This portion of the Bible is alongside the story of Adam and Eve and the fall as one of the most referenced Old Testament story of the Bible. It tells the story of the origin of the nation of Israel, demonstrates the foundation of being right with God, emphasizes the utter trustworthiness of God in even the most seemingly impossible situations, and illustrates just about every facet of what it means to be faithful.
Abraham’s original name was Abram. He lived in a region called Chaldea, now southern Iraq. He was a pagan like his family, he was elderly (75 years old), married to an elderly woman (74 years old), and childless. But the one true God came to him and said,
“Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
Here was a promise that would take quite a leap of faith; remember that he and his wife were beyond the age of having children, notice that God doesn’t say where they would be going, and lastly notice that he was being promise a land and nation. But the encounter with God was convincing, and Abram picked up and moved with Sarai (his wife), Lot (his nephew), and Lot’s family.
God led them to Canaan, modern day Israel, also inhabited by pagans. God blessed Abram and Lot with so much prosperity in Canaan, that they actually had to part ways to be able to feed their grazing animals. Lot went east, toward the Jordan River Valley and the prosperous trading cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
But 25 years passed without a child being born to Abram. How was the great nation coming from Abram, which God promised, going to happen without a child? Abram proposed that God accept an adoption as Abram’s legitimate heir, but God told Abram, “No, the child will be from Abram’s body.” Sarai tried surrogate motherhood through one of her servants, Hagar. This child would be from Abram’s body, but although God blessed the child (Ishmael) that came from this “solution”, He emphasized that the child of promise would be from Sarai’s body (in its late 80’s at the time).
Within the 25 years of waiting, however, there was a great deal that occurred. These real-life stories are recorded for us between Genesis 12 and Genesis 22. I’ll summarize the stories, but nothing beats the actual text itself.
Abram’s faith temporarily fails
While Abram is considered a man of great faith, he also had his failings. Despite Sarai’s age, she was still quite beautiful, and Abram feared that—in a world where a king could do whatever he wanted, and take whatever or whoever he wanted—Sarai’s beauty might get him killed. He demanded that Sarai present herself as Abram’s sister rather than his wife. When kings (Abimelech and Pharaoh) did attempt to take Sarai into their harems, God protected her and Abram. Why didn’t Abram believe that God would protect him? Lapse of faith. Why do we?
Battle of the Kings
War was often (and still is today) fought as a means to get rich quick. Kings from the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent came as far as Canaan and conquered and looted the richer cities also captivating the people of those cities for sale as slaves—including Sodom and Gomorrah. Among the captives was Lot and his family. This motivated Abram to gather his household servants capable of war, 318, and pursued the kings. There are two interesting things here— 1) Abram was clearly quite wealthy, able to marshal over 300 trained men out of his own household and 2) Abram had a lot of faith in God to attack 5 kings and their armies with 318 men.
Despite their inferior numbers, Abram did defeat the kings of the east, recovering not only all the captives, but also all the material wealth that they had looted from Sodom, Gomorrah, and other cities of the region! When Abram returned with all these recovered things, he was met by Melchizedek, the king of Salem (which later became Jerusalem) and also a priest of God. Abram returned both the people and looted things.
Covenant with God
God had already promised Abram the nation and the land, but to help Abram’s faith, God entered into covenant with him. What is a covenant? It’s a promise, but more than a promise. It is the making of family (e.g., marriage is called a covenant), like “blood brothers”. Why would God (or others) want to do such a thing? We all recognize the priority of family loyalty and truthfulness. To ensure the faithfulness a promise, people would often enter into covenant with each other. Entering into covenant was a very solemn affair, often in the ancient world including a ritual in which sacrificial animal were cut in half and the two covenant makers walking through the two halves of the animals—as if to say, “If I fail in my promises and loyalty, may what has happened to these animals happen to me, too.”
Abram and circumcision
In Abram’s 99th year God came to him and established the covenant of circumcision with him. Today circumcision is largely about hygiene and tradition, but circumcision was actually supposed to be a physical mark on the body as a reminder that Abram and his family were in covenant with God. At the same time God changed Abram’s name to Abraham—”exalted father” to “father of a multitude”. Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah (meaning “princess”).
Sodom and Gomorrah
Shortly after this God came to visit Abraham in the form of three men (the theological word is “theophany”). God promised to Abraham that by that time next year he would have the son that God had promised. Sarah overheard and laughed at the prospect since she was in her 90’s. But during this visit God also revealed to Abraham that because of Sodom and Gomorrah’s great wickedness, they were going to be destroyed. Abraham is shocked and actually bargains with God, “If 50 righteous men can be found, would you destroy them?” God answered no. And Abraham bargains God all they way down to 10. However, not even 10 righteous men could be found and God destroyed these cities in a terrible conflagration of fire and brimstone in punishment. An interesting angle of this story is that even when some of the citizens of Sodom were told of the impending destruction, they laughed and thought it a joke—but it was not. Today some laugh at God’s promise of judgment, too.
There’s much more to this great story—it gets blended into the story of Isaac—but Abraham’s great faith challenges our ideas of what faith is, doesn’t it? Faith here isn’t the weak opinion that it often is thought to be in modern times. It includes waiting, obeying, and relying on God to keep His promises among many other things. How does your faith stack up against Abraham’s?