Abraham6... The Father of Faith [Gen 12:1-9] / Paul's Bible Characters

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Abraham6... 

The Father of Faith 

[Gen 12:1-9]

 

/ Paul's Bible Characters 

 

/ By Paul

 

The Call of Abram

 

 

"The Lord had

said to Abram,

 

“Go from your country,

your people and your

father’s household to the land

I will show you.

 

“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you; I will make

your name great, and you

will be a blessing. 

 

 

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you

I will curse; and all peoples

on earth will be blessed

through you.”

 

 

So Abram went, as the Lord

had told him; and Lot went

with him.

 

 

Abram was seventy-five years old

when he set out from Harran.

 

 

He took his wife Sarai,

his nephew Lot,

 

 

all the possessions they had

accumulated and the people

 

they had acquired in Harran,

and they set out for the land

of Canaan, and they arrived there.

 

 

Abram traveled through the land

as far as the site of the great tree

of Moreh at Shechem.

 

 

At that time the Canaanites

were in the land.

 

 

The Lord appeared to Abram

and said, “To your offspring

I will give this land.”

 

 

So he built an altar there

to the Lord, who had

appeared to him.

 

 

 From there he went on toward

the hills east of Bethel and

pitched his tent, with Bethel

on the west and Ai on the east.

 

 

There he built an altar to the

Lord and called on the name

of the Lord.

 

 

Then Abram set out and

continued toward the Negev.’ 

 

 

1. Personal information 

 

 

Abraham was born

in Ur of the Chaldeans

(Mesopotamia region)

 

 

around 300 years a

fter the flood, with Noah's

12th generation.

 

 

His father was Terah,

who worshiped other gods. 

(Joshua 24:2)

 

 

Abraham’s name

in those days was 'Abram',

which means 'great father',

 

 

but God changed the name

to 'Abraham', which means

- 'Father of the nations’. 

 

When Abram was

ninety-nine years old, the

Lord appeared to Abram

and said to him,

                                                        

He married his half-sister,

Sarah, and had his legitimate son,

Isaac and many illegitimate

children. 

 

 

Until the age of 75,

he had no children, and lived

with his nephew Lot,

 

 

but after arriving in Canaan,

he came out of Egypt to

separate him. 

 

 

Then, at the age of 85,

Sarah's maidservant, Hagar

bore Ishmael to Abraham.

 

 

However, when Ishmael

was 17 years old, when he

persecuted Isaac, who

was 3 years old,

 

 

Abraham sent him and his

mother out. 

 

 

Abraham had taken another wife,

whose name was Keturah.

 

 

2. Major Life 

 

 

Ur of the Chaldeans, where

Abraham lived, was occupied

by the descendants of Ham,

and idolatry was prevalent.

 

 

In that area,

he lived with his parents

until the age of 75,

 

 

but left his hometown of

Ur of the Chaldeans,

due to God's call. 

 

 

At this time, he departed

with his father, Terah,

and his nephew Lot,

 

 

but his father, exhausted

from his aging body, stayed

in Haran on the way to Canaan,

 

 

and Abraham arrived in Canaan

with his nephew, Lot. 

 

 

However, when he arrived

in a land flowing with milk

and honey, a land where

his offspring would prosper

 

 

and his name would be

prosperous, there was a

  severe famine swept away. 

 

 

When his livestock and

servants died, Abraham

left this land, Canaan and

moved to Egypt. 

 

 

At this time, due to

Sarah's beauty, he was

deprived of his wife by the

Pharaoh king of Egypt.

 

 

Considering that she died

at the age of 127, at the age

of 65 Sarah must have

been a middle-aged

woman in beauty. 

 

 

Considering that Abraham

also died at the age of 175,

it can be seen that his age

 

 

of 75 was also the time

for him to be very active

in the middle of his life. 

 

 

However, soon after God's

intervention, the king sent

Sarah back to Abraham,

 

 

and the king let Abraham

return to the land of Canaan

with gold, silver and livestock. 

 

 

Ten years after he returned

from Egypt, at the advice of

his wife Sarah, who was

exhausted from waiting

for a child,

 

 

he was asked to take Hagar,

a maidservant of her at the time,

as a concubine, and finally

Hagar bore a son, Ishmael

to Abraham. 

 

        

     At that time, he was 85 years old,

and he was just relaxing in life.

However, when he was

99 years old,

 

 

God appeared again and

promised to give him a son, Isaac,

who was his legitimate son. 

 

 

Abraham first thought

of his nephew Lot as his

successor, but eventually

let him go,

 

 

then he thought

of -Eliezer' (Gen. 15:2), a

faithful manager at the time

as his successor,

 

 

but later when Ishmael

appeared in his lineage,

finally, he lived in peace and

satisfaction, considering the

son as his successor. 

(Gen 15:2)

 

 

However,

after waiting for 24 years,

God allowed Abraham's faith

to grow, and when he was

100 years old, 'Isaac' was born. 

 

 

And through Isaac, God

commanded Abraham to keep

two important signs of faith

and conduct. 

 

 

One thing is -'circumcision

ceremony'. (Gen17:10, 21:4)

 

 

and God made Abraham

give it to Isaac, his legitimate son,

and told him to offer his only

son Isaac as a burnt offering

 

 

so that he could have true

faith that follows obedience. 

(Gen 17:10)

 

 

This is my covenant with you

and your descendants after you,

the covenant you are to 

keep: Every male among you

shall be circumcised. 

(Gen 21:4)

 

 

When his son Isaac was

eight days old, Abraham

circumcised him, as God

commanded him. 

 

 

At that time, while he was

heading for Mount Moriah

for three days with a lot

of distress, he realized that

God was the Almighty.

 

 

That's because God gave

Isaac to him and his wife who

 were too old to have a baby. 

 

 

He came to have the faith

of resurrection that even

if Isaac died, he would bring

him back to life.

 

 

God, who saw his faith,

rejoiced in this and called

him “my friend.” 

 

(James 2:23)

 

 

And the scripture was

fulfilled that says,

 

 

“Abraham believed God,

and it was credited to 

him as righteousness,”

 

 

and he was called God’s friend. 

He established Abraham

as the “father of the faith.” 

(Rom 4:11)

 

 

And he received circumcision

as a sign, a seal of the righteousness

that he had by faith while he was

still uncircumcised.

 

 

So then, he is the father of all

who believe but have not been

circumcised, in order that

righteousness might be

credited to them. 

 

             

Later, his beloved wife,

Sarah died when Abraham

was 137 years old, and

she was buried in Hebron,

and he felt lonely.

 

 

At the age of 140, he was

comforted by marrying

Isaac to Rebekah

(a daughter of Buduel). 

 

 

After that, Abraham

took another wife, whose name

was Keturah (meaning fragrance).

 

 

And she bore six sons to him,

and his six sons became

the ancestors of the Aram

people at that time. 

 

 

Abraham walked with God

for 75 years after the birth

of his son Isaac and for 38 years

after his wife Sarah died,

 

 

and he died at the age

of 175 and was buried

next to his wife Sarah,

  a burial site in Hebron. 

 

 

3. Abraham's three religious trials

until he had become the

ancestor of faith. 

 

 

There are three people to

reveal origins of human

ancestors through Genesis. 

 

 

[1] We can find the first ancestor

at the period from the creation

of the heavens and the earth

to the time of Noah,

 

 

and Adam was established

as the ancestor of humanity. 

 

 

[2] We can find the second

ancestor at the period from

the time of Noah to Abraham,

 

 

and Noah was established

as the ancestor of the world. 

 

 

[3] We can find the third

ancestor at the period from

Abraham to Moses,

 

 

and Abraham was established

as the 'father of faith'. 

 

 

Therefore, the three great

ancestors of humans were Adam,

Noah, and Abraham, and God

Himself guided them.

 

 

Adam and Noah's descendants

were destroyed after all.

That was because they sinned. 

 

 

So in order to

obtain God's children

He established Abraham, the

ancestor of faith, and opened

 

 

the way to salvation with the

descendants of Abraham. 

 

 

Abraham had to undergo

special training in order to

become the ancestor of faith,

 

 

and the training can be divided

into three main categories. 

 

 

1) Training of obedience 

(Gen 12:1)

 

Proper obedience means

the deeds of relying on and

following only the Word

without any intervention

other than God. 

 

 

There were two people

accompanying Abraham: his father,

Terah and his nephew Lot, but

their obedience was different. 

 

 

Abraham's father, Terah,

was a person who relied on

the environment, looking to

only God's blessings that

 

 

God would make His

people prosperous. 

 

 

Lot was the person who

relied his uncle Abraham,

and he needed someone

 to depend on like his parents. 

 

 

[1] The one who has faith

that is affected by the

environment has a beginning,

but doesn't have an end.

 

 

That's because the environment

is changeable according to

the situation. 

 

 

[2] The one who relies on a person

is ultimately only for achieving

his or her purpose.

 

 

So this is also changeable

according to the situation. 

 

 

[3] However, the one who

has faith in the Word depends

on the promises of the Word

and is guided through his life.

 

 

That is because the Word

is a promise and a fulfillment. 

The Word that demands

 

 

obedience must be accompanied

by a promise, and that promise

will lead us to the object of

pursuit beyond both people 

and circumstances. 

 

 

In other words, the form

of obedience appears as

semi-obedience, partial

obedience,

 

 

and complete obedience,

depending on how much we

will depend on the Word. 

 

 

2) Training of patience 

(Gen 17:1)

 

The purpose of patience

training is to achieve the

perfection of faith. 

 

 

Through that training,

we will learn to live a life

based only on the Word by

throwing away our egos

and will. 

 

 

Abraham waited for

24 years to get children,

and eventually,

 

 

Abraham and Sarah

became elderly people

who was not able to

produce children. 

 

 

They gave up producing

their children, and that was

because there was no

expectation for it. 

(Gen 17:17)

 

 

Expectation is a representative

will of faith that only works within

the limits of reason.

 

 

It is built on reason, knowledge,

rational science, experience,

and common sense. 

 

 

In other words, waiting for

something you want with

a possibility in it is an expectation,

 

 

whereas patience is to wait for

something you want with

the faith in the Word,

 

 

so even if the possibility

disappears, you can wait

without being disappointed.

 

 

That is the beginning of

true patience. 

 

        

After his expectations turned

into faith, enduring for a year,

at last he was able to

receive an answer

to get Isaac. 

 

 

You can become a perfect

person only when you have

the faith to change the

patience in your expectations

into the patience in the Word. 

 

 

3) Training of determination 

(Gen 22:12)

 

Abandonment is a language

used when giving up something

higher than the limit of our

circumstances,

 

 

while a decision

is a language used when

choosing an important thing

within an allowed range. 

 

 

God wanted Abraham

to become a person to make

a decision by faith from a person

to have a heart of choice

and giving up. 

 

 

The choice is to keep

the status quo but to decide to

get a better one, and a decision

means to give up one regardless

of profit or loss for something

important. 

 

 

God let Abraham have

the opportunity to make

three decisions. 

 

 

[1] Decision to leave his

hometown and relatives

 

 

- A life to abandon the world.

(decision in the first step) 

 

 

[2] Decision to leave

Hagar and Ishmael

 

 

- A life to abandon his desires.

(decision in the second step) 

 

 

[3] Decision to give up his

only son, Isaac

 

 

- A life to abandon ego and will.

(decision in the third step) 

 

 

Why does God ask us to decide

to follow the Word alone?

 

 

That's because there is much

greater to be entrusted for us.

 

 

In other words, it is to give things

that can be accomplished by

God's power rather than

by our ability. 

 

 

When Moses gave up the

throne of Egypt, God entrusted

him with the position

of leader in Israel.

 

 

And when Joseph gave up

the patriarch's inheritance,

God made him the prime

minister of Egypt 

 

 

When we, like Abraham,

follow the example by the choice

of faith rather than our own choice,

 

 

God will personally guide us

like Abraham, the father of faith,

to entrust this earth to us,

who are descendants

of faith today.

 

 

Amen! 

 

 

/ EPHPHATHA Bible Study 

 

 

    

Amen

 

 

- To Be Continue - 

 

 

2023/02/

 

/ By Paul