The Journey of the Patriarchs: Abraham and Sarah.
So why focus on the Patriarchs, well these people are key to the Bible, and as a result our Christian journey. if you open your Bibles to the first book of the New Testament it starts with a genealogy of Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Our faith in God is very much linked with this man Abraham’s faith in God. So...
Genesis 12 is an introduction to Abram and Sarai and the start of the story of the Patriarchs. Long story short Abram had his name changed to Abraham and his wife Sarai had hers changed to Sarah.
A bit of family history here. Abram’s father was Terah, who was a direct descendant of Shem, the son of Noah and was an idol worshipper. Things had shifted a lot for mankind since they had left the garden of Eden. If I have counted correctly Abram was ten generations from Noah, and Noah was ten generations from Adam.
When Terah was seventy years old, he became father to Abram, Nahor and Haran. Verse 28 of chapter eleven tells us that Terah’s son Haran died at Ur of the Chaldeans, which is in present day Southern Iraq and the city was 6 kilometers south-west of the Euphrates River. In verse 31 we read that Terah took Abram and Haran’s son Lot along with Sarai and they left Ur and set out for Cannan but when they reached Haran they settled there. Terah lived to the ripe old age of 205 and died in Haran.
Then comes God’s call on the life of Abram. Chapter 12:1 “Leave your country, your people and your father’s house go to the land I will show you.” With the instructions to leave comes this promise from God;
“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.
Quite some promise. So, they left, taking all their possessions, the people they had acquired, and they set out for Cannan, verse five tells us and they arrived there. Along the way God appeared to Abram and told him at the site of the great tree of Shechem that he would give the land that at the time was occupied by Canaanites, Noah’s grandson Cannan’s descendants, to Abram’s descendants. Abram built an alter to God in that place and he also built another a little further into his journey. It is recorded that He called upon the name of the Lord.
Now there was a famine in the land; famines play a big part in scripture, hunger and poverty are always drivers for change in human history. This is where the story takes a bit of a strange twist as the couple head into Egypt where the famine is not affecting people so much to ensure their survival. Abram was aware that Sarai was a beautiful woman and was afraid that he may be killed by someone wanting her. Things were not so civilised back in the day. It was a hard life if you were travelling somewhere as a foreigner, no one around to advocate on your behalf. So, he plotted with her saying, “Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life be spared because of you.” Sarai then gets taken to Pharaoh’s palace and as a result Abram scores sheep and cattle, donkeys, servants and camels. But the Pharaoh gets sick and confronts Abram saying “What have you done? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife, you said she was your sister and I married her.” (paraphrase) Take her and get out of here. So, Abram was sent away with all he had acquired. The first verse of chapter thirteen tells us that Abram who was already a man of means, was now wealthy, in livestock, gold and silver.
In chapter thirteen we see Abram and Lot separate as there was so much owned between them, tents flocks of sheep and herds of other animals that the land could not support them. The separation came as the herdsmen of each man Abram and Lot started to quarrel.
The way they decided directions in which they would go was quite random, Abram said to Lot, “If you go left, I’ll go right and vice versa.” Every time I read this; I am fascinated that the haphazard way that Lot chose the plain of the Jordan could have influenced history in a way that may have resulted in outcomes quite different for all of us. Or could it, God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts not our thoughts. Abram gave Lot a peaceful solution to their combined problem and showed himself a peace maker. Abram lived in the land of Cannan where he was meant to be. God then promises to bless Abram with all he can see east to west and north to south, and that it will be his descendants land forever. God commanded Abram to walk the breath of the land. Abram and his minions settled near Mamre at Hebron and built an alter to the Lord. The thing to remember here is that Abram’s journey was one of faith. Paul writing to the Romans said this about Abraham: “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:1-3). Romans four, would be a good place to start studying faith, and being saved by grace through faith. The writer of Hebrews reiterates the point of Abraham’s faithfulness.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. (Hebrews 11:8-12)
As we read, Lot turned towards Lebanon and pitched his tents near the city of Sodom, a place of wicked men, the old type of wicked. Just like last week, not thae ‘yhoo that’s wicked” type. This was to lead to a few problems for him.
Chapter fourteen, there’s a war between a couple of groups of allied kings in which Lot and his household are taken captive. And Sodom and Gomorrah are plundered. Abram takes his 318 trained men of his household and pursues the plunderers and retrieves all that had been taken and rescues Lot’s household and family. He is meet by the king of Sodom and King Melchizedek who is the king of Salem and priest of the most high God. Melchizedek blesses Abram. Abram tithes, gives a percentage, most likely ten percent of all he as retrieved to Melchizedek. He shares also with the king of Sodom and the men who went with him to rescue Lot.
In chapter fifteen God makes a covenant with Abram because of his responding to God’s call, that he will have as many descendants as stars in the sky. But that his descendants will be “strangers in a country not their own, and that they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.” You might know the song, ‘Father Abraham.” The covenant however was to give Abram’s descendants the land; “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Chapter sixteen; things are happening a bit slow on the having a child front. Sarai and Abram decide that Hagar, Sarai’s servant should have a baby for Abram. So at the age of eighty-six Abram becomes father to Ishmael.
Thirteen years later and at the age of ninety-nine God re-confirms his covenant with Abram. There’s a great little life lesson here that, patience is a useful thing in the confirming of God’s promises. He knows the perfect time. Some people, me included like to run ahead and sometimes stumble needlessly because of a lack of patience.
The covenant with Abraham was confirmed, and Abram’s name was changed by God to Abraham, an everlasting covenant, he will be the father of many nations, he will be fruitful, very fruitful. Abram's name means “father,” Abraham means “father of many.” The covenant included God being Abraham’s God and the God of his descendants. As an outward sign of the covenant, all males from the age of eight days, natural children or adopted children had to be circumcised. Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah. God said he would bless Sarah with a son and that she would be the mother of nations, and kings of people. Abraham laughed at the news and God told him to call his son Isaac, and that he would bless him with an everlasting covenant for his and his descendants after him, he also said that Isaac would be born before this time next year. God also mentioned that he would bless Ishmael and that he would be the father of twelve rulers. So, at the age of ninety-nine Abraham and all the males of his household were circumcised as an outward sign of the covenant.
In chapter eighteen things get a bit supernatural in regard to visitors: let's have a look at the first two verses: “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.” Abraham offers the men hospitality, they agree to stay and have a feed and their feet washed, Abraham and Sarah arrange a decent feed. Then a Biblically important question. “Where is your wife Sarah?”; “In The tent.” Then the Lord said, notice this is a capital ‘L’ for Lord in your Bibles, this is God in human form appearing to Abraham. “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah overheard this and laughed thinking it was going to be difficult as she was old and her husband, “worn out.” The Lord asked Abraham, why she laughed and she lied about it saying she had not.
The next part of chapter eighteen is about Abraham pleading for the city of Sodom. The Lord has told him he has heard a great outcry about the sinfulness of the city and that of Gomorrah and he was going to destroy these places. Abraham’s pleas resulted in the Lord saying he found ten righteous men in the city, for the sake of those ten he would not destroy it. There is a parting here of The Lord and the angels. Note verse 33, “When the Lord finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
Chapter nineteen starts with the two angels who were travelling with the Lord arriving at Sodom in the evening where they met Lot sitting at the gateway of the city. He invited them to stay with him at his home, they mentioned that they would spend the night in the city square. He insisted they stay with him, and he showed them hospitality. The men of Sodom young and old approached Lot and called out, verse 8; “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Lot offered the men of Sodom his daughters as an alternative, but the men of Sodom only wanted the angels who they thought were ordinary men. The angels sorted out the situation by striking the men with blindness and rescuing Lot’s immediate family as The Lord was about to destroy the city. Lot and his family were able to flee to a town called Zoar with the instruction not to look back. By the time it was dawn burning Sulphur was raining down on Sodom and Gomorrah. These places were totally wiped out. Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Interestingly chapter mentions Abraham after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, it’s a reference to Abraham’s faith and God’s promises to him. Abraham had seen the destruction looking like smoke from a furnace. But verse 29 states, “So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.” Abraham’s faithfulness resulted in a good outcome for his nephew.
The danger of drink and drunkenness again gets a mention. Next, we find Lot and his daughters living in a cave and Lot’s daughters worrying about not ever having families due to the lack of men, getting their father drunk and having children through incestuous relations with him. This results in the arrival in history of the people known as Moabites and Ammonites.
Chapter twenty we find a bit f a repeat of Abraham and Sarah, telling people they are brother and sister again and Sarah being taken into Abimelech the King of Gerer’s house. Abimelech is warned in a dream that she is a married woman. There is a bit of pleading and groveling on Abimelech’s behalf with God, who says ”if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will surely die.”
Abraham is approached about why he did this, his answer “There is surely no fear of God in this place, they will surely kill me because of my wife. “He justifies himself explaining that Sarah is his father’s daughter from a different mother. King Abimelech pays Abraham off and sends him and Sarah on their way. The king is healed along with his wife and slave girls.
The Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. A son was born to Abraham and Sarah, they named him Isaac. Isaac will go on to be the next of the Patriarchs.
So, a recap as we have covered a lot this week. I will start by saying that in every family well most there is always a few strange family members. The characters of the Old Testament seem to have some bizarre family history, Abraham’s whole journey reads a bit like a soap opera, many of the things I have mentioned here would in most families be skeletons that would stay well Hidden in the closet: passing your wife of as your sister, twice; your wife being your half-sister, potentially offering your daughters to a group of evil men who were fixed on abusing your guests, your wife allowing you to have a child with her maid, the drunken incest of a relative that led to nations that would cause you trouble in the future. I think that Moses in recalling these events did so because of his desire to be honest about his people, so that the past would not repeat itself, and to show God’s grace and faithfulness in keeping his promise to Abraham and all mankind. We can learn from other’s failings, and not repeat them. Things such as being faithful in relationships, that sexual sin leads to destruction either short or long term, and physically in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, or spiritually in the destruction of relationships and family. That drunkenness is a danger as in an altered mantal state awareness is not all it should, and you can likely act in ways you normally wouldn’t and the resulting sin can be destructive. Also, that honesty is always important. That one righteous person can result in beneficial outcomes for many in the present and the future.
In Abram/Abrahams case, his responding to the call upon his life, as an act of faith resulted in, what God had promised him, even with the errant behaviours of Abraham, God was faithful to his promises. He always is. And he had said to Abram, “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.
God did and we have all been blessed through Abraham’s faithfulness in responding to God’s call. The best parts of the society we live in are based on Judaic-Christian tradition whether we want to believe it or not.
Again, from the writer of Hebrews we get an understanding that we are also blessed; “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age-and Sarah herself was barren-was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. As believers’ we also know the faithfulness of God, being saved from our sins through Jesus death and resurrection and hold fast to the promise of eternal salvation. For in the words of an old song, Father Abraham had many sons, and I am one of them and so are you.
