Scripture: Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:1-2 ESV
Observation: The Hebrew meaning of Abram is “exalted father,” an apt name for the one whom God will call to be the spiritual father of all future generations who, like him, will live by faith. But why Abram? Why was he chosen to be the father of all future generations who live by faith? Two factors date back to Noah, Abraham’s ancestor. First, God blessed Noah and his sons and commissioned them to be fruitful and multiply the earth. This mandate did not simply purpose to repopulate human beings but image-bearers of God. Secondly, when Shem and Japheth exhibited respect and care for their father when he shamefully passed out from wine and lay naked, Noah responded by blessing these two older sons. In particular, he petitioned God to bless Shem’s lineage so that Canaan (the son of Ham) would serve Shem, and Japheth would dwell under Shem’s protection (9:26-27). In other words, Yahweh ordained through Noah that the line of Shem (which would become the nation of Israel) would take the lead in providing a multitude of spiritual sons and daughters.
Takeaway: Still, Abram, later renamed Abraham (“father of a multitude”) by God, had his weak moments that exhibited a lack of trust in God’s plan. He mispresented his wife, Sarai, later renamed Sarah (“princess”), as his sister to avoid conflicts with Pharaoh and Abimelech. And Abram followed Sarai’s advice to impregnate her maidservant, Hagar, when patience ran thin waiting on the Lord to full his promise: that Sarai would bear him a son. Still, the elder Abraham exhibited stellar faith when he obeyed God and nearly sacrificed his only son, Isaac, on an altar as a gift to God.
So what does this mean to you and me? Grace abounds in our faith journeys. The one we hold up as the ancestral father of our faith, who pointed us to the One who perfectly lived out his faith in obedience to the Father, experienced God’s grace each step of the way. God would repeatedly intervene and rescue Abram/Abraham from his folly to ensure the fulfillment of his covenant promises. And for the sake of his only Son, he does the same for us, today, under our New Covenant of Grace. While our earthbound faith journeys will never be free from the presence of sin, our Lord’s forgiveness will always liberate us from the power of sin. Indeed, in Christ, the Holy Spirit is working in us the desire and strength to overcome setbacks and carry on in faith until it is no longer needed when we are present with him in his heavenly kingdom.
Prayer: Father God, we thank you for fulfilling your end of your Covenant of Grace, even when we fail to exercise faith. Would you please help us cooperate with your Holy Spirit and follow in the footsteps of your Son, living out our inheritance as sons and daughters of Abraham? Amen.
Rev. Gordon Green, M.Div., M.A. Counseling
Leave a Reply