Heroes of the Bible: Abraham
Last week we finished the prophetic series of Revelation, and we start our new series by looking at the heroes of the Bible. Today we focus on Abraham, who was not only just a hero, but an ultimate example of faith, God’s explicit will in man. We will be focusing on a different hero each week till the new year and the only way to find out who those heroes are, is to continue to be apart of our Bible Class each week, but I promise you, you will learn quite alot.
The tainted lineage
We begin with the lineage of Abram, which can be found in Genesis 11:10-26, unfortunately we have a limited time, but since this is Bible Class it is prudent that we go through at least a few of the texts to give us some context.
““These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg: And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu: And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah: And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters. And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.””
Of course this is a lot of information to take in, but it does give us context into a lot of what we want to find out about the life of Abram and even insight into the spiritual life of his ancestors. For starters, a little fun fact (and of course you can use these verses to calculate this), Shem, outlived both his son and grandson and saw his great grandson live to be an adult when he died at 602 years old. Consequently, this puts Abram’s birth over 600 years after the flood (you can all calculate the rest if you wish). However, the really interesting bit, is that because of Shem’s long lifespan, he would have been a living testimony of the great flood and God’s saving grace for over two generations. However, Shem died a little over 200 years (maybe) before the birth of Abram and at this point, the testimony of God was slowly fading away in the hearts and minds of God’s people. Many of Shem’s lineage started to stray into idol worship. This is further purported in Patriarchs & Prophets chapter 11;
“After the dispersion from Babel idolatry again became well-nigh universal, and the Lord finally left the hardened transgressors to follow their evil ways, while He chose Abraham, of the line of Shem, and made him the keeper of His law for future generations. Abraham had grown up in the midst of superstition and heathenism. Even his father’s household, by whom the knowledge of God had been preserved, were yielding to the seductive influences surrounding them, and they “served other gods” than Jehovah.”
Abram
Now, God will not allow His word to ever be lost, so He had a plan and we find this plan in Genesis 12:1;
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:”
God commanded that His chosen remnant flee out of the home that he knew for roughly 75 years to go to a land that only God knew about. It was at this point that we started to see the first manifestations of what can be considered Abram’s “super powers” (because of course, all heroes need a to have some super ability)
Genesis 12:2-5;
“I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.”
Abram listened and obeyed God’s command and with that, he received a great promise, one that has affected and defined in part the modern Christians journey. The reach of this blessing has spread far and wide and now as important to us as it was to him on the day he received it.
In Patriarchs and Prophets, Chapter 11, Sis. White states:
“The message of God came to Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” In order that God might qualify him for his great work as the keeper of the sacred oracles, Abraham must be separated from the associations of his early life. The influence of kindred and friends would interfere with the training which the Lord purposed to give His servant.”
The true power that Abram had within him was obedience, however, unlike the heroes in today’s applications, the power he had did not reside within himself at birth. It was manifested within him because of his unyielding faith in God. This faith gave him protection when he went up against kings to retrieve Lot, the same faith also prompted him to return tithings unto The Lord for the spoils that were received, but it was a showing that made known that his victory was not of his own hands, but of God’s.
However strong the heroes are, they are because of God’s blessings, this, however, does not make the hero immune to challenges and tests. Abram had to be tested for his faith, and like any other ability, it must be tried and tested to become stronger. Abram’s obedience would be greatly tested by God.
Again in In Patriarchs and Prophets, Chapter 11, Sis. White continues:
Many are still tested as was Abraham. They do not hear the voice of God speaking directly from the heavens, but He calls them by the teachings of His word and the events of His providence. They may be required to abandon a career that promises wealth and honor, to leave congenial and profitable associations [127] and separate from kindred, to enter upon what appears to be only a path of self-denial, hardship, and sacrifice. God has a work for them to do; but a life of ease and the influence of friends and kindred would hinder the development of the very traits essential for its accomplishment.
If we look at Genesis 16:1-2, it also adds to this.
“Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.”
This simple text shows that no hero is infallible. Even this great patriarch of the scriptures, given the greatest blessing on earth, a nation from his loins, accredited with unyielding faith and total obedience slipped up. That is, however, not to state that we must find comfort in our faults, but the point is that no matter how close you think you are to Christ, you are not immune to the challenges and obstacles that sin will throw in your way. Jesus himself had to overcome the obstacles and He did. The difference here is that Abram took his eye off Jesus and yielded to the voice and concern of his wife. The moment we do this, is the moment we start to make decisions that hurt our chances of receiving the promise that God made to our forefathers. Sarai made the mistake of thinking she could fast track the plan of God and Abram made the mistake of thinking that he could act on the words of those who weren’t God, to yield Godly results.
But God is faithful and just and if we repent unto Him our sins He will forgive us. Living a life of obedience and faithfulness does not necessarily mean a life of harmony at every juncture, however, that life of Obedience sets the stage for developing a great Christlike character, which is what it did in Abram and because of this God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, the father of many nations. There comes a time when a hero needs to be reassured, that this tough journey he faces is for a purpose, and through God, Abraham knew his purpose and obeyed in order to fulfill it. Again, because of his faith and obedience, when the Lord decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, it was Abraham’s voice that led to the rescue of Lot from the judgment of God, he had enough love and respect from God, because of his faithfulness, to be able to plead on behalf of the city and subsequently allowed Lot to escape.
But while his pleading on behalf of his nephew was successful, Abraham had yet one last trial.
Abraham
““The Lord in His providence had brought this trial upon Abraham to teach him lessons of submission, patience, and faith—lessons that were to be placed on record for the benefit of all who should afterward be called to endure affliction. God leads His children by a way that they know not, but He does not forget or cast off those who put their trust in Him.”
….“God permits trials to assail His people, that by their constancy and obedience they themselves may be spiritually enriched, and that their example may be a source of strength to others.”
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Abraham’s greatest blessing was also his greatest trial. We read in Genesis 22:1-2;
“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
Of course the elephant in the room here would be the word tempt. What does it mean by God tempting Abraham? To answer let’s make things clear from scripture. James 1:13 says:
“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”
God does not tempt any man, in fact the original Hebrew word is translated as (insert it here) which means “to test”, but when translated to the KJV it is slated as “tempt”. So this is simply a word issue and not the inherent meaning. God was simply testing Abraham here. The test was for Abraham to offer up his begotten son Isaac as an offering/sacrifice, to which Abraham did, not because he wanted Isaac to die, but because He had faith that God knew what He was doing. It’s a heartbreaking account, but if you look at it a bit more objectively, then you’ll see that this is the same position God was in when He gave His only begotten Son, delivered up to man to be killed for the sins of humanity. He didnt want Jesus to die, but it was needed to keep His promise for redemption for His children. God was faithful, so too was Abraham and this faith created the greatest superpower available to man on earth. Obedience.
We close off with these text Genesis 22:10-12;
“And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”
Genesis 22:15-18;
And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
Abraham’s faith was accounted to him for righteousness, not his own, but Christ’s imputed righteousness. His obedience was critical for the development and rise of God’s great nation, a nation, through our faith and obedience, we will be by the covenant established between God and Abraham, apart of this nation. Abraham was one of the first foundation heroes in a long list of heroes found in scripture and his account sets the stage for the rest to follow.
To learn more about the Heroes of the Bible, join our Bible Class on zoom, every Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm. For links to the zoom meeting visit our social media pages below:
My next article will look at the topic “Heroes of the Bible: Moses”