Abraham: The Man Who Went, and the Faith Counted to Him

Who he was, and when

Abraham is introduced in Scripture as the son of Terah, with his brothers Nahor and Haran (Genesis 11:26-27). He belongs to the era of the patriarchs, and according to Ussher, Annals of the World (1650) he was born 1996 BC and died 1821 BC (175 years). His footprint in the Bible is unusually large: roughly two hundred seventy-five verses across twenty-seven books, from Genesis 11:26 to a mention in 1 Peter. His wives are named as Sarah, Hagar and Keturah, and his sons as Ishmael, Isaac, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.

The going out

The story begins with obedience in motion. "So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, 'I will give this land to your offspring.' He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him" (Genesis 12:4-7).

Notice the shape of it. The promise concerns land already occupied, and offspring not yet born. Abraham's answer is an altar.

From there the record moves through a long series of shorter notices and episodes: further travel and trouble in Genesis 12:9-10 and Genesis 12:16-18, movements and separations in Genesis 13:1-2, Genesis 13:4-5 and Genesis 13:7-8, conflict and refusal in Genesis 14:12-14 and Genesis 14:21-23, the word of Yahweh and Abraham's questions in Genesis 15:1-3 and Genesis 15:11-13, Hagar in Genesis 16:1-3, Genesis 16:5-6 and Genesis 16:15-16, and the covenant scenes of Genesis 17:17-18 and Genesis 17:22-24.

Trusted with the plan

One of the most striking passages puts Abraham inside God's counsel. "The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way. Yahweh said, 'Will I hide from Abraham what I do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him'" (Genesis 18:16-19). The blessing runs outward to all nations, and it runs through a household taught to do righteousness and justice. See also Genesis 18:6-7 and Genesis 18:22-23.

The son, at last

"Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him" (Genesis 21:2-5).

The mountain

"Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey; and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off. Abraham said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there. We will worship, and come back to you.' Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, 'My father?' He said, 'Here I am, my son.' He said, 'Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?'" (Genesis 22:3-11). The account continues in Genesis 22:13-15 and Genesis 22:19-20. Later come the burial dealings of Genesis 23:18-20 and the closing notices of Genesis 25:5-8 and Genesis 25:10-12, and long afterward his name is still invoked (Exodus 3:15-16; 1 Chronicles 1:27-28; Acts 7:16-17).

The fractured household

Scripture does not present a clean record. "Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. Therefore she said to Abraham, 'Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.' The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son" (Genesis 21:7-12). A son was fathered by Abraham through Hagar, and the result was a home divided and a father in real grief. Further difficult episodes stand in the record at Genesis 12:16-18, Genesis 20:1-2, Genesis 20:9-11 and Genesis 20:17-18, and Abraham's own reaction to God's word is preserved in Genesis 17:17-18.

What we are not told

The dossier lists no open questions, yet the quoted text itself withholds much. The Genesis 22 passage breaks off at Isaac's question about the lamb; the resolution is carried in Genesis 22:13-15 rather than in the words above. Only Terah is named as a parent, and his mother is not named here. The sons Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah are names without stories in this material. The dossier's family record lists Sarah both among his partners and among his siblings, and offers no explanation for that.

The line to Christ

The New Testament makes Abraham the pattern of faith rather than of achievement. "Even as Abraham 'believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.' Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you all the nations will be blessed.' So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham" (Galatians 3:6-9). The same argument runs through Romans 4:1-3, Romans 4:12-13 and Galatians 3:16, 3:18 and 3:29; the promise is taken up in Acts 3:25 and Galatians 3:14; his obedience is read in Hebrews 11:8, Hebrews 11:17, James 2:21 and James 2:23; his name stands in Matthew 1:1-2, Matthew 1:17 and Luke 3:34; and Jesus himself speaks of him in John 8:56-58 and Luke 19:9. The man who went out at seventy-five is claimed as father by everyone who believes.