Enoch and Noah combined.
But, through the magic of storytelling, we can fast forward a bit. And the beauty of storytelling, as we read these in the Bible, is that we see what happens when the right choices are made and we see what happens when the bad choices are made. The people in the stories are faced with win/lose scenarios. For from our perspective, knowing that we can learn from their triumphs as well as learn from their tragedies, it is win/win. I like win/win situations. In fact, the only way to lose is to hear the Word of God and disregard it.
Before we begin the story, you need to know that Abram and Abraham is the same guy. We’ll talk about why the names are different, but you need to remember it’s the same guy.
Let’s take a moment and introduce the main players in our little drama.
• First, we have Abram, later called Abraham. He is from the lineage of Shem, a son of Noah.
• Sarai is Abram’s wife. She’ll get a new name later on, too.
• Hagar is an Egyptian woman that will come into the story later
• Ishmael & Isaac are really important people, too. You’ll be introduced to them at the appropriate time.
And as all good stories do, this one begins with God speaking.
“Ok, Abram. You got to go. You got to leave the place you live; you’ve got to leave those you live with. Where are you going? Well, I’ll show you when the time is right. I just want you to be a typical guy and wonder about for a bit. Because I said, that’s why.”
And God begins to promise Abram many things.
• A great nation will come from his lineage
• His name will be of renown
• He will be blessed
• He will be a blessing
And there is one last little promise that…well…requires a quick review. Adam and Eve introduced sin to the world. And ever since then, people have needed some way or someone to save them from themselves, save them from their sin. A Savior, as in “save your sorry, sinful can from hell”.
In the original curse, God said that the serpent would be crushed under the heel of the offspring of man. Ever since that time, we’ve been waiting for the one that would be the crusher of the serpent. God promised Abram “all people on earth will be blessed through you”, through his lineage.
This promise is bigger than an idea like we Americans are blessed through George Washington. This is a prophetic promise implying that the serpent crusher, The Savior, would come from the lineage of Abram. Yeah, that’s sort of a big deal.
So Abram did as the Lord commanded him and when he was 75 years old, he took his wife, rented a u-haul and headed out on the highway. He didn’t know where he was going and he didn’t know when he’d get there—but Abram did as the Lord commanded.
Relevant Truth #1: Obedience is important. Do the right thing.
• Don’t do “the thing that feels right”.
• Don’t do “the thing that you prefer”.
• Do the God thing.
And frankly, I’m tired of hearing that people don’t know what God is telling them to do. God’s Word is very clear—as clear as He spoke audibly to Abram. I feel your pain that God’s voice sounds muffled under the noise of the world, but when we spend time in conversation with God—we speak to Him, we read His words—the “right thing” is very clear.
It probably would have appeared to us, if we’d seen this motley crew that they were wandering aimlessly. But, God was leading them. God did his part; Abram did his part—an elegant balance of power. Sometimes, that’s how it is in our lives—people don’t “get” what we’re doing, but God is leading us.
In the end of Genesis 12, there’s an interesting little story in the life of Abram. It appears that there was a drought and subsequent famine, so Abram and company went down to Egypt—if you think back to last week, you’ll see that’s not so weird, since the Egyptians are fairly distant cousins of Abram, the descendants of another of Noah’s sons. This was not a short journey when you consider they most likely walked or rode pack animals, but really it wasn’t a long journey. And Egypt’s food supply was secure because the water supply of the Nile River was very reliable.
When they get there, Abram tells his wife, Sarai, to claim that she is his sister instead of his wife so that if she is desirable to any other man, they won’t kill Abram in order to have her. You could call this a lie and Abram a liar, but we prefer to call it a half-truth. In that Abram and Sarai were from the same lineage, the concept of “sister” is accurate to some degree (several chapters later, Abram clarifies that they have the same father, but different mothers). So, it wasn’t that they were lying…they were just withholding parts of the truth. (Ahem), yeah, in God’s eyes as well as the American judicial system, we want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Anything more or less than the truth is deceptive.
In the end, Abram’s time in Egypt was beneficial as he became very wealthy, but ultimately he was kicked out of the country because of his fraud. Abram could have stayed and accumulated more wealth if he would just have been completely honest. Here’s a relevant truth: often times our blessings are discontinued by God because of our dishonesties.
And it’s so easy to do. We “omit” some of the details in our stories. We use “reverse-psychology” to get our kids to comply. We tell people that we’ll pray for them, but then “forget”. We don’t want to hurt feelings. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all” isn’t as honest as we’d like to think it is. Truth isn’t always nice, but it’s still the truth. Speak the truth with Love was Jesus’ way to do it.
Here’s where the story gets a little “Twilight Zone”. After Abram left Egypt, he’s involved with some minor warfare. But after that, he meets this guy named Melchizedek, king of Salem.
• Melchizedek means “king of righteousness” a name later applied to Jesus.
• Salem or Shalom means “peace” and is a city later renamed as Jeru-salem, “the center of peace”. We know Jerusalem as the absolute center of Judaism—the home of the temple where Jesus himself worshipped. To a large extent, Jerusalem is the birthplace of Christianity.
• Melchizedek is mentioned to be a king and a priest—a dual title also held by Jesus, and oh the time we could spend on the implications of Jesus as a king AND priest.
• Abram gives to Melchizedek 10%, a tithe, of the booty he had taken from the minor warfare.
• Melchizedek serves supper to Abram, specifically mentioned as bread and wine. This is a typical meal for this period, and in this context, it is not to be associated with communion. But, when you put all these pieces together, your mind can’t help but see the parallels.
• And to add fuel to our fire, in the New Testament, in Hebrews it points out that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. This is important to note because the Jews eventually thought that all priests had to come from the line of Levi (someone we haven’t met yet)—which Jesus did not. Some discounted Jesus’ claim to be Messiah because he wasn’t from the line of Levi. But, his reference to the order of Melchizedek validates Jesus as priest and king.
• Yeah, that’s sort of a big deal.
Well, back to our hero, Abram.
One of the promises God made to Abram is that he will have many descendants (and one of them will be the Savior). But Sarai, his wife is way past childbearing years and still childless. So, Sarai decides what needs to happen is that her maidservant, Hagar the Egyptian, could be the surrogate. However, since this is before in-vitro, Sarai tells Abram to do it “the old-fashioned way”. Abram thinks he has the best wife ever, and does not disagree with her.
Hagar, the handmaiden is now preggers.
And that creates problems between her and Sarai—can anyone say “duh”? So, of course, Sarai blames Abram—double duh! Abram plays dumb—triple duh! Sarai begins to abuse Hagar, and so the surrogate skedaddles.
Fortunately, an angel comes to Hagar and instructs her on proper protocol—she is to go back and acquiesce to Sarai. But, Hagar is promised that her descendants will also be too numerous to count—this is the only time this type of promise is ever given to a woman. Her son is to be named Ishmael, which means, “God hears”, but he will be “a wild ass of a man” and he will live in hostility towards his brothers.
We need to point out that what Abram did with Hagar was culturally acceptable. Because large families were necessary for survival, it was commonplace for men to produce offspring with their wife, or wives, or handmaidens, or all of the above. These children were legitimized by their paternal heritage.
So, why is this such a big deal since Abram didn’t do anything wrong? I mean, all his friends were jumping off a cliff. Why couldn’t he?
Well, what Abram did was wrong. It wasn’t God’s plan. Because of it, Abram’s integrity is damaged. Just because society says it’s OK, doesn’t make it OK. We need to live up to God’s standard, not our culture’s standard. Too often, we are a church that adapts to our culture instead of our culture adapting to God’s church in this place. We have the power of God on our side! Let’s speak up and use for heaven’s sake.
All throughout the story, God reiterates His promised covenant to Abram. These promises never changed, but as we go along, more details, more specifics are given on how the promises will be delivered. So, in Genesis 17 we read that:
• God promises Abram specific locations and acreage that will belong to his lineage eventually. To this, Abram doesn’t say much.
• As an outward sign of the promise, God changes Abram and Sarai’s names. From now on, they will be known as Abraham and Sarah. To this, Abraham doesn’t say much.
• As another visible sign of the promise, God commands Abraham to…shall we say…nip it in the bud? To circumcise himself, his son Ishmael, every man in his family, every man that will ever be born to his family and every male employee whether they are brought in to work for the family or are born to the workers. To this, Abraham complies, but doesn’t say much.
• God reminds Abraham that his descendants will be many, but this time specifically confirms that this line, the covenant, will come through his wife Sarah. To this, Abraham laughed his butt off. He laughed so hard that scripture says he fell down—we’re talking knee-slappin’ hi-larity!
For you see, at this point, Abraham was 100 years old! His wife, Sarah, was 90 years old. It would take a miracle for them to have children. Fortunately, our God is in the miracle business. And a relevant truth is that we still see miracles today!
Once he finishes laughing, Abraham pleads for God to establish His covenant through Ishmael. But, God substantiates that Sarah will have a son and he will be named Isaac. God acknowledges Abraham’s love for his son, Ishmael and promises that Ishmael will be blessed. Both boys will bear a blessing, but Isaac alone will carry the covenant.
To point out that there is such a significant difference between bearing a blessing and carrying the covenant is important. Not just everyone gets a covenant with God. When God gives one, it’s to be taken seriously. This truth is still relevant today, for people living under the holy covenant of marriage. Marriage should be treated with the significance of God’s promise to Abraham regarding his son, Isaac. Yeah, that’s sort of a big deal.
Have you ever tried to bargain with God? God tells you what to do or what He’ll do, but you try get Him to change His mind or something with vague promises or bargaining. Well, you’re in good company—Abraham did the same thing.
Abraham doesn’t want God to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because that’s where his nephew lives. But, these cities are so evil that God has already made up His mind. Of course, because of the promise to Noah, we know that the destruction will be limited, not worldwide. And, we know that it won’t be another flood. But Abe has an idea that if he can find 50 righteous people in the city, God shouldn’t destroy—but he can’t find that many. 40? 30? 20? 10? I imagine that God is grinning at Abraham through this process, but decidedly God wins this debate and Abraham goes home. The nephew is rescued, but the cities are annihilated.
Keep in mind that throughout the story, Abraham is moving around a lot. During one of these moves, we meet a guy named Abimelech. Once again, Abraham does the “half-truth” thing and claims Sarah is his sister. Since Abimelech is a powerful king, he calls for Sarah to be his own. Sarah must have been some sort of looker, for at this point she is over 90 years old, but still considered to be desirable.
But in a dream, God warns Abimelech not to take Sarah as his own for she is already married. God also tell Bimmy that he’s going to die because of near Sarah-tasprophe. Bimmy thinks this is unfair because he didn’t do anything wrong. He was planning to take Sarah, but only because Abraham and Sarah lied. His integrity would have prevented this if he had only known the whole truth. God agrees and un-curses Abimelech’s household.
But, Bimmy goes off on The ‘Ham! “Why did you do this? Why? Why? Why? What did I ever do to you to deserve treatment like this?”
Abraham can only muster enough to say one word: fear. He’s scared of Abimelech’s godlessness. He’s afraid of the way that Abimelech will respond to him. He’s in a panic that God still hasn’t brought about the promised lineage. Fear is a great motivator to sin.
When we went through our recent series “beyond prison bars”, we were able to write down our fears, the imposed prison bars that are preventing us from accomplishing the mission of God. And I confess, we, as a congregation, sounded a lot like Abraham. We are scared of people’s godlessness. We’re afraid of how people will respond to us if we are the people God wants us to be. We’re in a panic because we can’t see past our own nose to know that God is there still leading us. We cannot allow fear to continue motivating us to sin.
Genesis 21:1-5 “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah exactly what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, despite their old age—at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When Isaac was 8 days old, Abraham circumcised him (in accordance with the covenant between himself and God). Abraham was 100 years old when his son was born.”
Amidst all this joy of miraculous new birth and promises fulfilled, you can still hear heartache. The birth of the promised child had to be a terrible burden for Hagar and Ishmael—their long-held hope to be the covenant carrier forever shattered. To them, the infant was but a painful reminder that they would not share the covenant. This stinks, because Hagar was only ever obedient to Abraham and Sarah; only ever obedient to God. Yet, she is the victim. Her son, her blessing, her future, though receiving promises and blessings of his own, will never bear any legitimacy nor heritage from Abraham.
And, I’m sure it was an agonizing time for Sarah to see a 14-year old Ishmael, the product of her poor choice to send Abraham to Hagar. As you can imagine, things come to a head and Hagar and Ishmael are abandoned to their own devices.
For a second time, Hagar left Abraham for the desert. She and her son wander in the desert, now ready to die from dehydration. But for a second time, God heard the cries and came to the rescue. He reminds them of the promised blessings on Ishmael, that he would father a great nation. But if you remember, part of that promise was that Ishmael would forever live in hostility towards his brothers.
Historically, we note that Ishmael’s lineage is Arabic and the subsequent faith of Islam. We know that Judaism comes from the promised lineage through Isaac. Still to this day, the Jews and the Muslims live in hostility. Their ideologies are absolutely incompatible. Just watch the evening news any given night and you’ll hear about the on-going conflicts in the Middle East—our very own US military are involved in this conflict. And all this is only because Abraham wouldn’t wait for God to deliver His own promise.
Please tell me you see the relevant truth in that. Obedience, integrity and now patience are the virtues, the qualities, the merits, the character traits we need to learn from Abraham. We need to learn them—those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. The only way to lose is to hear the Word of God and disregard it.
Genesis 23 sees the death of Sarah at 137 years old. In Genesis 25 Abraham has remarried and had more children. But we note that they are the same lineage as Isaac. Therefore they are blessed, but not under the covenant. Before his death, Abraham gives gifts to all his children, but leaves his entire inheritance to Isaac. Another relevant truth: invest in the plans of God. They will always succeed despite our human involvement.
Altogether, Abraham lived 175 years. Then, he breathed his last and died. He was gathered to his people buried next to his wife Sarah. Specifically mentioned that Ishmael and Isaac came together to bury their father.
The relevant truth for us is that when we have common ground in our father, our Heavenly Father, we can live in harmony with anyone—even with a “wild ass of a man” like Ishmael. So today, don’t pray for an end to the war; don’t pray for an end to the conflict—pray for the presence of God to manifest around the world! When the church owns up to it’s mission to win, build and send servants for Jesus Christ only then will we have peace in our world.