The Four Separations of Abraham
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Hello everyone, I am Evangelist Nick Chiang from HORA Ministries. Pastor Samuel Kim is currently away, and he has asked me to share the lecture for this week.
Everyone here is much more experienced than me. Compared to all of your ministry work, I truly am a nobody. So please be patient with me and forgive my lack of teaching ability.
Last week, pastor Samuel shared on Genesis 11. This week, we will be looking at the life of Abraham, beginning in Genesis 12.
In the world of the Bible, those who believe in Jesus Christ are known as sons of Abraham.
7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.
Abraham was the 20th generation descendant of Adam, born in the line of Seth. So the genealogy goes 10 generations from Adam to Noah, and ten generations from Noah to Abraham.
And if we were to summarize Abraham’s life with two words, it would be separation and obedience.
God comes to Abraham and calls him to leave behind his entire life, to go to the land of God’s promise. The land of Canaan. And from that point on, Abraham’s life became all about separation and obedience.
But what does Abraham’s life have to do with our lives?
As Christians, God has called us to the land of promise. It is the city of New Jerusalem. And in order for us to enter in, we need to live a life of separation and obedience. We need to follow Abraham’s example. In theological terms, this is known as the process of sanctification.
17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.
The Greek word for “separate” here is aphorizo, which means to be set apart. In Hebrew, the word is qodesh, which means to set something apart for a purpose, or to be holy.
In the world of the Bible, the concepts of separation and holiness are tied together. There is no holiness without separation.
Let’s say that I have two phones. One phone is only for calling pastor Samuel. The other phone is for everything else. According to the biblical understanding, the first phone is considered holy because it is set apart for a purpose.
In the same way, the journey of sanctification is about being set apart for God’s will and God’s purpose.
Is this an easy process? Definitely not. In order to walk toward God, we need to walk away from the things of this world. But is it worth it? Amen, amen, amen.
Rev. Abraham Park taught that Abraham goes through four major separations in his life.
Separation from his father and his homeland
Separation from his nephew Lot
Separation from Ishmael
Separation from Isaac
The first separation: Terah
The first separation: Terah
Abraham’s first separation was from his father Terah.
Abraham’s family was living in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. And the Bible says they served other gods.
2 Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.
Spiritual darkness had come upon Seth’s line. But our God does not abandon us when we are unfaithful. He remained faithful to His covenant with Adam and Noah, and so He called Abraham out of the darkness, away from serving other gods.
So God calls Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. In itself, that is a terrifying idea. To leave your comfort zone, your security, to go to an unknown place. It means to lose control and be at the mercy of God.
But spiritually, God is calling Abraham out of idolatry.
Idols give us control.
And so Abraham leaves for the land of Canaan, and with three people accompany him. His father Terah, his nephew Lot, and his wife Sarah.
2 And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’
But what happens when you need to take a long journey? Back then they didn’t have cars or planes. They needed to make a stopover to rest and restock their supplies. And so Abraham and his family stopped at the city of Haran.
31 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.
They probably stopped at Haran to gather more supplies and continue on with their journey. But it says that they settled there. It means that they decided to live there.
Is this a problem? God called them to go to Canaan, but they stopped the journey halfway.
Why did they settle there?
Haran was a city with a very good central location. Many trading caravans, business people, and travellers would stop by as part of their journey. A lot of businesses found success in Haran because of this. It was a wealthy and comfortable city.
This is something that many people experience in their journey of faith. They obey at first, but then the comforts and pleasures of this world make them delay from fully obeying God’s Word.
And in the end, Terah dies in Haran at 205 years old. And God calls Abraham for a second time to go to Canaan.
32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran. 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.
This is the second calling of Abraham. But there’s something strange. According to this passage, when Abraham left Haran, was Terah dead or alive? It says that Terah was dead.
But if Terah was dead, why would God tell Abraham to leave his father’s house?
Here is how Rev. Abraham Park answered this question.
He drew a timeline using the facts provided in the Bible.
The first clue is in Gen. 11:26. It tells us that Terah was 70 years old when Abraham was born. On the other hand, Gen. 12:4 tells us that Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran.
26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
4 So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
So how old was Terah when Abraham left Haran? 70 + 75 = 145. Terah was 145 years old when Abraham left for Canaan. This means that Terah was still alive when Abraham left. In fact, Terah lived for 60 more years.
32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
This is why God called Abraham to leave his father’s house.
3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
So now we need to address another question. Why does the Bible say that Terah died before Abraham left Haran?
4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.
Does the Bible have errors? Was this a mistake? I believe the Word of God has no mistakes. Rev. Abraham Park taught that when things don’t seem to make sense, God is inviting us deeper into His Word.
So if Terah was alive, why does the Bible say that he died?
There are two words used for “death” in Acts 7.
The first word is apothnesko, and the second is teleutao. And both of them mean ‘death’.
4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.
15 “And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died.
Why are there two words for death? They refer to different kinds of death.
Terah refused to obey God’s Word, so he was alive physically, but dead spiritually.
Jacob’s death here refers to a physical death. But Jesus declared that Jacob is still spiritually alive.
26 “But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”
On the other hand, Terah’s death refers not to a physical death, but a spiritual death. Terah chose to settle down in the comfortable city of Haran rather than obey God’s command to go to the land of Canaan. In fact, Terah’s name means ‘to stay’ or ‘to delay.’ He delayed in obeying God’s Word, and he caused Abraham to delay as well.
So why did God call Abraham to leave his father’s house? Because his father was delaying him from obeying God’s command.
So when we teach this, we need to emphasize this point. What does Terah represent? Terah represents anything that delays us from obeying God’s commands.
As Abraham separated from Terah, we need to separate from our own Terahs. Terah was already dead to him.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
As ministers of the Gospel, we can use this lesson to encourage our people to step toward the promised land, and to leave behind the things of this world.
In English, we can say it like this: “Leave behind whatever makes you stay behind.”
Here are some bible verses you can quote to make the point.
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
The second separation: Lot
The second separation: Lot
The second separation is with his nephew Lot. This is found in Genesis 12-13.
Lot represents the greed in our hearts.
Lot followed Abraham loyally from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, and then even to the land of Canaan.
But something unexpected happens. They’ve entered Canaan, the promised land of God. But there’s a famine. There’s no food. And so they leave Canaan and go south into Egypt.
But in Egypt, Pharaoh takes Abraham’s wife to be his own wife, and gives Abraham many animals and servants. Abraham becomes a rich man.
But God stops Pharaoh, and Abraham gets his wife back.
Abraham, Sarah and Lot return back to the land of Canaan, and this time, they’re very wealthy.
But the promised land fails them again. It cannot provide enough food and water for Abraham’s animals and Lot’s animals.
6 And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.
So Abraham goes to Lot and gives him a choice.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. 9 “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”
If you look at the shape of Israel, you’ll see that it’s a very tall and thin land. It stretches from north to south, but it’s not very long from east to west.
Lot decides to go to the Jordan Valley. And this tells us about the condition of Lot’s heart.
The Jordan Valley at the eastern border of Canaan. So it’s still within the promised land, but it’s at the edge. And it’s near the city of Sodom, which was full of wicked people.
12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.
Lot’s decision to move to the Jordan Valley reveals that he had a lot of greed in his heart. He was greedy for the things of this world, and he let that greed bring him right to the border of the promised land.
God had called Abraham to the promised land. God made the covenant with Abraham. And Lot followed Abraham in order to fulfil this covenant. But the promised land failed to meet Lot’s greedy expectations. And so Lot chose to leave the man of God in order to make more money.
Lot represents the greed mindset. A greed mindset might make us very rich in the world, but it makes our spiritual life very poor. Greed makes our spirits poor because it sees worldly possessions as more important than spiritual possessions.
What is our spiritual possession? The promises of God. God Himself. The community of faith. Greed will bring us away from these things, and our spiritual life will become poor.
We can describe it as trying to climb two ladders at the same time. You can try to climb both, but at some point you’re just going to be stuck in the middle. You can't climb both ladders to the top. Likewise, you can't climb the ladder of faith with one foot in the world. And so we must ask our congregation to let go of the ladder of greed.
Lot didn’t leave the promised land, but he lived at the border. This shows us how greed brings our people away from the things of God. They will only do the minimum things expected of a Christian.
Can a marriage endure if the husband or wife only does the bare minimum? This mindset seeks to take advantage of God’s kindness toward us.
Those who only come once a week on Sunday, and leave immediately after the service is over. We must warn such church members against this mindset.
Some bible verses we can quote here.
33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Greed turns our eyes back to the things of this world.
Previously with Terah, we said “Leave behind whatever makes you stay behind.” With Lot, we can say “Leave behind whatever makes you look behind.” Or “Turn around from whatever makes you turn around.”
The Third Separation: Ishmael
The Third Separation: Ishmael
Ishmael was Abraham’s first son.
Ishmael represents the fruit of our unbelief. The fruit of our doubt. Something born out of our disobedience or lack of faith.
Earlier in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that his descendants will be like the stars in the sky and the sand of the sea. But it has been ten years, and Sarah still isn’t pregnant.
3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.
So Sarah asks Abraham to sleep with her Egyptian maid instead. This Egyptian maid’s name is Hagar.
Imagine if you were Abraham, and your wife offers you to sleep with this other girl, and she says it’s a part of doing God’s work. It hard to say no.
So Abraham makes Hagar pregnant. And Ishmael is born when Abraham is 86 years old.
But after Ishmael is born, Abraham doesn’t hear from God for 13 years. We see this in Gen. 16:16 and Gen 17:1.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. 1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
So Abraham is 86 years old when Ishmael is born, and then he’s 99 years old when God speaks to him again. God doesn’t talk to Abraham for 13 years. That’s a long time.
But then God comes to Abraham and says that Sarah will give birth to the child of promise. Not Hagar.
15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 “I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
Remember that by now, Sarah 90 years old.
But through the power of God, Sarah gets pregnant and gives birth to Isaac. And after Isaac stops breastfeeding and starts eating solids, Sarah says to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael (Gen. 21:9-10).
Ishmael’s now about 13 years old. And we see that Abraham loves Ishmael very much. He doesn’t want to separate from Ishmael.
If you were God, whose side would you take? Abraham or Sarah?
12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.
Why is it so important that Abraham separate with Hagar and Ishmael?
What does Hagar represent? Hagar represents doing the work of God without the help of God.
What does Ishmael represent?
Ishmael represents the fruit of our unbelief. The fruit of our doubt. Something born out of our disobedience or lack of faith. Ishmael is the fruit when we do God’s work, believing that God isn’t all loving, all powerful, and all knowing.
Abraham got Hagar pregnant because he didn’t trust God to fulfil His promise. Abraham depended on his own understanding without trusting in the Lord.
Why does this matter so much? Why couldn’t God just go along with Abraham and Sarah’s plan? Why couldn’t Jesus the Messiah come through the line of Ishmael?
Because the work of salvation is something only God can do.
Can any of us belief in Jesus without God’s help? Can any of us evangelize without God’s help? God’s Holy Spirit is the one at work within us and through us. We need to depend on God’s Holy Spirit to do God’s work.
God’s work is the work of evangelism and discipleship. Isaac was born by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit. And we can only be saved if we are born again by the Holy Spirit. (Draw venn diagram).
That’s why salvation had to come through the line of Isaac. Isaac was born only through God’s help.
This means we have to patiently and faithfully wait upon the Lord. If Abraham truly believed in the power of God, he would have been more patient.
14 “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Hagar represents believing in God’s promise, but not in God’s power. It’s a weak idea of God. Abraham acted to fulfil God’s work without God’s help, without depending on God’s power, and without caring about God’s timing.
Everything changes when we stop believing in a weak god, and start believing in the almighty God of the Bible. Our anxieties will go away. Our impatience goes away.
It might be something huge and important to us. But it’s hindering our faith and our ministry.
An example of this can be seen in appointing new church leaders.
As pastors, we are called to appoint new leaders for the church. But what if there is nobody in our church who meets the biblical requirement in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1?
In this context, the correct thing to do is to pray and wait patiently in faith.
It would be a mistake to appoint someone who doesn’t meet the biblical standard. The newly appointed elder would not have the character required for church leadership. And in the end, it will result in big trouble for the church.
We can summarize it like this: “Leave the timing up to God.”
Some bible verses for reference.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
The Fourth Separation: Isaac
The Fourth Separation: Isaac
Separating from Isaac represents the highest level of maturity in faith.
Several years after separating from Ishmael, God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:2). And Abraham goes with Isaac and two young men on a three day journey to Mt. Moriah.
And on the third day when they arrived at the mountain, Abraham tells the two young men to stay there. And it says that Isaac carries the wood for the burnt offering up the mountain. This tells us that Isaac isn’t so young anymore. He’s strong enough to carry wood up a mountain. Abraham must have loved him very much.
And so he goes up Mt. Moriah, binds Isaac to the altar, and would have cut him open if God didn’t stop him.
What does Isaac represent? Isaac represents the thing we love the most apart from God.
Every good thing that we have in this world is represented in Isaac. And God makes Abraham choose between God or Isaac. Will he obey God’s Word, or will he disobey God to save Isaac? Will He choose God, or the blessings of God?
Abraham chose God. I pray that our churches will do the same.
When we teach about this, we can use heaven as an example.
I usually ask my students to close their eyes and imagine what heaven is like. And then I ask them if anyone saw themselves being together with Jesus. Because above all things, heaven is being with Jesus.
Samuel Rutherford made this his confession:
“O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without Thee, it would be hell; and if I could be in hell, and have Thee still, it would be heaven to me, for Thou are all the heaven I want.” - Samuel Rutherford.
Abraham could only do this by taking his eyes away from Isaac and focusing only on God.
Therefore, Isaac represents the highest love in our hearts, the thing we hold nearest and dearest to us. Isaac represents our own ambitions, our own plans, our own hopes for our life in this world.
And to separate from Isaac is to put our relationship with God over all things. Even above our spouses and our children.
37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
This is the faith that God desires from us.
How did Abraham come to love God so much, to even choose God over Isaac?
Abraham bore witness to God’s character.
They say that money doesn’t change a person. It only makes their true character come out. True?
Likewise, power reveals our character. The more powerful someone is, the more their character is put on display in how they use that power.
How did God previously use His power? When the Egyptian Pharaoh took Sarah for himself, God used His power to send plagues upon Egypt. When Lot was kidnapped, God used His power to protect Abraham in the rescue mission. When the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were filled with sin, God used His power to destroy them.
Abraham saw how God used His power, and Abraham saw the beauty of God’s character. And so Abraham believed that even if Isaac died, God would use His power to raise him from the dead. Why? Because Isaac was part of God’s covenant.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
Separation from Isaac represents having a faith that loves God’s character and trusts completely in His Word.
We need to lead our congregations to have such a faith.
Only through preaching the cross of Jesus that this can happen.
Why? Because only in Jesus, the full character of God is put on display. He had all power and all authority, and He used His power to take on human flesh, to be one with us, to take our sins upon Himself, and to die for us.
Jesus carried the wood up the hill of Golgotha. And He was bound and nailed to the cross as a burnt offering.
According to rules for a burnt offering in Leviticus 1, you have to cut off the head, the four limbs, and remove the guts of the sacrificial animal.
Jesus wore the crown of thorns. His four limbs were pierced by nails, and the Roman soldier pierced His side. And being lifted up on the cross, His internal organs would rupture due to the intense heat from the sun. On the cross, Jesus died as a burnt offering.
God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, but He didn’t stop Jesus from dying on the cross. Why? Because God so loved us. That is the character of God. And unless we teach this, our congregations will not be able to separate from Isaac. Unless we teach the cross of Jesus, no one can love Jesus more than their own children.
I pray that through the proclamation of the Gospel, all our congregations will love Jesus more than their own parents and children.
Conclusion
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is our task as the ministers of the Gospel to help our congregation members separate from the spiritual Terah, Lot, Ishmael, and Isaac.
God has sent us as His servants to bring people into His presence.
21 “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
These are all descriptions of the human soul lost in sin. Without God, our souls are lame, poor, crippled, and blind.
Terah = the lame. We must leave behind the things that delay us from obeying God’s commands.
Lot = the poor. Those who are greedy for the things of this world are poor in the things of the spirit.
Ishmael = The crippled. Our doubts and unbelief cripple us. When we don’t trust in God’s power, we cannot pray in faith. This is like being spiritually crippled.
Isaac = the blind. To be blind means to be unable to see ahead. It symbolizes the hopelessness of living in this world without God. But if our spiritual eyes are opened, we will see God.
I believe God has sent us as His ministers to go and bring His Word to the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And by His Word, let us bring healing to their souls.
So let us follow in the footsteps of Abraham our spiritual forefather, and let us bring our congregation along on the journey.
I believe that we can do this with God’s help.
16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.
