Bible Overview #2
Abraham
As we get into part two of the Bible overview, continue to ask the same questions: Who is God? What is His character and nature? How do you see God’s relationship with us as humans? What do you think our relationship with Him could or should look like, based on what this story shares? Keep these in mind as you read.
Last week we talked about Creation. We looked at how God thought of you and His plan of redemption before He even began, and then He spoke creation into existence. We talked about mankind’s sin and rebellion against God, and then, through God’s grace, He told Eve His plan of Jesus in a promise. Now we will look at how God continues to seek relationship with those who chose to acknowledge Him and even those who did not.
Adam and Eve had children, and one of their sons killed his brother. God showed justice by cursing him to leave home and become a wanderer, but His mercy protected him from others’ revenge. Mankind continued to populate the earth, all having the same choice to obey or not obey God. It also seemed they had the choice to walk in relationship with God or not, choosing instead to live in their own selfish desires. Some, like a man named Enoch, walked with God all their lives, but many did not. The Lord was sorry He had ever made them.
Gen. 6:6–9: The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
God chose Noah, a righteous man, and his family to start over, along with some of the animals on a boat. He sent a flood to destroy everyone else. After the flood, He promised never to flood the earth again. From Noah’s children and their generations, many again chose to live without relationship with God, but there were still people who chose to be righteous—serving, honoring, and being in relationship with God. Like Job, even in the tragic loss of all his children dying and his wealth vanishing, he still praised God, knowing who He is. Even after he lost his health, he never chose to curse God or say anything against Him. How often do we behave like Job in times of suffering? Because of Job’s faithfulness, God blessed him and taught him more about Himself.
Other people chose, instead of having relationship with God or living for themselves, to worship gods of their own making. There was once a time when everyone spoke the same language. God had told them to have children, multiply, and fill the whole earth, but the people decided they would build a great city and a tower reaching into the sky, trying to honor themselves instead of God. They planned to stay in one place. But God, knowing all things, knew that if they succeeded, nothing would be impossible for them. When people choose to honor themselves instead of the only One worthy of honor, we begin to turn away from the purpose and identity God gives us. Because of this rebellion against God, we bring upon ourselves the consequences of bad decisions and the curse of death and separation from God forever. In God’s mercy and justice, He came down and confused their language so they would scatter over the earth. This was what they were meant to do in the first place, and they stopped building the city.
Some time and generations later, God chose a man named Abraham, calling him out of his family, relatives, and country to a new land God would show him. Then God gave Abraham a promise that He would make him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great (Genesis 12:1–3):
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.”
Again, this promise was God’s promise of Jesus coming. But now He was choosing a nation to display His glory to the world—to show them what relationship with Him looks like and how life is best lived. So, what did it look like for this imperfect man to live in relationship with God?
It says in Hebrews 11 that by faith Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. And in Genesis 12:7, God appeared to him.
Those are just two examples. Abraham also made mistakes. He almost had his wife taken away a couple of times because he told her to lie and say she was his sister. But even when he made mistakes, God protected him and his family and blessed them greatly, so that he became very rich. Genesis 15 says God gave another promise to Abraham when he was discouraged about having no heir. God promised Abraham would have a son and reminded him of His original promise—that he would become a great nation, more numerous than the stars. Abraham asked God, “How can I be sure?” God made a binding covenant with him to help his doubt.
In His kindness, God continuously reminded him of His promise, even as many years passed with no son or fulfillment of that promise. Sarah and Abraham decided to take things into their own hands. Abraham took her servant and had a child with her, but that was not the child of promise. Even in their sin, and even though he was not the promised child, God blessed the boy and his family line to be great.
It is so hard to hold on to hope sometimes, isn’t it? You start to wonder if you heard God right or if He forgot you. Even Abraham doubted. Sometimes we think we have it figured out and that we can take things into our own hands and make His plans happen for us. His plans are better. But Abraham continued to seek relationship with God and continued to place his faith in God.
There was another time God visited Abraham in Genesis 18:1–2, 10–14:
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground… Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
This time God finally gave him a timeframe for when he would have a son. He had become a friend of God—so much so that God even told him when He would destroy a city for their wickedness. Abraham interceded on their behalf, knowing his nephew lived there. God decided to save the nephew, but the city had to be punished. (Psalm 25:14 NLT: “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant.”)
After all this time of waiting, in God’s perfect timing, God gave them a son whom they named Isaac. To test Abraham’s faith, God told him to take his precious son of promise and sacrifice him. (Gen. 22:1–2)
He took him to the place God spoke, prepared an altar, bound Isaac on it, and lifted the knife. But the Lord stopped him. An angel said, “Now I know that you truly fear God.” So God provided a ram as a sacrifice. God again confirmed His covenant to Abraham: “Through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” All because he obeyed God. He had confidence the Lord would still fulfill the promise even when he was sacrificing the child God had promised.
What are the characteristics God shows in this story? What do you see in Abraham’s life that shows his faith in God? How did you see his trust growing? What would you like to see growing in your own walk with God? Please let us know your answers to these questions so that we all can learn from each other.
