By Faith: Abraham
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We have started a series looking at Hebrew 11 - the hall of faith, with the goal of seeing how faith shaped the lives and actions of people in the Old Testament, and see how we can apply those lessons to our life today.
last week we covered two smaller figures in the Bible Abel - who’s faith in God led him to give his best, and Enoch who had such faith that he was able to walk with God, and by doing so was taken into heaven without dying.
Then We talked about Noah, and how Hebrew says that his faith was originally based on fear of the Lord, which led him to try and find a way to save his family, and led to him saving the world.
Today we are going to talk about Abraham, his wife Sarah, and their son Isaac.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Abraham obeyed God when called,
lets look at that calling,
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God told Abram - who becomes Abraham, to leave his family, and go to a land he does not know, and God will make him into a Great Nation.
What is interesting Church, is that unlike noah who the Bible describes as “righteous in his generation” there is no such description for Abraham, Abraham could have been anybody.
But When God says “Go” Abraham obeyed.
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Abraham, and his family spent their lives in tents, in no permanent house, because they had faith in Gods promise.
Now its all well and Good that Abraham obeyed God’s call to go, and he trusts God’s promise to give the land to his decendants, but then he needs to have descendants, and that starts getting extra tricky as Abraham and his wife are already old.
Genesis 15:1–6 (ESV)
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
God promised Abraham children as numerous as the stars in the sky
Night sky when you are far from a city is incredible
And Abraham believes God’s promise, and it is counted to him as righteousness.
Church: Faith, that deep seated life altering belief in God is counted as righteousness.
THis is huge! Because if we keep reading in Genesis, Abraham is not really the most righteous guy you will ever meet, once Abraham gets a little impatient with waiting on God’s promise he does something horrible
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
They take a young servant girl, and abuse her, as she will eventually give birth to Ishmael.
Church this is not how a righteous person lives, in fact this is downright wrong! and notice, it happens when Abraham begins to lack faith
So Abraham has a child, but Sarah does not.
But Hebrews 11:11-12 says
By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
I find it interesting that Hebrews says Sarah had faith here, because if we look back at the account in Genesis, it seems to suggest otherwise.
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
When Sarah is told that she is going to have a Child she laughs. she is too old for that. Shes almost 90!
and God calls her out!
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Then she tries to deny it, because she is afraid,
afraid of looking like she doesn’t believe God.
He calls her out then too.
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
God turned Sarah’s disbelieving laughter into laughter of Joy, and they name their son Isaac which means Laughter.
At some point she had faith.
So Now Abraham has two sons, but only one will recieve the promise.
The other one, Ishmael, is sent away.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
God gives Abraham the ultimate test.
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
God Tells Abraham to sacrifice his ONLY son,
Now Isaac is Not Abraham’s only Son, but he is the only one to receive God’s promise.
After Everything Abraham and Sarah had gone through to have a son, Now God says to sacrifice them.
Church We know this sounds wrong, But in Abrahams day their were plenty of pagan religions that practiced Child Sacrifice, And So now God is testing Abraham, saying, give me your son.
And Abraham doesn’t argue.
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.
He has Isaac carry the wood for his sacrifice,
Church I know i’ve mentioned this before, but this parallels Jesus carrying the Cross. - they are even sacrificed on the same mountain.
And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
Now this can sound like Abraham is lying to Isaac to just keep the kid from asking difficult questions, but I think Abraham actually believes this. I think he knows that the Lord is not like the pagan gods that demand child sacrifice, he knows the Lord is good, and He knows that the Lord Promised that Isaac would be his heir,
So he is confident that God will provide a way for Isaac to survive.
Ive mentioned this before Church, God did offer a lamb, he offered his only son Jesus, not just in Isaacs place, but in all of our places, to forgive our sin.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
God stops abraham at the very last second, Sparing Isaac from Death and providing a ram in his place, in a sense Abraham just recieved isaac back from the dead. And Isaac is then able to carry on the promise that God had given Abraham.
So how was faith evident in Abraham’s life?
He obeyed God when called.
Church this cannot be overstated, Abraham was a nobody, but he was willing to listen to God and obey everything God told him to do, even offering up his only son.
Church What is God calling you to do?
It might not be as drastic as anything abraham had to do,
Maybe it is helping your nieghbor with something, Maybe it is volunteering with a local ministry, maybe it is giving money to organizations building wells in africa,
Church find what God is calling you to do, and do it
He and Sarah trusted God’s promises
They knew God had promised them things, and they never lived to see the promise fully fulfilled, but they were willing to trust God as he kept them safe time and time again.
Church God has promised us many things, And they are all laid out for us in scripture,
Do we trust his promises even when they seem to never come?
What about when things seem to be contrary to his promises?
His belief became righteousness.
Church, that exchange, that faith is credited as righteousness is huge!
It means that living by faith is Jesus allows us to become righteous in God’s eyes.
If we live by faith, if we live with such belief that it affects how we live, that God credits it to us as righteousness, and we become better people as a result.