1. The Mission
Abraham as rightly been called
the Father of all who believe. (Rom 4:11)
The New Testament uses Abraham’s experiences as the historical basis for teaching justification by faith (Gal 3:69 and Rom 4:13).
Abraham’s faith resulted in ACTION. It was not just head knowledge.
Faith - what is it?.
Faith is responding to the Word of God.
A mnemonic for faith:
Forsaking
All (almost?)
I
Take/Trust in
Him.
In other words 100% commitment.
1. 1 Who was Abraham?
Genesis 12: 1-8 : The Call of Abram.
Abram was descended from Noah through his son Shem (Gen 11:10-27). The term Semetic which is used to describe the Jewish people comes from this Shem.
The name Abram probably means "the father is exalted" . God changed his name to Abraham as we better know him meaning "father of a multitude of nations"
His father Terah and the rest of his family were idol worshippers (Jos. 24:2)
He was living in Ur of the Chaldees, in Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf
Let us look at the city of Ur from archaeological records:
Ur of the Chaldees
1) it was the ancient capital of Sumer
2) it was one of the wealthiest and largest cities (C.L.Wooley showed in his excavations from 1922 to 1934)
3) It was the centre of commerce. Ships came through the Persian Gulf up the Euphrates River bringing gold, ivory alabaster copper and hard wood to Ur
4) It was a centre of education. The ruins of a school having a large library of clay plates has for example been found
5) It was a centre of idolatry. The moon god Nanna was worshipped. Ruins found include a great ziggurat temple, and other building dedicated to Nanna and idols in niches of homes.
Ur was very much like Basle today, a city of wealth and idolatry.
I have a city plan of Ur. You might be interested to see how advanced it was. It even had a canal linking the west harbour with the northern harbour on the Euphrates river.
In short Abraham had every comfort he needed.
Yet God called him to leave the luxury he had in Ur to go to Canaan, the Promised Land, a journey that took him about 2,000 km.
Let us look at the journey he made
As a background note, West Semitic was the language of Ur as far as upper Egypt, so Abraham was able to communicate on his travels.
Why? Why did God call him to make this almost 2,000 km journey. And remember they had no cars or planes.
God wanted Abraham to cut off all his ties with his idolatrous past in order to enjoy communion with the true God and serve Him.
Abraham is a picture of how God wants us to live. When we become Christians, the Lord calls us to go away from all that causes us to look away from God. To bury the old life and enter the new one.
Story: I had a good friend Nick Summerhayes who had a great deal of influence on me. He mocked God and was into drugs. When I became a Christian, I found that we had nothing more in common. I knew I had to cut myself off from him and his influence.
God called Abraham to leave all this pagan influence behind and follow him.
We recall the words of Christ in Luke 9:23
1. The Mission
Abraham as rightly been called
the Father of all who believe. (Rom 4:11)
The father of the faithful
The New Testament uses Abraham’s experiences as the historical basis for teaching justification by faith (Gal 3:69 and Rom 4:13).
Abraham’s faith resulted in ACTION. It was not just head knowledge.
Faith - what is it?.
Faith is responding to the Word of God.
A mnemonic for faith:
Forsaking
All (almost?)
I
Take/Trust in
Him.
In other words 100% commitment.
1. 1 Who was Abraham?
Genesis 12: 18 : The Call of Abram.
Abram was descended from Noah through his son Shem (Gen 11:10-27). The term Semetic which is used to describe the Jewish people comes from this Shem.
The name Abram probably means "the father is exalted" . God changed his name to Abraham as we better know him meaning "father of a multitude of nations"
His father Terah and the rest of his family were idol worshippers (Jos. 24:2)
2Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshipped other gods. 3But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac
He was living in Ur of the Chaldees, in Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf
Let us look at the city of Ur from archaeological records:
Ur of the Chaldees
1) it was the ancient capital of Sumer
2) it was one of the wealthiest and largest cities (C.L.Wooley showed in his excavations from 1922 to 1934)
3) It was the centre of commerce. Ships came through the Persian Gulf up the Euphrates River bringing gold, ivory alabaster copper and hard wood to Ur
4) It was a centre of education. The ruins of a school having a large library of clay plates has for example been found
5) It was a centre of idolatry. The moon god Nanna was worshipped. Ruins found include a great ziggurat temple, and other building dedicated to Nanna and idols in niches of homes.
Ur was very much like Basle today, a city of wealth and idolatry.
I have a city plan of Ur. You might be interested to see how advanced it was. It even had a canal linking the west harbour with the northern harbour on the Euphrates river.
In short Abraham had every comfort he needed.
Yet God called him to leave the luxury he had in Ur to go to Canaan, the Promised Land, a journey that took him about 2,000 km.
Let us look at the journey he made
As a background note, West Semitic was the language of Ur as far as upper Egypt, so Abraham was able to communicate on his travels.
Why? Why did God call him to make this almost 2,000 km journey. And remember they had no cars or planes.
God wanted Abraham to cut off all his ties with his idolatrous past in order to enjoy communion with the true God and serve Him.
Abraham is a picture of how God wants us to live. When we become Christians, the Lord calls us to go away from all that causes us to look away from God. To bury the old life and enter the new one.
Story: I had a good friend Nick Summerhayes who had a great deal of influence on me. He mocked God and was into drugs. When I became a Christian, I found that we had nothing more in common. I knew I had to cut myself off from him and his influence.
God called Abraham to leave all this pagan influence behind and follow him.
We recall the words of Christ in Luke 9:23
23Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels
Story: Jim Eliot said: He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. Jim Eliot was called by God to preach to the Andean Indians in South America. In the 1950’s on one trip to a particular tribe, he and three fellow missionaries were attacked and killed. His wife, Elisabeth Eliot with tremendous courage however continued to work there and through her ministry brought that tribe to the Lord.
The Lord does not want armchair Christians but Christians on fire. The early Church was on fire for God. cf Peter before this High priest in Acts 4: 13 and 18 -20.
13When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16"What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."
18Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
1.2 Terah
The story of Abraham starts with Abraham and his father Terah in Gen 11.31
31Terah 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 Haran, they settled there.
32Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
(We see in greater detail how God called Abraham in Gen 12.)
Terah set out with Abraham to go to CANAAN but somehow never made it. He got sidetracked in Haran. Is this not symbolic of how sometimes we can get sidetracked, when God calls us to do something, we only do half the job. Haran was about half way to Canaan.
Haran
Let’s look at the city of Haran
Haran was on a main caravan route that connected the cities of the East with Damascus. Haran was highly civilised and was also a centre of moon worship.
Why did Terah stay there?
It wasn’t his original intention but he probably had 101 reasons
- I am 205 years old and I’m too old for this type of thing. That’s OK for my son Abraham who is a spring chicken (at 75).
- He liked his home comforts
- well had he not obeyed God by leaving Ur of the Chaldees
- they don’t have running water in the toilets in Canaan.
Halfhearted commitment is rebellion - remember King Saul in 1 Sam 15. He did not follow God’s orders to the letter.
1.3 Conclusions
Terah is for me a symbol of those who start off with God going to the Promised Land but stop off part of the way there at Haran. Where are you on your journey. Have you stopped off at Haran or are you ploughing on?
Abraham on the other hand went on to FINISH the journey into the Promised Land.
Hebrews 11:8
8By 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.
9By 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.
10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Both Terah and Abraham wanted to follow God, but only Abraham made it.
So why did Terah not make it?
Let us look at the Parable of the Sower
Matt 13:7&8
Terah was like the seed that fell among thorns which choked the plants. Jesus tells us the meaning of this in verse 22.
The one who received the seed that fell among thorns is the man who hears the word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it and make it unfruitful.
Abraham was like the seed that fell on good soil Jesus in v. 23 says
But the one who receives the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Are we content to step off at Haran or do we want to receive the full blessings of God like Abraham as he journeyed into the promised land.
It was not plain sailing but we read in Gen 12 5
Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated in Haran and they set out for Canaan AND THEY ARRIVED THERE.
Let us resolve to cut ourselves off from everything that hinders us from following the Lord or God’s commands to us.
