Abraham

One Nomad's Amazing Journey of Faith

Charles R. Swindoll

• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781496400437
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Biography

When we rewind history back to Abraham's era, we encounter people who concocted false superstitions to explain the unexplainable. Powerful kings claimed to be gods, building massive pyramids to achieve immortality. Out of this mass of misunderstandings, one man emerged. The man we know today as Abraham not only claimed that one true Creator existed but also staked his entire life on this belief. Why, thousands of years later, are we still discussing the faith of this desert nomad? One of America's most popular Bible teachers Pastor Chuck Swindoll answers that question and many more in this compelling and insightful biography that will inspire your own faith.

CHAPTER 1

GOING . . . NOT KNOWING

IN THE BEGINNING, God created everything—the universe, our sun, this planet—and He populated the earth with plants, fish, birds, animals, and finally humans. And it was good . . . in fact, very good. Everything in creation existed in symbiotic collaboration with everything else. That is, until Adam and his wife, Eve, the first humans, violated their Creator’s one and only rule: of all the millions of fruit trees on the earth, do not eat the fruit of one specific tree (see Genesis 2:15-17). When they chose to eat of that tree anyway, despite the Creator’s grave warning, everything changed. Everything.

Their choice to disobey God was an act of rebellion. They chose to follow their own desires instead of trusting in God’s leadership. And their act of rebellion changed how the world operates. Before the Fall, everything had worked according to God’s grace, but after that moment, the world quickly became a place characterized by suffering, disease, pain, selfishness, violence, and death. People were born with Adam’s rebellious nature, and within just a few generations, the entire human race became so incorrigibly corrupt that God wiped out all but a handful of lives—Noah and his family (see Genesis 6–9).

Several generations after this new beginning, the human population rebounded, but its moral condition was hardly any better. In fact, by the time of Abraham, humanity was well on its way to becoming incorrigible again. People lived according to their own rules, which according to archaeological data included all kinds of vice and perversion. Instead of seeking to know God, their Creator, they exchanged truth for superstition. They entertained themselves with campfire stories of mythical spirit beings whose activities affected the physical world, they carved idols to represent these imaginary gods, and they then did appalling things to appease them.

God could have turned His back on creation. He could have abandoned humanity to its own self-destructive ignorance. He was not morally compelled to rescue humanity from the evil it created and perpetuated. Even so, God established a plan to redeem the world, beginning with one man. He would make this man a model recipient of saving grace and establish him as the founding father of a new and unique nation. In time, as the plan unfolded, this nation would become the means by which all the world might hear of the one true Creator God and return to Him.

God’s redemptive plan began with His choice of a man named Abram.

God’s Chosen Man

We know this man by the name Abraham, but he was born Abram. God changed his name at a critical point in the narrative, but for the first 99 of his 175 years, he answered to Abram.

He lived around the end of the Early Bronze Age (circa 2000 BC) in a thriving, bustling, cultured city known as “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Genesis 11:28). The land of the Chaldeans—also known as Mesopotamia—was located in present-day Iraq, which archaeologists and historians call the cradle of civilization because this is where ancient people first gathered into cities and established societies. “Few periods from ancient history are as well documented by artifacts and inscriptions as is the time of Abraham.”[4] Consequently, we know a lot about this man’s culture, religion, beliefs, and everyday life.

Abram was an ordinary member of his society, no different from his neighbors. Upon his birth, he received a name that means “the father is exalted”—most likely a reference to the deity worshiped by his family. People in ancient Mesopotamia worshiped a pantheon of mythical gods, ruled by the moon god, Sin, whom they regarded as “the lord of heaven” and “the divine creator.”[5] Like his relatives and neighbors, Abram worshiped idols and accepted mythology as truth (see Joshua 24:2). Even so, God appeared specifically to Abram and gave him personalized instructions: “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).

It is important to note that God didn’t appear to a group of people and then offer a general invitation to follow. We should also observe that Abram didn’t seek out God for a relationship; God approached him. It’s doubtful Abram had even heard of the one true Creator God before that point. By an act of pure grace, God dipped His hand into that idolatrous hole to select Abram out of all people.

The Lord chose Abram for reasons known only in heaven. Abram did nothing to earn or deserve God’s favor.

Why this particular man? Did Abram turn from the idols of his ancestors and seek God? Did he make himself worthy of divine mercy? Far from it! The Lord chose Abram for reasons known only in heaven. We can say for certain that Abram did nothing to earn or deserve God’s favor. Nevertheless, the Lord appeared to this ignorant, sinful, superstitious idol worshiper and said, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-3).

God’s call of Abram began with an imperative—a clear command. God told him to leave his country for a land that He would show him . . . sometime later. To receive the promised blessings, Abram had to leave behind everything he relied on for safety and provision—homeland and relatives—and trust that God would honor His commitment. A New Testament writer reflected on his ancestor, stating, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).

Stop and think about that for a moment. Put yourself in Abram’s place. You’re roughly seventy-five years old, with a wife in her midsixties. You’ve lived in one place your whole life. You have an established homestead in a familiar city with family and a community you’ve known since birth. Suddenly, the Lord appears to you in a physical manifestation—whether visual or auditory—you cannot deny as authentically supernatural, and He tells you to pack up and hit the road for an undisclosed destination. Can you imagine Abram’s conversations with friends and neighbors?

“Oh, I see you’re packing up, Abram.”

“Yeah.”

“Really? You’re leaving town?”

“Yes, we leave in a few days.”

“You know, you’re not getting any younger. Are you ready to start all over somewhere?”

“Yep, Sarai and I are moving.”

“Really? So, where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re packing up everything you have, leaving everything familiar, and you have no idea where you’re headed? Have you lost your mind?”

Everything within us recoils from making big changes without thorough planning. Most of us need to see where we’re jumping before committing to a leap. But God called Abram to obey this call without complete information. Abram didn’t know where he was going, so he couldn’t trust in a well-thought-out, long-range plan. Nevertheless, the Lord gave Abram sufficient information to make a reasonable decision.

When Abram encountered the Lord, he knew that God was real. The awesome splendor of God’s presence left him no room for doubt. Moreover, the Lord gave him three specific promises that made obedience worth his trouble. While his neighbors thought he had lost his mind, Abram had good reason to trust in God, even without knowing every detail of the plan.

God’s Unconditional Covenant

Different kinds of covenants appear throughout the Old Testament—some between individuals, others between nations. There are also several divine covenants, which are contracts or agreements between God and people. In the Garden of Eden, the Creator established a covenant with Adam and Eve: “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16-17). Note the promise: “If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die” (verse 17).

A little further in the Scriptures we come to Noah’s time, when God said, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth! Build a large boat” (Genesis 6:13-14). When the floodwaters receded, the Lord promised, “I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth. . . . I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth” (Genesis 9:11-13).

Some covenants are conditional, meaning that fulfillment by one party depends upon fulfillment by the other. These agreements usually include if/then statements: “If you do your part, then I will do my part.” When God settled the Israelites in the Promised Land, He established a conditional covenant with them: “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). Conversely, He said, “But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you. . . . The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 20).

An unconditional covenant is a straightforward promise that contains no stipulations. In the Lord’s first encounter with Abram, He established an unconditional covenant. He did give the patriarch a command, and Abram had to obey to claim the Lord’s blessings. Still, the promises did not contain if/then statements. They were simple declarations:

• “I will make you into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2).
• “I will bless you and make you famous” (verse 2).
• “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt” (verse 3).
• “All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (verse 3).

Note also that the covenant includes three major areas of blessing:

• a national blessing
• a personal blessing
• an international blessing

God promised a national unconditional blessing. Abram’s descendants would be numerous enough to form a large nation. Let us not overlook the fact that God made this pledge to a man in his midseventies! Abram’s wife, by then in her midsixties, had not given birth to any children. As a barren couple well past their prime, they had given up hope of having a single child, to say nothing of a whole nation of descendants. Yet the Lord promised, “I will make you into a great nation.”

Today we know that God had in mind the nation of Israel, as history tells us that Abraham is the father of the Hebrew people. God made this promise to bless a nation without conditions; He guaranteed its fulfillment without fail. Of course, Abram and Sarai had to wait. They were not yet ready to receive this particular blessing. A twenty-five-year, faith-building journey lay before them. And when Abram’s confidence wavered during those years between the promise and the fulfillment, the Lord reaffirmed His unconditional covenant at least two more times.

When Abram arrived in Canaan, the territory was overrun by the kind of evil that had precipitated the great Flood (see Genesis 6–9). To make matters worse, Abram relinquished part of his land claim to settle a family dispute (see Genesis 13:1-12). The Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!” ( verses 14-16).

Years later—still with no child of his own—Abram wondered if perhaps his chief servant, Eliezer, would become his official heir. The Lord soothed the patriarch’s fear.

The LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” . . .

So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants...