Lesson 3
The Chosen Nation
The Time of the Patriarchs
II.
Abraham
As in the
days of Noah, God looked upon the earth and found a man with whom He could make
a covenant. This man had come from Ur of the Chaldees, with his father, Terah.
The man's name was Abram. The Lord told Abram to leave his country, his
kindred, and his father's house, to journey to a land that God would show him.
The Lord promised, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless
thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing: And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:2-3).
Abram obeyed
the Lord and left his home, (Haran) when he was seventy-five years old. He took
his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and they traveled to the land of Canaan.
When the
Lord called Abram, he had no children. Part of the promise included making of
Abram a great nation. That this was subsequently fulfilled is seen in
Deuteronomy 4:6; I Kings 3:8-9; and Joshua 21:43-45.
A. The
Arab Nations
The days
passed, however, without there being any physical sign of God keeping His promise.
Finally, as human beings often do, Abram and Sarai decided to take matters into
their own hands. Sarai, who had an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar, said unto
Abram, "Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee,
go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her" (Genesis
16:2). Abram acted on his wife's counsel, and Ishmael was born of this union. By trying to "help God out"
because they could see no visible sign of His promise coming to pass, Abram and
Sarai brought many sorrows to their family and the world. The Arab nations
sprang from Ishmael.
B.
God's Covenant with Abraham
When Abram
was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him, and said, "I am the
Almighty God;
walk before me, and be thou
perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply
thee exceedingly" (Genesis 17:1-2). As Abram fell on his face before God,
the Lord continued to talk with him. God renewed His promise to make him the
father of many nations, and changed his name to Abraham. Abram means, High
Father. Abraham means, Father of the Faithful.) He also changed Sarai's name to
Sarah. (Sarai means princess. Sarah means my princess.) Then, God gave a token
of His covenant. He said, "This is my covenant, which ye shall keep,
between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be
circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall
be a token betwixt me and you" (Genesis 17:10-11). Abraham took his son Ishmael, with all the
male members of his his household, and they were all circumcised the same day
in obedience to God's Word.
C.
Separation
Strife
developed between the herdmen of Abraham's cattle and those of Lot. The problem
was that both Abraham and Lot were very rich, with many flocks, herds, and
tents, and the land simply was not able to bear them. Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy
herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate
thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go
to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the
left" (Genesis 13:8-9).
1.
Lot's Choice
Abraham
was very gracious in allowing his nephew to make the first choice. Lot observed
the well watered plain of Jordan, and chose that for himself. He then journeyed
east, separating himself from Abraham, and pitching his tent in the direction
of Sodom. This proved to be a mistake for Lot, for the men of Sodom were wicked
and terrible sinners in the Lord's eyes (Genesis 13:13). It is always dangerous
to go in the direction of sin.
2.
Judgment Against Sin
God had
observed the mounting wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham's nephew,
Lot, lived with his family. The Lord appeared to Abraham and informed him that
the cities would be destroyed. Abraham, knowing that his relatives lived in the
doomed city of Sodom, sought the Lord to spare the city. He agreed to do that,
if only ten righteous people could be found. But, sadly, Sodom and Gomorrah
were so wicked that not even ten righteous people could be located (Genesis
18).
3.
Angels of Mercy
The angels
visited Lot and forcibly removed rrim, his wife and two unmarried daughters
from the city. God sent angels of mercy to Sodom that day. The prayers of
Abraham did not save the cities, but they did save Lot. Lot was blessed to have
an uncle who stayed close to the Lord. The Lord sent the angels of mercy.
Lot'sgrievouserror in moving into this wicked city took its toll. He had to
leave behind daughters who had married men of Sodom. His wife (in disobedience
to the angel's commands) looked back as they were fleeing, and turned into a
pillar of salt. However, Lot and his two unmarried daughters fled for their
lives. Because of the great wickedness of these
cities, God destroyed them with fire and brimstone. Today, they have been wiped
off the face of the earth. Some Bible students believe the destruction of these
cities may have been the event that brought about the formation of the Dead
Sea. The judgment of God upon Sodom and
Gomorrah stands forever as a solemn warning to any who would violate God's
Word.
"And
turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an
overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live
ungodly" (II Peter 2:6). "The
teachings of Christ are not unlike a river that flows for a long time smoothly
and noiselessly between its banks, and then suddenly takes the tremendous
plunge of the cataract. In the utterance of Jesus about the coming of His
Kingdom we have the cataract note of His preaching. The same lips which
pronounced the Beautitudes and spake the quiet parables of growth and
development, tell of the coming of His
Kingdom and the great and terrible day of the Lord." Judgment is coming!
It is time to prepare!
D.
Isaac the Promised Son
At last,
in God's time, Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son. Abraham named the child
Isaac, and circumcised him when he was eight days old. Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. God had
kept His promise, but He was not yet finished trying Abraham's faith.
1.
Abraham's Faith Tested
God said
to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and
get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Genesis 22:2).What
thoughts must have gone through Abraham's mind! God had promised him a son. The
promise had taken many years to be fulfilled, and now God commanded him to
sacrifice that son! However, Abraham was a man of great faith in God. He knew
that Isaac was the promised son that God had given him. He believed that
through Isaac, God would raise up countless offspring as He had promised. He
knew that, even if he offered Isaac to God, God was able to raise him up from
the dead in order to keep His Word.
As Hebrews
11:17-19 says, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and
he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Of whom it
was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able
to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure."
2.
Abraham's Obedience
"And
Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his
young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt
offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him"
(Genesis 22:3). On the third day of their journey, Abraham saw in the distance
the mountain upon which God had commanded that he offer Isaac. He told the
servants to stay behind while he and Isaac went to worship. Abraham's faith is clear in the statement
that he made to his servants: "I and the lad will go yonder and worship,
and come again to you" (Genesis 22:5). He believed that God had a divine
purpose in the task that he had been asked to perform.
3.
Abraham's Continuing Faith
As Abraham
and Isaac traveled toward their destination, Isaac noticed that they had
everything but the sacrifice. He asked, "Behold the fire and the wood: but
where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham responded with statement
of eternal significance: "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering" (Genesis 22:7-8). Notice that Abraham said, "God will provide Himself a lamb." After they had prepared the
altar, Abraham bound his son and placed him on the altar. Then, Abraham
stretched forth his hand with the knife to slay his son. At that moment, the
angel of the Lord called, "Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here
am I," he answered.
"Lay not thine hand upon the
lad," said the angel, "neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son from me" (Genesis 22:12). Abraham's faith had been tested by that which was dear to him, and
he came through the trial victoriously. After Abraham heard the voice of the angel, he turned and saw a
ram caught by its horns in the thicket nearby. God had provided a sacrifice.
Abraham's statement was prophetic in that many years later Jesus Christ (God
manifest in the flesh) (I Timothy 3:16) came as the lamb of God, to take away
the sin of the world (John 1:29). What a marvelous thing is faith! In the history of our country men traveled by horseback and had to
cross rivers swollen by the rains. They say that if they looked at the swirling
waters around them, they would become dizzy and possibly fall from the saddle
and be swept away. But if they fixed their eye upon the other bank, a tree, a
large rock or a hillside, they would rise safely through. Remember that in the storms of life, faith
is the balance which gives calm and victory. It is important to fix our eyes,
not upon the shifting scene around us, but upon the solid Rock, Jesus Christ.