ABRAHAM’S FAITH

We live in times of faithlessness and contradiction. On one hand, we see religion thriving and growing as never before, and on the other hand, are perplexed by the lack of godliness and the presence of aimlessness, evil, immorality, crime and violence even in the churches. These signs poignantly point to the fact that we are living in the last days of mankind’s sojourn on this earth, very close to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming for Judgement, which the Bible prophesises shall be similar to the days of Noah, and of Sodom and Gomorrah. There will be wars and rumours of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places, increase in knowledge and travel, and men will have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof, so that Jesus said, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” .

For this reason, we ought to look at the life and example of Abraham who stands in history as the man whose faith brought untold blessings to all nations, counted to him for righteousness, and reckoned him the father of all that believe and the friend of God. In doing so, we safeguard ourselves in case our profession turns out false, for it is those who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham that are his true children !
Believer and Sojourner
Terah and his sons, Haran, Nahor and Abram, lived some 4,000 years ago in prosperous but moon-worshipping and idolatrous Ur of Chaldee in the Mesopotamian valley. Terah was a man of faith and very old when God moved on his heart to leave Ur and bring his family into Canaan. He had his first son Haran at 70, and was over 130 and 140 years old respectively when Abram and Sarai were born. Nahor married Milcah, Haran’s daughter while Abram married Sarai, his half-sister.

Abram inherited his father’s faith and gratefully acknowledged the Almighty Creator of the Universe and Giver of all things good. He would have been grieved by the foolish idolatry of those who vainly exchanged God’s incorruptible glory for images of men, birds, four-footed animals and creeping things in the darkness of their imaginations. Haran died before his father, after which, the family departed from Ur, forsaking all its security and comforts. Probably because of Terah’s age, they did not quite reach Canaan but settled more than midway to there in the land of Haran, in northern Mesopotamia.

After Terah died, God called Abram to leave his inheritance at Haran and continue on into Canaan, giving him a 7-fold promise to make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, make him a blessing, bless those that bless him and curse those that curse him: and assuredly bless all the families of the earth in him. Abram at 75, departed in obedience, taking Sarai and their possessions and his nephew Lot, Haran’s son, and proceeded with God’s leading into a land previously unknown to them. A sojourner for the rest of his life, he sought only God’s approval and looked not for a city made with hands but for a heavenly.

Abram’s faith was not mere mental credence but obedience from the heart; his faith wrought with his works and by works, was made perfect! And as he obeyed, God blessed with more truths and drew him nearer to Himself, from faith to faith! Physically and emotionally, he was ordinary with fears and weaknesses and his faith cost him! They said a final goodbye to Nahor and Milcah who chose to stay on at Haran. We know that he did not forget his brother and in old age after Sarah’s death, sent by faith for a bride for Isaac from among Nahor’s descendants. And God had promised that everywhere he set foot on shall be his descendants’ (and so it was in the conquest by Joshua 470 years later), thus they journeyed from city to city to claim all Canaan by faith, facing trials and dangers `and famine in the process. But his enduring confidence in God saw them through !