Weakness, Perseverance and Posterity

Abraham was ordinary except for his faith. He was not perfect but it is too easy to over-estimate his weaknesses if we do not consider the context in which he daily faced trials. Abraham was called to be a sojourner in a land, whose wickedness was so great that God had decreed to destroy its inhabitants and to give the land to his descendants half a millennium later when the sins of the Amorites were complete. Moreover, he was told to walk all over the land to claim every part by faith for his descendants. From city to city where they travelled, he requested Sarah to say that she was his sister, lest the people there were godless enough to kill him for her, for she had exceptional beauty. Once, under Pharaoh in Egypt where they sought refuge during a famine, and again under Abimelech in Gerar of the Philistines, this tactic proved a useful preventive. Both Pharaoh and Abimelech in turn took Sarah and when chastised by God, pointed at Abraham in turn who was only being wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.

Abraham’s faith knew no anti-climax or turning back. When very old, after God had blessed him with all things, he forgot not God’s Covenant extending to his Seed and sent his eldest servant to Haran to take a wife for Isaac, seeing that the Canaanites were under God’s judgement. One cannot read this account without being touched by God’s goodness in leading this faithful servant straight to Rebecca and completely answering his prayer outside Nahor’s city, even as he was still praying! Abraham lived to see Jacob born. Isaac and Jacob in their turn took Abraham’s God as their God. Jacob’s descendants sojourned in Egypt until God raised Moses to lead them out, accompanied with mighty acts of wonders, “for God remembered His holy promises and Abraham his servant.” 14 generations from Abraham, God raised up King David, a man after God’s heart! 28 generations later, Jesus Christ was born.

It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid and the other by a free-woman. Human weakness made Abram yield to Sarai’s insistence to have Hagar bear them a child. In their days, powerful men and kings were allowed to have more than one wife, and this was not considered adultery so long as the wives were not another man’s , but it is not so today with progressive revelation of God’s perfect will for one man to have one wife. As a result, Ishmael was born, who became the father of 12 princes and Arab states that till today are still enemies of the descendants of Isaac, the child of promise. After Sarah’s death, Abraham married Keturah, whose descendants and those of his concubines were also sent to the East, adding to the Arab nations. This would be difficult to understand except that God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations was to have physical fulfilment. But as for the multitude of children by the free-woman, we all are who follow in Abraham’s footsteps and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory!
Is Our Faith Right?
Dear friends, are we sojourners in the steps of faith in which Abraham walked, leaving behind Ur’s worldliness, idolatry and ecumenical compromise to be separate and holy unto the Lord? Biblical faith is not visions and positive visualising commonly found in today’s religious circles, that do not result in godly living but only stimulate base senses and serve no spiritual value . Rather faith is simple and sincere and starts with a grateful, seeking heart that will respond in obedience to God’s revealed truth and will. And that is all there is to it, as Abraham’s life and faith shows!

Today the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every believer, for therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. If we in faith obey Jesus’ commands, we too shall be accounted His friends. Trials and tribulations that may come shall only serve to perfect our faith for we shall have sanctified the Lord God in our hearts as our blessed hope ! O may we yearn to enter into that experience of fellowship that Abraham found with God!

Friend of God

When Isaac was a lad, God put Abraham’s faith to its severest possible test. He was to journey to the land of Moriah and offer up Isaac, “thine only son, whom thou lovest” as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that God will show him. The Bible kept silent what happened that night, when perhaps the darkness accentuated the twinkle of the stars, reminding Abraham of God’s promise of numberless descendants through Isaac. What secret solace had he when his soul was pierced as when the Lord of Glory cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” But Abraham “rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men and Isaac his son and clave the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went into the place which God had told him”. On the third day, he lifted up his eye and saw the place afar off, and left behind the two servants and proceeded with only Isaac. His faith resolutely marched on, in the victorious blessedness of holding all for the Giver! And throughout the 3 days journey, he must have tasted what it was like for the Father to agonize until Jesus rose from the grave! If he showed nothing to Isaac, inside cried, “Trouble is near; there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” But heart and mind struggling blended into God’s will – this sacrifice is to bless all mankind!

Isaac asked, “My father: Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. We know that later, when Abraham was about to slay Isaac, God, satisfied with Abraham’s complete devotional obedience, intervened from heaven and provided in Isaac’s place a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Thus Abraham called the place of sacrifice, Jehovah-Jireh (“the Lord will provide” or “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen”). Are we constantly looking to God as our Provider?

Abraham’s motive in offering Isaac contrasted sharply with that of the pagan Canaanites who offered up their children to idols, or of wicked King Manasseh who made his son pass through fire, bringing down God’s judgement! He did not callously exchange his child’s welfare in superstitious fear and selfish greed without hope, but in faith “accounted that God was able to raise Isaac up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.” And later, as he worshipfully placed the ram on the altar, he foreshadowed the day when his Promised Seed, Jesus Christ, God’s Son would die on the cross for lost humanity. God was well pleased. “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 in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

God’s testing of Abraham was amazingly humbling – to think that Almighty God could in such great condescension allow a man to experience His deepest emotion point at history’s most crucial hour when Jesus Christ was offered in love as our Passover Lamb! And Abraham’s passing the test with his faith soaring to eagle’s height was incredible too! In this, he uniquely entered into and shared God’s heart like no other could. There is no mistaking the common points. Jerusalem, the city of David, outside whose gates Jesus was crucified, was in the land of Moriah. Solomon’s Temple, holiest place of the Jews, where annual blood offerings were made for the nation prefiguring the blood of the Lamb of God, is built on the very Mount Moriah where Isaac was offered! Abraham also shared 3 days of agony during his journey, resolving to sacrifice his only begotten son! And finally, God’s Son dying on Calvary’s cross was his promised Seed, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham! Thus fittingly and comprehensively, Abraham is God’s friend.

Hope Against Hope

In Canaan, God blessed Abram and Lot adding to their servants and flocks until their combined substance became too great for them to dwell together so that they had to separate. Lot chose to journey east towards Sodom, after which God promised Abram and his seed all the land that he could see, north, south, east and westward forever. More years and events passed which included the invasion by King Chedorlamoer of Elam with his allies, of Sodom, Gomorrah and their allies, wherein all including Lot and his possessions were taken as spoils. Abram had then armed his 318 trained servants and with the help of 3 friends, pursued after and defeated 4 powerful kings and brought back all the captives and goods. After this `breathtaking feat, he declined the king of Sodom’s offer to keep the goods. Mechizedek, king of Salem and high priest of God then blessed Abram and received tithes from him. Abram’s extraordinary courage and valour were energised by pure, unfeigned faith for truly he belonged to the Most High God who had delivered his enemies into his hand! In later years, his brave intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah, though insufficient to stay God’s judgement of brimstone and fire called for by heinous sins, won reprieve for Lot and his daughters.

Abram’s wait for his promised son was to be a long one in the patience of faith. To encourage him, God visited in a vision, “Fear not Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward”. He was getting old but Sarai’s passing years mattered more and each year as she got older, his faith had to increase! Rom4:18-22 describes it thus: “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And not being weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” Abram therefore obtained righteousness through faith before Isaac was born! But Sarai could not wait and brought to Abram her maid, Hagar, resulting in the birth of Ishmael. God blessed this child nevertheless because he was Abram’s child, though not the promised child that was to be through Sarai.

Abram’s faith was not misplaced or self-seeking. He did not insist on his way but was willing to have Eliezer his steward or Ishmael made his heir, if this was God’s will. But 13 seemingly long years after Ishmael’s birth, God finally visited, re-affirmed that Abram would be father of many nations, gave him circumcision as a seal of his righteousness and changed their names to Abraham and Sarah (father and mother of nations). The following year, Sarai at 90 bore a child, called Isaac because she laughed and he brought laughter into their lives, and Abraham saw the first fruit of God’s marvellous promises.

If our faith is weak and needs to be increased, may we learn from Abraham and look to the living and true God alone! He created the universe and is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we dare think or ask! Abraham’s faith was childlike, as from a servant’s heart marked by patience even in unanswered prayer. The secret to more faith then is servant-hood and Abram’s long wait was timed in God’s wisdom to perfect him.

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 !