Genesis 11:26-25:11

It is interesting to think about the fact that there are only a handful of chapters given to provide the accounts of creation, all that it contains, and God having to “restart” the entire human race, but by the time we start reading Genesis:11:26, an entire thirteen chapters dedicated to the life of one man, His relationship to God, and the promise regarding his family.  

After learning this, the question that I had was, “Why?” I mean, you would think it would be the opposite. Why did God choose to give more information here than He did in creation or providing more clear and concise answers for other portions of Scripture? Further, once we even get into Abraham’s life, it’s not like we’re reading a satisfying biography. There are substantial pieces of Abraham’s life and origin that are missing. Once again, the question “Why?” comes to mind. 

But could it be that God’s primary objective is to teach us about who He is, rather than only teaching us about what He did? Could it be that God desired a right Theology from us, before we became concerned with anything else? 

This should tell us a great deal about the central purpose in God, and Him providing us Scripture in the first place. Yes, of course, we would like to know answers to different questions not specifically answered in the Bible. But when we come to the story of Abraham, it becomes very clear that God did not give us Scripture to satisfy our taste for philosophical or metaphysical questions; He gave us Scripture to teach us about how we can have a right relationship with Him. 

Keep this in mind as we briefly follow Abraham’s life and enroll with him in Faith 101. 

God, I Will Go— Genesis 11:26- 12:6

At the time when we are first introduced to Abraham, we find that his name is not Abraham at all— it’s Abram— and Abram was not a follower of God, he was a pagan. He was actually on a trip with his father, Terah, who was moving his family from Ur to Haran and both were large places of worship for the moon god, Sin. 

If we do a little Bible research though, we find from Acts 7:2, that while Terah and his family were in Mesopotamia as they were traveling, Abraham received a call from God (Genesis 12:1-3) and told him to leave everything behind in order to go into a land that God would show him once he got there. 

Now, for the most part, we are creatures of habit. We usually like where we live, we like our acquaintances, friends, and family, we like our livelihoods, and we certainly like our security. Any step into the unknown most of the time will cause us to think twice before actually doing it. But what we witness with Abraham is God telling him to leave everything— including comfort and companionship of some of his closest family members— and go to a place that he will only know once he gets there. Also, in this passage we see that Abraham was also promised that his seed would be made into great nation. 

I don’t know how much you like surprises… but this was a significant surprise. If you can imagine the breakfast conversation the next morning, you might get a feel of just how significant it was. This wasn’t a situation where Abraham would merely be blindfolded and told that when he opened his eyes, there would be a huge present waiting for him. This was a life-altering decision. You can almost guess the response of his father after hearing the news, “God, spoke to you… and told you to leave your family?” “Yes,” said Abraham. “Well, have you ever met this God before? How do you know He is better than the god we serve? You would be willing to trust Him?” Abraham would say, once again, “Yes.” His father might then ask questions like, where are you going? How long will you be there? You can’t just trust any god, you know. However, Abraham, at 75 years old, trusted God, took his wife and his nephew Lot, and started traveling (Genesis 12:4-8). 

This was the beginning of Abraham’s faith journey. The time in his life when he told God, “God, I will go.” and never looked back. Now, certainly in this chapter, and in a few following, we find mistakes and trials in Abraham’s life (and they won’t be his last), but this first step of obedience was a critical turning point. Abraham’s faith in God began to be solidified right here. 

And just like Abraham, there was a critical act of obedience toward God in the life of the believer— a crucial moment when we trusted Christ as our personal Savior. Does that mean that this was the end of our trials or mistakes? Absolutely not. But this was where our faith in God began, and the point from which it started to grow.

God, Let Me Help— Genesis 12:7-21:34

In the next major event in Abraham’s life we find that it had to do with the promise of his seed. God promised to make from his seed, a great nation, and that whoever would bless him, God would bless, and whoever cursed him, God would curse (Genesis 12:2-3). However, there was one major problem (at least Abraham and his wife Sarah thought there was a problem), they were getting well out of range of ‘normal’ parental age— especially Sarah. 

Years passed; and as they did, Abraham had to endure the pride of his nephew Lot (Genesis 13:1-13), God renewed his vow with Abraham (Genesis 13:14-18), Abraham had to rescue Lot from a kidnapping (Genesis 14), and God promises Abraham an heir and renews his covenant with him again. During all of this time, doubt was lingering in the heart of Abraham and his wife Sarah, despite God’s reassurance that in fact a son would be given. 

So after what was deemed to be too much time for God to work out this situation, Sarah decides she needs to help God out. (That doesn’t sound like anything we would do does it? We never think that God isn’t working fast enough or is incapable of dealing with your situation so you try and handle it yourself, do we? Sadly, we do. And sadly, just as in this situation, it worked out terribly.) 

As the story continues, Sarah gave Abraham Hagar, after convincing him that God needed help, and told him that the child Hagar would bare would be the heir that God had promised. Abraham consents and eventually has a son named Ishmael, and a tremendous amount of family drama was created (Genesis 16). 

Let’s pause right here for a moment and speak about how God, in His grace, began to intervene in this situation, and eventually built a great nation out of the line of Ishmael. This is what God does, He provides grace even in the middle of our sin. However, as we have seen all throughout the pages of Genesis this far, and will continue to see throughout the Bible (and our lives), that consequences of sin always remain. God’s grace does not erase our action just because we are sorry.  

God, You Are Good— Genesis 21

After the birth of Ishmael, a significant amount of time passes again, however, this time, Abraham and Sarah wait. And during this waiting time, several events have taken place:

1) Genesis 18:1-15— Abraham and Sarah host angelic guests and reaffirm God’s promise.

2) Genesis 18:16-22— The angelic guests tell Abraham of the impending judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

3) Genesis 18:23-33— Abraham starts his intercessory prayers for these two cities but can’t find any righteous so that the cities will be spared.

4) Genesis 19:1-11—  The angels visit Lot and give instruction that he and his family must leave. Besides this, there are several heinous acts that occur.

5) Genesis 19:12-29— Lot and family are finally forced to leave and the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. Also, Lot’s wife is taken for looking back to the city.

6) Genesis 19:30-38— A grotesque sexual act takes place between Lot and his two daughters.

7) Genesis 20:1-18— Abraham has another bout with dishonesty between he and Abimelech.

Finally, after all of this we get to read these words in Genesis 21:1-2, “And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” 

Directly after this event, you can tell that they there is great joy in the receiving of this new life. They are so overjoyed that they just had to laugh. In fact, because they laughed so much they named their son Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Later on, there was a full feast celebration after Isaac had weaned from his mother. They were so overjoyed because of this promised son. 

It’s a good thing the story finally Once again, there has never been a single promise that God has not fulfilled, or will forget to fulfill. 

God, You Provide— Genesis 22-25:11

If we were writing this story, we might write, “And they all lived happily ever after…” once Isaac was born— that perhaps this family was set in their faith, and that there was just a type of “spiritual costing” that took place where they would just enjoy God, He would enjoy them, and there were no more trials. But once again… that’s only if we were writing the story, not God. 

In the final portions of Abraham’s life we find that the trials aren’t done yet and actually, the test of his faith was going to be greater here than ever before. The question Abraham would face would be this: “Can I fully trust God? Or do I fully trust myself?” This is a question we all have to face, but most of us never reach the degree of trust that Abraham displays here. 

In Genesis 22:1-2, we find these words, “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only  son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” 

Attempts have been made to try and run through the emotional distress of Abraham here and give some sort of indication of how confused, hurt, challenged, shocked, and saddened Abraham might have been once this instruction was given, but I’ve never read or heard anything that could touch what it must have been like. 

Surprisingly, the Bible is silent on this issue, and the next thing you read after God speaks to Abraham is that he rose up early in the morning to do exactly what God told him (Genesis 22:3). This should tell us something significant about the trust that had been cultivated in Abraham by God. There was no hesitation, there was no protest as there had been with Sodom and Gomorrah, there was only an immediate response of obedience. 

As we follow the passage, other indications are given that tell us a great deal about his faith. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham tells the other young men that are with he and his son to stay at a specific location while he and his son went to worship. He further said that they both would be return from the mountain. In Genesis 22:7 when Isaac was finally piecing all of this together and realized that they did not have a “traditional” sacrifice, asked a gut wrenching question, “but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” and Abraham’s response is stunningly optimistic in verse 8, “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” 

And as the story continues just before Abraham was about to puncture his son with the knife, God stopped him and told him “… Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” (Genesis 22:12)

From this point, Abraham is suddenly directed toward a ram that was caught in the thicket and this became the substitutionary sacrifice for his son. Abraham immediately notices that this gift from God and right then and there declares God as “Jehovah-Jireh” “The LORD GOD Provides”. God truly had provided for Abraham, and in this moment of faith, it was formally recognized. 

Once again, we come to a place where we feel like the story can end. In reading this portion of God’s word our emotions are running high, our hearts cry “hallelujah!”, as we sit satisfied at the story’s end. However, the story doesn’t end. There is one final portion to Abraham’s faith journey, and it has to do with his son. 

As Abraham’s life is drawing to a close, his wife Sarah dies and his son, Isaac, is left motherless and is still not married. So Abraham sends out his most trusted servant to travel to his homeland and select a wife for him there rather than from the land of the Canaanites (Genesis 24:1-9).

With the conclusion of the narrative, Rebekah is selected and agrees to marry Isaac, God once again provides. 

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Summary:

Discussion Points:

Discuss how each of these points are applied to this Biblical narrative: 

• Deception is usually the first response whenever we sense danger.  
• God promises that the blessings on His people will be both supernatural and eternal. 
• God’s people are often impatient when it comes to waiting on God.
• Always lean on God’s promises when we don’t want to wait. 
• It is always better to trust God than to trust ourselves.