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AbramFamilyAbram was immersed in a culture of total paganism. We like to imagine that Abram got fed up with all the worthless gods and goddesses of his father, and one day sought out to find the real God. That sounds really nice, but it implies Abram somehow played a part in God choosing him. Unfortunately, this is completely wishful thinking, and totally contrary to Scripture’s depiction of mankind's total depravity [Romans 3:10-12]! There’s certainly no Biblical indication that Abram was any different from the thousands of other pagans worshiping—or at least acknowledging the existence of—the moon-god and a pantheon of other false gods. Abram probably grew up serving Nanna the moon-god; he could have helped his father manufacture idols. But for God's own pleasure and purpose He elected this one man from among the darkness of willfully ignorant humanity, and personally illuminated him! This should be extremely comforting. Abram is exactly like us. Like us, God chose him before he even knew who the true God was. Like us, he frequently misunderstood God, he sometimes willfully disobeyed God, he occasionally took matters into his own hands—and then botched things up. He stumbled and fell. He and his descendants have suffered horrible consequences from his mistakes, but through the process Abram learned to trust and rely upon the living God. When God presented Abraham with the ultimate test, he passed—and became an example for us all. He will forever be remembered as a mighty man of faith, but it took him many long hard years to get there! The Promise
God initially confronted him at some undisclosed time while Abram was still in Ur. God gave a promise and presented a choice. The components of God's promise were:
Abram's choice, of course, was whether or not to trust this unseen God to fulfill these promises—then act upon that trust. There were no conditions or limitations placed on the fulfillment of these promises. Each statement begins with God's emphatic, “I will...” The only stipulation God made for the implementation was that Abram was to separate himself from his father, his relatives, and his country. Sounds easy enough, but, of course, this was nothing less than a challenge to give up his security, his way of life, and everything he held dear to rely entirely upon this “new” and unseen god. Once Abram acted, God was then bound by his own word to fulfill his own promises. Things Begin Poorly for Abram
It does not appear that Abram was nearly as successful in immediately obeying God as we might have hoped. God told him to leave his country, leave his relatives, and specifically leave his father; Abram moved only as far as the sister-city Haran (technically, in a different country; but still within the same unified kingdom). But, he took his father and all the rest of the family with him! He left Ur of the Chaldeans with his entire extended family but only got as far as Haran—where they all probably settled in with his brother. Abram didn’t budge from Haran until his father died! When he finally did leave, he still took his nephew Lot and Lot’s family with him! All this was in direct contradiction to God's instructions. While Abram's partial obedience delayed God's promises (there's no indication in the Bible that God blessed him, or even talked with him again until he entered the Promised Land), it did not negate God's promises. Abram’s disobedience here would have dire consequences but the fulfillment of God's promises didn't rest upon Abram's faithfulness, but upon God's faithfulness. Into the Promised Land (and Out Again)Abram had journeyed 800 miles northwest from Ur to Haran. When he finally left Haran, he journeyed southwest to enter the Promised Land from the north (he was seventy-five years old)--essentially, he was going around the Arabian desert. His first stop was Shechem (about 34 miles north of present day Jerusalem), where he built his first alter. At last in the Promised Land, the Lord met him again and reaffirmed the promise that this land would indeed belong to him and his descendants. Abram understood this to mean his physical seed.
Abram moved 15 miles further south and built a second alter at Bethel. Then he continued further south into the Negev region in the extreme south of Canaan—and kept right on going all the way out of the Promised Land and into Egypt (probably during the 11th dynasty at Thebes which began 2134 BC, and the Pharaoh Mery-ku-re)! Why did he leave the land God had given him? Well, there was famine in the Promised Land. Abram didn't yet trust God sufficiently to provide for his needs, so Abram left God’s place of provision and went where the grass looked greener ...and where he soon became entangled in danger and deceit trying to pass off his wife as his sister. In spite of Abram’s sin (and what must have involved a very embarrassing confrontation with an angry Pharaoh) God continued to bless Abram according to his promise. Why did God continue to bless him even after Abram obviously disobeyed? How is it that Abram ignored God, lied, got his wife to lie, but still made out like a bandit—while the unsuspecting Pharaoh who got “taken” in this deception (the only “innocent” party) got plagues? The only logical conclusion is that Abram’s promised blessings were not contingent upon his own ability to remain obedient and faithful, but upon God’s faithfulness to his own promises. God had promised to bless Abram if Abram came to the Promised Land—Abram had. Abram returned to Bethel a much richer man, but soon had problems with his nephew Lot. Eventually, Lot went his own way and Abram went the other.
In parting from Lot, Abram had finally complied with the last of God's stipulations, and God appeared once again to reaffirm his land promise—detailing the physical extent of that possession. God specifically stated this is a permanent possession of Abram and his physical descendants whom he will make too numerous to count. Someone will cite Paul's allegorical use of "seed" as referring to Jesus. Without detracting anything from Paul's argument, the context of "seed" in this passage is obviously plural—referring specifically to Abram's physical descendants whom would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. The land is NOT just given to Jesus, the land is given to Abraham and his physical descendants (corporately) in perpetuity. This is the way Abram obviously understood it, and it's ludicrous to imagine God misrepresenting a contract--knowing full-well Abram thought God meant his physical descendants. The Binding Contract
If there was ever any question as to whether God actually intended fulfilling these promises to Abram, God here dispels all doubt. The creator of the universe entered into a binding contract with one of his creatures. What this passage describes is a ritual form of contract as actually practiced at that time. Two contracting parties would cut an animal into quarters and spread the pieces out on the ground, then they would walk around the pieces in a figure eight pattern—meeting face-to-face in the middle. Surrounded by the bloody pieces symbolizing what should happen to either of them if they broke the covenant, they would recite their pledge to each other and pledge themselves to whatever their particular agreement was. Their oath was not only binding upon the two individuals, it was also binding upon their two families. (As an example, David and Jonathan would years later likewise enter a binding oath, which David ended up fulfilling to one of Jonathan's descendants after Jonathan was dead.)
The unusual aspect of God’s contract with Abram was that Abram was put to sleep—he did not participate in the promising! This was not a contract between two equal parties--each receiving and obligating. This was the God of the universe unilaterally binding himself to fulfill his promises to Abram and Abram's physical descendants. Abram pledged nothing in return! In the stating of this promise, God goes even further in defining the physical boundaries of the Promised Land. Essentially, everything between the Nile and the Euphrates rivers—which is quite a large chunk of land, and which Abram’s physical descendants have yet to fully control. This unconditional contract cannot be broken; all the subsequent unconditional contracts in the Bible are merely expansions of these original promises to Abram of physical and Spiritual blessings. As a side note, it’s interesting that God also prophesized here that Abram’s descendents would go into bondage four hundred years (they were actually in Egypt 430 years, but apparently only subjugated for the last 400 years). At least one of the reasons was because, “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” This isn’t very surprising! The Amorites didn’t exist yet—and they wouldn’t have ever existed if Abram had left Lot back in Ur as instructed! Instead, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Lot fathered two sons by his own daughters. These sons grow up to father the Moabites and Amorites. The children of Israel struggled against these two nations when they entered the Promised Land; after they did enter the Promised Land, during the time of Gideon the Moabites controlled the land for seven years while Abraham's descendants were cowering in caves. Disobedience ALWAYS causes problems for somebody! Abraham’s Second-guesses God
Abram understood the promises to be to himself and his physical descendants. Having no real son, he initially assumed God would fulfill his promise through his servant, Eliezer of Damascus, as was the custom. This was legal, but this wasn’t what God had planned. Abram and his wife then decided to help God out by having a son through their Egyptian servant Hagar—also perfectly legal, but another big mistake Abram’s descendants are still paying! “[Ishmael] will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” Almost 25 years after Abraham entered the Promised Land, God again appeared to him. God once again reaffirmed his promises: Abraham would be the father of many nations; Abraham would have many physical descendants which would also be included in the benefits of this covenant; Abraham and these descendants would get the land as an “everlasting possession.” God added two additional dimensions not previously stated—“kings shall come out of thee,” and “I will be their God.” As a sign and reminder of the prior covenant, God institutes another covenant—circumcision.
The promise to be God to the descendants is an expansion of the original Spiritual blessings; the promise of kings arises from the physical blessings (although some might see this with Messianic applications and consider it a Spiritual blessings). The covenant of circumcision was NOT part of the original contract. In speaking of the seed (plural) to whom God will give the land, “I will be their God.” God states unequivocally that he will be their God. He’s not hoping they’ll "accept" him as Savior some day, he’s not anticipating someday the Gentiles will evangelize them, and he’s certainly not setting up a list of rules he hopes they’ll all be able to follow so they can become his people. He’s stating bluntly he WILL do it—and one gets the sense that if they're not willing now, God has ways of MAKING them willing. This is just as unconditional as the land promises because it’s all tied together in the original contract. The coming tribulation will make Israel willing! Into The Land of The PhilistinesAfter multiple encounters with the living God, and after receiving staggering promises and material blessings, Abraham strays once again. He heads south again, but this time only goes as far as the land of the Philistines—just short of actually entering Egypt. He plays the “she’s my sister” act again, but this time God immediately intervenes by warning the Philistine king (God didn't want any possibility question that the promised child might belong to someone else). It’s ironic that this heathen acts more honorably than God’s mighty man of faith—but Abraham is still learning--and still being blessed with even more wealth! Abraham’s SacrificeIt’s ironic that the one defining act of Abraham's life—the one he's most remembered for—is trying to sacrifice his son. However, this is the act that finally “puts feet to his faith” and earns him his rightful place in the Hebrews faith-heroes hall of fame:
God appeared to Abraham and commanded him to take Isaac north to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed there. Abraham had been 100 years old when Isaac was born, but there’s no telling how old Isaac is at this time. Because of his observant and knowledgeable questions during the trip, commentators conclude Isaac was probably at least a teenager, others speculate Isaac was 33 years old (the same age as Jesus when he died). Regardless of age, Isaac obviously was strong enough to overpower a 100+ year old father if he had chosen to--that makes Isaac a willing sacrifice typifying Jesus. Here, God once again asked Abraham to give up everything to obey him but this time Abraham showed no sign of hesitancy or doubt. Scripture later records that he was willing to do this because he knew God could not break his promise to give him physical descendants through Isaac. Abraham reasoned that God would raise him back to life if necessary, and he trusted God to do whatever it would take to fulfill his promise. As Abraham was about to strike the deathblow, the Angel of the Lord (usually denoting a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Son—technically called a Christophany) appeared and provided the sacrifice—the perfect picture of Messiah’s substitutionary atonement 2,000 years later.
Moriah means “chosen by Jehovah” and indeed it was. Moriah was a range of hills on the eastern edge of what would eventually become Jerusalem. It was on Moriah that King David built a sacrificial alter to stop the death angel from destroying Jerusalem. On Moriah, Solomon built the first temple where the priests acted out the Passion play every year—on the Day of Atonement—as they plunged their knives into the necks of innocent lambs. After the return from captivity the temple was rebuilt on the same spot. Ultimately, Messiah fulfilled the “type” of Abraham’s and the priest’s sacrifices on Moriah—some scholars believe this actually occurred in exactly the same spot as Abraham’s sacrifice! Abraham named this place Jehovahjireh meaning, “The Lord provides.”
Originally written November 29, 2001 by George Lazzell III Revised January 16, 2002 Revised November 9, 2003
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