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... with God. Although Abraham and Lot had departed company, Abraham still concerned himself in the welfare of his nephew. During this occasion, Abraham assembled his men and showed himself as a warrior against an array of forces in order to rescue Lot from captivity. He and his men were victorious in retrieving Lot and all the stolen bounty. After the rescue, Abraham was blessed by and tithed to Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who was also performing in the duties of a priest of God (Peterson, 53).
GOD'S COVENANT Although Abraham had great faith and continued to worship God at the altar, he also had moments of question. Genesis 15 depicts one of those moments. Abraham is questioning the LORD about the promise of his descendants inheriting the land, when he and Sarah are without a child. Abraham in his own mental reasoning was trying to figure out who the heir could be. He prompted God about Eliezer, his servant, and God's answer was that Abraham's own offspring would be the heir. Then God instructed Abraham on carrying out the blood sacrifice covenant and then confirmed the promise which He had made to Abraham about being the father of many descendants.
IN THEIR OWN HAND After waiting a period of ten years, Abraham and Sarah decided to take matters into their own hands to gain a child. Sarah relied on society's custom of presenting her maid servant as a concubine to Abraham in order to produce a child (Davis, 188). This may have been the legal custom of the day, but it certainly was not God's plan to fulfill the promise He had for Abraham. As a result of their union, Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Although this union was not in God's perfect plan for Abraham, God did intervene when there was trouble between Sarah and Hagar. God actually provided Hagar with the name for the child, Ishmael (Davis 189).
Genesis 16: 16 reveals Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. God was absent from Abraham for the next thirteen years. BACK ON GOD'S PLAN God re-energized communion with Abraham and continued to press forward with His plan for Abraham and Sarah. There is no indication in scripture that God held the action and lack of belief of Abraham and Sarah against them. God just came right back after the absence and re-established His covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 17: 5 is where God changed Abraham's name from Abram to Abraham, "a father of many nations. " Then in Genesis 17: 15 - 16, God changed the name of Sarai to Sarah and stated that she would have son; the heir that He had earlier promised them. In Genesis 17: 19 God told them to name their son Isaac and also proclaimed His everlasting covenant with Isaac and his descendants. ABRAHAM INTERCEDES God visited with Abraham along with two angels and prior to ending the visit revealed His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Elmer Towns relates that the sharing of this thought with Abraham indicated the level of intimacy in their relationship. He states that "Good friends do not keep secrets from friends" (119).
God planned to destroy the cities because of the depravity of the people living within them. Upon learning of the pending destruction, Abraham began interceding on the behalf of the righteous people in Sodom. Again, Abraham showed concern for Lot by his intercession. God ultimately destroyed Sodom and also Gomorrah as planned, however, Lot and some of his family escaped. Nonetheless, Lot continued in sin with his daughters. ABRAHAM SLIPS BACKWARD While settled in Gerar, Abraham again lacked faith in God's hand of protection.
Just as he had done earlier in Egypt, Abraham told the half-truth that Sarah was his sister as opposed to revealing that she was his wife. Abimelech, the king of Gerar, was only temporarily deceived. God again intervened to preserve Sarah's qualifications for the birth of the promised child, Isaac. Abimelech restored Sarah back to Abraham along with material riches (Alter, 92 - 96). ISAAC'S BIRTH God carried out His promise in fulfillment of the covenant He made with Abraham. Isaac was born as predicted.
Elmer Towns states it in a few words, "Abraham waited twenty-five years for the promised seed, but Isaac arrived right on time according to God's calendar and clock" (132). To convey a clear understanding that Isaac was in the righteous line, the promised seed, God had Abraham send Ishmael and Hagar away. However, because Ishmael was of Abraham's seed, God still provided a blessing for Ishmael by making him the father of a nation as well (Hayford's Handbook, 7). GOD'S TEST God's instruction to Abraham to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice was the greatest test of Abraham's faith. After waiting many years for the promise of a son to be fulfilled, only to turn around and kill him on the altar must have been hard to grip. However, Abraham wholeheartedly obeyed the directive from the LORD.
As stated in Hebrews 11: 17 - 19, Abraham offered Isaac up to God by faith and with a belief that God would return Isaac back to him. As Elmer Towns digested scripture and points out, that Abraham knew prior to going up on the mountain that both he and Isaac would return (142). The main point to the test was as Towns states, "God did not want the sacrifice of a son but rather the surrender of a father" (141). Abraham passed the test of complete obedience and surrender to God's perfect will.
This was his high point of faith which set the example for all that followed. THE LATTER YEARS The rest of Abraham's days were anti-climatic. He handled the burial of Sarah, who according to Genesis 23: 1 died at 127 years of age. He arranged the marriage of Isaac to Rebekah. He also took a second wife and continued to have children as spoken about in Genesis 25.
Also stated there is the fact that, "he gave all that he had to Isaac. " Then in Genesis 25: 7 - 9 the scriptures describe Abraham's death. He died at 175 years of age and buried next to Sarah. WORKS CITED Alter, Robert Genesis: Translation and Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 1996.
Davis, John J. Paradise to Prison: Studies in Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1973. Hayford, Jack W. , editor. Hayford's Bible Handbook.
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc. , 1995. Hayford, Jack W. , editor. New Spirit Filled Life Bible: NKJV. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc. , 2002. Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Remix: The Bible in Contemporary Language.
Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 2003. Towns, Elmer L. A Journey Through the Old Testament. Mason, OH: Thomson Learning Custom Publishing, 2002. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alter, Robert Genesis: Translation and Commentary.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 1996. Davis, John J. Paradise to Prison: Studies in Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1973.
File, Bruce. Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. Goldstein, David. Library of the World's Myths and Legends: Jewish Legends. New York: Peter Bedrock Books, 1987.
Halley, H. H. Halley's Bible Handbook. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1965. Hayford, Jack W. , editor. Hayford's Bible Handbook.
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc. , 1995. Hayford, Jack W. , editor. New Spirit Filled Life Bible: NKJV. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc. , 2002. Lockyer, Herbert. All the Men of the Bible.
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1958. Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Remix: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 2003. Towns, Elmer L. A Journey Through the Old Testament.
Mason, OH: Thomson Learning Custom Publishing, 2002. Wright, Ernest G. , editor. Great People of the Bible and How They Lived. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Assoc. Inc. , 1974. Youngblood, Ronald F. , editor.
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc. , 1995.
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