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Abram/Abraham
Abram’s 1st Surrender: to go, leave
Ur of the Chaldeans and travel to Haran and then Cannan. Abram forsook all the
false gods of Ur to follow the true God of heaven and earth (Josh 24:2).
Abram’s brother (Nahor & wife Milcah) remained in Ur, worshipping the false gods of the city.
His father Terah traveled to Syria, Haran, and died there before they continue
the trip to Cannan.
Abram goes down to Egypt because of the famine and lies
about Sarai. The famine ends and they return to Cannan. They return to near
Bethel and Abram uses the altar he built before to worship Yahveh. Both he and Lot
are rich and have numerous animals and servants.
Abram’s 2nd Surrender: Abram lets Lot pick
first. Abram’s humility is rewarded by God’s expanding promise of giving Abram
and his decedents, the Jews, all the land of Israel and Jordan and beyond
forever. Abram was able, by faith, to see the big picture. Lot walked by sight.
Lot follows his sight, picking the well water lands and starts a process of
many bad decisions that lead to the death of his wife and incest with his
daughters. Moody makes the point, if it was not for the NT (Heb 11), we would
not expect to see Lot in heaven. He protects the angels from the perverted mob,
and he obeys the word of God from the angels, and he did not look back. Abram
prayed for Yahveh to spare the righteous in the city, and God sent His
messengers to rescue Lot’s family. But the first chastisement of God upon Lot
was to be robbed and taken captive by the four kings that defeated the 5 armies,
that included Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram, who was afraid of the men of Egypt,
defeats these four kings with 318 men and some Canaanite allies from Hebron. He
rises to the occasion and is operating by faith more than fear. Abram is
blessed by Melchizedek, the priest-king of Jerusalem.
Abram’s 3rd Surrender: Avoidance of
appearance of evil. Not letting it be said, ‘Abram is rich because he was paid
well by the king of Sodom.’ He refused the wages of perversion. An illustration
of this was when Oral Roberts was hiding in the tower to collect funds from widows’
retirements accounts and the dog tracks funding. He said, God will kill me if I
don’t meet the deadline. A Charismatic ministry to the homeless in Houston
Texas, Trinity Foundation, seeking to help some of those widows in TX that lost
their homes in sending their nest eggs to Oral Roberts, did the investigation
on Robert Tilton that Diana Sawyer reported on ABC along with Larry Lee, and
one other prosperity preachers living off funds sent to his ministry for
orphans in Hati. Trinity wanted to prevent more widows from becoming homeless.
Tilton went to jail. Abram would not take funds from the wicked king of Sodom.
Abram met with the Prince of Peace and the Prince of this
world. He does not lie here. He makes the right choice. Read Moody, Men of
the Bible, pg. 11, second paragraph to pg. 12.
Does God’s word say, “do not fear” to anyone else in the
Bible? It is said numerous times in both OT and NT, in both the Mosaic covenant
and the New Covenant. It is often a command. (See below)
Moody. “We find that Abram was constantly surrendering his
own selfish interest and trusting God.” What can we learn from his example of
controlling fear with faith and replacing worry with worship?
Which descendant (seed) of Abram is in view, in Gen 12, when
God says, “And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed?” and in Gen
22:18 “in your seed all nations of the earth will be blessed?” It is Jesus the
Messiah! See Matt 1:2, 16; Luke 3:23, 34; Gal 3:8, 15-16, 19, 29; Rom 1:1-7; Gen
3:15.
Abram listens to Sari and takes on Hagar as a second
wife/concubine and Ismael is born. God continues to purse Abram. He changes
both names, Abraham and Sarah. Hagar causes household division and then runs
away. The Angel of Yahveh finds her and sends her back to Abraham’s house. She
is to submit to Sarah. Abraham wants to move on with the promise of the
Messianic line through his son Ishmael. Yahveh says: “No.” This is going to be
a legitimate birth with your current wife, but a miraculous birth. (Also, a
type of the Messiah.) Isaac will be the heir through whom the Messiah comes.
Gen 21:1-12. Abraham has a dilemma because of his sin. He
does the hard thing and sends Hagar and Ishmael away. Of course, both Sarah and
Abraham knew this would cause problems when they chose the wrong path. Sarah
admits it here. The Angel of the Yahveh shows up again. God in providence leads
Hagar to a well and the 14-year-old boy and her survive and live in the desert
just north of Egypt. Abimelech enters into a covenant with Abraham. He lied to
this man about Sarah as his sister. A lie he committed a second time. So, now
they work out a covenant of peace. Abram has to swear before this pagan king
will trust him. Then comes the final surrender.
Abraham’s 4th Surrender: Give up your only
legitimate son, the Messiah’s ancestor.
Gen 22: 1-8
Moody puts himself in Abraham’s sandals and notes that he
probably could not have eaten or slept during this hard covenantal test. Abraham
had passed some tests and failed others. This is the supreme covenantal test.
Do we love anything more than God? Was Isaac an idol? Abraham, following his
faith, obeyed God and prepared to sacrifice his son. He trusted God would keep
His promise and that this might involve the first resurrection from the dead.
The angel of Yahveh called to him, Abraham, Abraham. Any time you see a double
name in the Bible, it signifies a close personal relationship. Jesus said,
Martha, Martha,” which reveals a kind tone and close friendship. It is done about
a dozen in the Bible. We will see in a moment Isaac is a type of Christ. God gave
this test before the Messiah was born so we could see the parallels. God will
never ask a person to do this again.
Gen 22:12-18
The Dome of the Rock is built over top this stone altar now
on the temple mound in Jerusalem. Mt. Moriah slopes down and you can see the
base of it at the north wall of the city. When one goes out the Damascus Gate,
to the right, down the road, on your left is the rock call Golgotha, the place
of the skull [Latin: Calvary = Cranium] across the Damascus highway is the wall
and the base of Mt. Moriah. It is possible that the three crosses were along
the road in-between Moriah and Golgotha. 4,000 years ago, [Abraham’s time] Golgotha
could have been connected to Moriah. It is only about 60’ apart.
The ram was not the only sacrifice that Yahveh provided for
Abraham and Isaac. Yeshua’s cross-work was also completed at the base of
Moriah, but also outside of the camp, as prophesied. The parallel language in
John 3:16 “Only Son” should alert us that Isaac and especially the ram are
types of the Messiah to come who is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father images always need biblical clarification. Don’t back-read
our human fathers’ characteristics to God like Martin Luther did for years. We
have the same temptation. God the Father is our model, we are not His model. He
is light and love, not just sternness. But He is always holy, and we are only holy
sometimes in practice. That is why God provided the sacrifice for us like he
did for Abraham, the lying, former idol worshiping adulterer. He was saved by
grace like we are saved by grace. God chased down this sinner. He left the 99
and went after the 1 sheep.
Do not Fear in the
Bible
Gen 15:1, 21:17, 26:24, 46:3; Exd 14:13, 20:20; Num 14:9,
21:34; Deut 1:17, 21, 29, 3:2, 22, 7:17-18, 18:22, 20:1-3, 31:6-8; Josh 1:2-9,
8:1, 10:8, 25,11:6; Judg 6:10, 23; 1 Sam 12:20; 2 Kngs 6:16, 17:35, 37, 38, 19:6;
1 Chrn 22:13, 28:20; 2 Chrn 20:15, 17, 2 Chrn 32:7; Neh 4:14; Psa 3:2, 27:3,
46:2, 56:4, 11, 78:53, 91:1-14, 112:7-8, 118:6; Prov 3:24-26; Isa 7:4, 8:11-12,
10:24, 12:2, 35:4, 37:6, 40:9, 41:10,
13-14, 43:1-5, 44:2, 8, 51:7-15, 54:4-8, 14-15; Jer 1:8, 10:5-7, 17:7-8, 23:4, 30:10-11,
42:11-12, 46:27-28, 51:45-48; Lam 3:56-57; Ezek 3:9, 34:26-31; Dan 10:12, 19; Zep
3:16; Joel 2:20-25; Hag 2:4-5; Zech
8:12-15; Matt 6:25-34, 10:26-31, 14:27, 17:5-9, 28:5, 10; Mar 5:36, 6:50, Luke 1:13, 30, 2:10, 5:10; 8:50, 12:4-9, 20-34;
Jhn 6:20, 12:15, 42-43; Acts 18:9-10, 27:24; Rom 8:15; Phil 4:6; Heb 11:23, 13:6;
1 Pet 3:13-15, 1 Jhn 4:14-18; Rev 1:17, 2:9-11, 21:7-8
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