Abraham's Family

Portraits Of The Christian Faith

Abraham's faith was not given to him in a day but throughout His long life.

Abraham's Family Heritage

After the miracle of creation, where we learn that God spoke all things into existence from nothing, one chapter later, the fall of mankind occurred. One chapter later, the first martyr was murdered by his brother.

One chapter later, we read, "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." All these are followed by a flood that destroys the entire world, then known, and every person and animal on it except for those on the Ark that Noah built. These are extreme occurrences.

When we first meet Abram in Genesis 12, God tells him to go forth from his relatives, his Father's house, and to a land that He would reveal. He leaves his country but brings his Father and his nephew with him. Immediately preceding God's call to Abram, Noah's lineage through his son Shem was recorded in chapter 11. A line does not speak of all godly men, but a fine thread of godly men is present.

Abraham's Family Ties

It was John Calvin who referred to people as idol factories. We naturally feel that by lifting others up, we are being humble. However, the opposite is more often the case. Abraham goes down in history as the Father of the Faith, which is true and accurate. Nevertheless, there could be no heroes apart from God working within sinful men to produce a harvest of godly faith.

Abram did as the Lord instructed him, but not exactly. God did not tell Abram to bring his Father and nephew along but to leave them behind. In Stephen's sermon in Acts 7:2-4, we read concerning Abraham, "And he said, "Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our Father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, 'LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.' "Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his Father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living."

God does not play games; we live according to His commands, and He blesses only in His time.

Abraham's Family Discipline

Abram left his country and family, taking his Father and nephew. God blessed him with faith on his journey and promised he would be the Father of many people. As his faith turned to fear, he wavered, and he ventured into Egypt and gave his wife away. His wife was dishonored, and Pharoah became enraged. God remained faithful to Abram and built a larger faith in him. Pharoah and his house were plagued. After seeing how God was with Abram, he just wanted him to leave; he gave him more stuff to get rid of him. In Egypt, the war with the kings, Sarai's folly in thinking she could have a son through Hagar, Lot's presence in Sodom that ruined his wife and daughters. God remained faithful to those ordained to eternal life and built in them a godly faith.

We are reminded in Hebrews 12, "You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his Father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." (Hebrews 12:5-8).

Abraham's Family Example

Through years of trials and testing, God worked in Abram's heart to make him a man who exemplified God's greatest sacrifice, the Father's only Begotten Son. Abram's name was changed to Abraham, a father of many nations. Through the fall of Israel, which by and large rejected the offering of the Father's sacrifice for sin and instituted the gathering of Gentile nations as an intermediary until the fullness of the Gentiles would come in and Israel would be restored by the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. (Romans 9-11). Abraham's Family Example should be an awakening to us who do not merely have a shadow of things to come but the very substance of Christ's sacrifice that works within us.

It has been more than 3,500 years since the life of Abraham, and nothing has changed concerning the working of God within His people. Those of us who call ourselves sons of God, redeemed by the Lamb, and adopted into the divine family are continually being tested as to our faithfulness to the commands of scripture.

How are you doing?