Confident HopeFaith and Salvation
Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5) The Faith of AbrahamGenesis 12:1-9
The MessageAbram and Sarai12 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. 2-3 I’ll make you a great nation
and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
will be blessed through you.” 4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound. Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land. 7 God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him. 8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God. 9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev. For ReflectionAbraham is considered the patriarch of monotheism and the father of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. God made five covenants with God's people. The first covenant, called the Covenant of Pieces, was made with Abraham. But why was this first covenant made with Abraham?
The story of Abraham's birth is somewhat parallel to that of Jesus' birth. Abraham was the tenth generation removed from Noah and a direct descendant of Shem, Noah's son. Abraham was born in Mesopotamia to Terah, a chief minister of King Nimrod. At his birth, the King's astrologers warned him of the danger to the throne that Abraham represented and ordered that Abraham would be put to death. However, Abraham's father outwitted the king, and Abraham hid in the caves with his mother for ten years.
Having been exposed to idol worship and the evils of society, even at the age of three, as the story goes, Abraham thought the pagan idol worship of his time was silly. He had envisioned God, who was the creator of the universe; unseen, omnipotent, and the real King of the world more powerful than any earthly king. Under the tutelage of Noah and Shem, Abraham formed a philosophy of monotheism which became the forerunner to the Torah.
Abraham's teaching so threatened nimrod that he ordered Abraham to be thrown into a burning furnace. However, Abraham survived (resurrected?) and defeated death.
And so, God's first covenant was made with Abraham because he rejected idol worship, was committed to spreading the truth about God, and his powerful faith in an unseen sovereign god. As a result, God's chosen people were designated and given a special relationship with their creator as a beacon of truth about the divinity of all things. PrayPray and contemplate the mystery that is our God. Pray and invite the Holy Spirit to instruct the mysterious and counterintuitive Way of Jesus. Pray and experience the wonder and joy of living in a special relationship with God.
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