The Promised son

Abraham’s Journey of faith

2 Chron 20:7 “Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?”

Isa 41:8 ““But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,”

James 2:23 “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.”

Of no one else in the bible is it recorded that he was God’s friend. Not Adam, not Noah, not Moses or David or Elijah or Isaiah or any of the prophets, or Peter or John or Paul

We first meet up with Abraham in a place called Haran, where he is living with his Father Terah, his brother Nahor, Nahor’s wife Milkah, his nephew Lot, the son of his brother Haran who had died in a city far to the south called Ur. Abraham also had a wife, Sarai, and we are told that she was unable to have children.

God’s call to Abraham had come while he was living in Ur:

Gen12:1 “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”

It is not recorded and we cannot know for certain if God also spoke to Terah, but we do know this:

Gen 11:31 “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.”

They settled in Haran. We can only guess why they stayed in Haran. Perhaps Terah could not make the decisive break away from the gods he used to worship and Haran was another centre of worship for them. What we do know is that Abraham stayed in Haran with his father and family until Terah died at the age of 205.

While he had his father with him and beside him, faith and love and hope and obedience were all too easy for him. Now Abraham had to take the next step. It was only when his father died that that call from God came back to his mind.

Sometimes we hear God’s voice and don’t act on it. Sometimes we start out and only get part way. It’s so easy to let things get in the way, or circumstances dictate what we do or don’t do.

Abraham, now aged 75, obeyed and set out once more and, in time, rreached this new land

The New International Version Chapter 11

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” r 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

King James Version Chapter 11

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

King James Version Chapter 11

27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. 28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.