Abraham Genesis 12-24

Abraham was born and raised in Ur. Ur was one of the most advanced cities of the time. He was called by God to leave his father’s house, family, and everything behind to travel to a land which God would show him.

God promised Abram that he would make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, make him a blessing, bless all who bless him, curse those who curse him, and bless all families through him.

 Abraham did as God instructed. He took with him his wife Sari, his nephew Lot, and all they had.  He arrived in the land of Canaan. It was there that God told Abram, “Unto thy seed I will give this land.”

Abram built an alter there and another in Bethel.

Shortly after arriving, Abram found himself in the middle of a famine. He left Canaan and went to Egypt with his family. Prior to arriving in Egypt, he was concerned that Pharaoh would find Sari, his wife, attractive and kill him to have her. In order to save his own life, he gets Sari to agree to go along with a lie to Pharaoh and say she is his sister. Pharaoh decided to take Sari as his wife. He was then plagued greatly. When Pharaoh learned of Abrams deception, he asked him why he lied and told him to take his wife and go. Abram returned to where he belonged.

After some time, Abram and Lot’s servants began arguing over grazing rights and land. Not wanting strife between he and Lot, Abram offered to let Lot choose his land. Lot chose the land near Sodom where we are told the men were exceedingly wicked.

God spoke again to Abram and reinforced his promise by telling Abram his the blessing of his seed would be as limitless as the sands of the earth and stars in the sky.

A war then breaks out between several kings during which Lot and his family is taken captive. Abram learns of this and prepares an army to rescue them. In a surprise attack, he defeats the army and frees Lot and his family. The king of Sodom offers to share the goods gained in the fight. Abram gives glory to God for the victory and refuses to share the property so the king would not be able to say that he had made Abram rich.

Abram spoke with God and said that he had promised him an heir but he still did not have a son. God told him, “fear not,” and assured him that he would have an heir. He also told him that his heirs would be strangers in a land for 400 years and then be returned to Canaan and the nation that held them (Egypt) would be judged. God had Abram provide a sacrifice of several animals as a covenant with him that he would do as he promised.

Despite God’s promise to Abram, he and Sari became impatient with having an heir. Sari convinced Abram to conceive a child with her maidservant Hagar. Hagar became arrogant and difficulty and jealousy developed between her and Sari. As a result Sari sent her away from Abrams house. Because of this sin, Abram fell out of fellowship with God for an extended period of time. God then came again to Abram and reaffirmed his promise to bless his seed. He commanded Abram to change his name to Abraham and Sari to change her name to Sarah. God, through two angels, again promised Abraham an heir. Sarah, considering her age, laughed at this, to which God asked, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”  The angels had to quickly depart for a special mission in Sodom.

At this time, God reveled to Abraham that he planned to destroy Sodom. Abraham plead with God asking him to spare the city. He bargained with him saying, if there were 50 go people would the city be spared, then kept whittling down the number to 10. It turned out that only Lot, his wife, and their two daughters were to be spared.

The angel found Lot at the gates of the city and told him of the impending destruction and that he needed to gather up his family and leave. Lot was reluctant to go. Upon returning to Lot’s house, they raised the attention of the men of the city. Several of them began pounding on the door demanding the men come out so they could have relations with them. Lot, wanting to protect to angels, unbelievably offers up his two daughters instead to the wicked and perverse men. As the men began trying to pound the door down, the angels struck them blind. The angels ended up literally dragging lot and his family from the city, telling them to head for the mountains. In the journey, Lot’s wife looks back at the city and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot passed Zoar and took refuge in a cave. While abiding in the cave, Lot’s daughters began to discuss between themselves that they may never marry or be able to have children. They devised a plan to get their father drunk and then sleep with him so they could conceive and not miss out on the opportunity to raise a child. They both had children, Moab and Men-ammi.

Abraham again lied about who Sarah was, saying she was his sister when he went to see Abimelech fearing he would think she was beautiful and kill him to get her. Abimelech decided to make Sarah his wife but God told him in a dream not to touch her because she was Abraham’s wife. Abimelech rebuked Abraham for lying to him and almost causing him to sin. Abraham prayed that God would bless Abimelech.

Issac was born as promised by God. His name means “laughter” as Sarah laughed when she heard God had promised a son at her age, being in her 90’s. Hagar mocked the celebration of Issac being weaned and she and Ishmael were again sent away from Abraham’s house. After Issac was born, when he was a young man, God commanded Abraham to take Issac into the mountain and offer him as a burnt offering. He did as God commanded. As he traveled with Issac and some other men, Issac pointed out that they had wood and fire for the sacrifice but no lamb. Abraham told him that God would provide himself a lamb. As they left the men, to go together into the mountain, Abraham told the other men, they would both return. Upon arriving and building the alter, Abraham told Issac that he was to be the offering. He bound him and prepared to kill him. As he raised his knife, God stopped him and showed him a lamb in the thicket. Abraham had passed one of the biggest recorded tests of faith.

Abraham then returned home where he learned his brother had married and become greatly blessed in Haran.

Sarah died at 127 years old and Abraham buried her in a cave he had purchased.

Abraham then sent his servant to find a wife for Issac. The servant does as instructed after trying to bargain to take Issac with him. He asks for a specific sign for finding the right woman. Before he finished speaking asking for the sign,  it happened and he met Rebekah. He took Rebeckah back and she became Issac’s wife. She had twin son’s Esau and Jacob.

Abraham married a woman named Keturah who bore him 6 sons.

Lessons from Abraham:

Abraham is often referred to as “The Father of Faith.” Because of his faith, God chose him to bless nations through. Several lessons can be learned through Abraham. Below are a few selected lessons I gleaned from reading about Abraham in Genesis.

1.       Nobody’s perfect: God chose Abraham to be the one through whom he blesses his chosen people. However, Abraham makes many mistakes that show a lack of faith. He delay’s in going to the land God promised him. Once he is there, he worries about not having enough food so he goes to Egypt. He worries for his life, and lies about who is wife it twice. He decides to “help” God by creating his own plan to have a son etc. But he still has moments of powerful faith and remains in God’s favor and grace and is forgiven.

2.       When God puts you somewhere, stay put:  Abraham was led to the land God promised him and was given all of it. However, when a famine came, he headed for Egypt. Heading there led to his sin of lying and risking losing his wife. He also caused trouble for Pharaoh, which led to him being rebuked and sent away. If Got sends us somewhere, we need to trust him to provide for us and stay put. Abraham had a weak moment and lacked this trust. Trouble soon followed. Abraham made this mistake twice fearing for himself. Sometimes all of God’s people are slow learners.

3.       Trust God to provide and don’t try to “do for God,” what he has promised to do for you: Abraham became impatient and decided to “help” God fulfill his promise of a son by seeking a son outside his marriage by conceiving a child with Hagar. This caused many problems within his home and throughout history in Israel. We need to trust God’s timing and not get ourselves into such a big hurry.

4.     Faith is evident to others Abraham was put to a big test in being told to offer his son as a sacrifice. The fact that he did this without questioning Got is a testament to his strong faith. Further, that fact that the Bible makes no mention of his son questioning the fact that God told Abraham to do this speaks to the faith he demonstrated to his family. Not many sons would trust their fathers when they were told this news unless they saw repeatedly God’s commands followed through faith and the positive results of that faith.

One difficulty I had in reading about Abraham was some statements in Willmington’s Guide to the Bible where it states that Abram went to Haran with his father prior to following God’s command. The commentary gives no specific biblical reference to this and as I read, I do not see this in the chronology. I would like to hear from someone who could better explain the timeline to me showing this or provide biblical references to support this. It has been puzzling me for days.