Thoughts on Abraham

I was asked recently to write a Bible study for the National Bible Bowl blog. I thought I would repost it here for any of you who still read "Bill's View."

One of the main characters in our study this year is Abraham. A lot can be said about Abraham, and I’m sure, by this time, you’ve heard quite a bit about him. There is one component of his life, though, that I thought might get overlooked. I think it might benefit us to examine it before our time is totally consumed with one use words and lists. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his greatest dream to obey God. His devotion to the Lord is more important to him than anything else. That observation leads to a challenging, but necessary question. Am I willing to give up my dream, if asked, in obedience to God?

Abraham is clearly a man of faith and we know that he believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). In that, Abraham stands tall as a role model and an example for all who seek to be Godly. However, I think it is significant that Abraham, though he was successful and wealthy, was a man of “unfulfilled dreams” (Arnold and Beyer, Encountering the Old Testament, 92). As you know, Abram (as he was called at the time) and his wife Sarai (later Sarah) were childless. In the culture of that day being childless was a sad situation and created unique problems, especially for the wealthy. God, as he so often does, dealt with Abram and the point of his greatest pain; his descendants or lack thereof. God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 12 and reiterated in Genesis 15 and Genesis 17 contained two great promises that would be very important to a man of Abram’s day: land and descendants.

Throughout the middle part of our text (Genesis 12-22) we find God working with Abram and Sarai to bring about the covenant promises made to Abram. Their names are changed to Abraham (father of many nations) and Sarah (mother of many nations). We find God’s hand moving, in his time, to bring about the birth of Isaac. Along the way, though, we find Abraham and Sarah wrestling with whether or not God meant what he said and whether or not they should take matters into their own hands.

We know these accounts, too. Abraham had a servant in his house, Eliezer of Damascus, who would be his heir. It was “normal” for a childless man to adopt a servant or slave to be his heir. Abraham, being childless, was acting according to the norms of his time. God, though, told him that “this man will not be your heir.” Rather, “a son coming from your own body will be your heir” (Genesis 15:4). We notice that Abraham’s original plan was not God’s plan. The next idea of Abram’s and Sarai was for Abram to marry Sarai’s Egyptian maidservant Hagar. Out of that marriage came a son Ishmael, but not the fulfillment of God’s promise (Genesis 17:19-20). Finally, when Abraham and Sarah are very old and past the age when people have children, Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to Isaac (Genesis 21:1-7). At last, Abraham’s dream is realized. God is faithful and Abraham has a son to be his heir. All is well.

However, in Genesis 21, the foundation of Abraham’s life is shaken. God makes a request of him that would cause the strongest among us to flinch. “Take you son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” That request must’ve shocked Abraham. How could that be part of the plan? Can you imagine what Abraham must’ve thought about that night? What does he tell Sarah? Does he tell her anything? We don’t know. What we do know is that “early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey” (Genesis 22:3). He was going to make that journey. For two full days, he, Isaac and two servants traveled to the mountain to which God had instructed him. Those days had to be two of the most difficult of Abraham’s life. God was telling him to sacrifice his dream on an altar of obedience.

I want to pause the story at this point for just a moment. Like Abraham, we have dreams, too. Sometimes God allows us to realize our dreams and life is really good. The difficult question is would we be willing to lay our dream on the altar of sacrifice if God asked us to do so? Is there anything more important to us than doing what God asks us to do?

We know the rest of the story. Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac. I personally believe that, had the angel not stopped him, he would have plunged the knife. God had miraculously given him Isaac. I think he believed God would raise him again. Abraham trusted God completely and wholly. That’s the challenge for us, too. Do you trust him?