Abram: A Pioneer in Faith

Genesis 12:1-9; Hebrews 11:8-12

GOLDEN TEXT: “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”—Genesis 15:1

OUR lesson relates to the call of Abram (high father), whom God re-named Abraham (father of a multitude), but indirectly the special point of the lesson is the calling of Abraham’s seed, natural and spiritual, and the divine favor to them, which constitutes them the center of hope for the world of mankind. Already they have been greatly used of the Lord, but the Scriptures indicate that their influence and helpfulness toward their fellow creatures have only begun and will reach their culmination during the Millennium.

It is interesting to remember that Abraham was born only two years after the death of Noah and that Noah’s father, Lamech, was born fifty-six years before Adam’s death. Thus the chain of tradition had but two links up to Abraham’s time, even though the period was nearly two thousand years. It is not strange, therefore, that the stories of the creation and of the flood are found in the land of the Chaldeans at a date prior to Moses’ writings—the first five books of the Bible.

The Jews are Abraham’s natural descendants through Isaac and Jacob, while the Mohammedans represent specially the Ishmaelites and Esau branches of Abraham’s family. Christians profess that they have become heirs of the chiefest blessings promised to Abraham’s seed, by becoming associates and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, whom they recognize to be the antitype of Isaac, the heir of Abraham.—Gal. 3:29

The teaching of the New Testament is that the church of Christ—partly from the Jews and partly from the Gentiles—is the antitype of Rebecca, Isaac’s wife and joint-heir. As such, the church is to be the bride and joint-heir of Messiah in His Kingdom. In this picture Abraham typifies Jehovah God, Isaac typifies Jesus Christ, and Rebecca typifies the church. The New Testament teaching is that the spiritual seed of Abraham is yet to be God’s agency in blessing natural Israel and all nations.

Much of the New Testament teaching was lost sight of in the darkness of the Middle Ages. Christians then forget that theirs was a high calling, forgot that they were to be joint-heirs in Messiah’s Kingdom, forgot that that Kingdom was yet to bless all the families of the earth. Instead, they got the narrow view that merely the saintly elect were to be saved at all. And only now in the end of the Gospel age are Bible students gradually getting free from the creeds and back to the teachings of God’s Word. Only now are we learning the true import of St: Paul’s words to the church, “If, ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise [made to him].”—Gal. 3:29

The indications are that idolatry and immorality had taken firm hold upon that branch of Noah’s family (Shem) of which Abraham came. The record is that God first communicated with Abraham while he resided in Ur, Mesopotamia, indicating the propriety of a change of residence to Canaan. Apparently he had considerable influence with the family, so that they all removed a distance of about 600 miles northward to Haran, possibly a place they established.

When Abraham and his company had come into the land of Canaan under the Lord’s direction, he settled for a while at Sichem, that portion subsequently known as Samaria. But he did not remain there long, for, as we read, “the Canaanite was then in the land.” (Gen. 12:6) It was doubtless to be free from the immoral influences of the Canaanites, and to have his people separated from them, that Abraham removed subsequently to the mountainous country near Bethel. There he established his home, and there he reared an altar to the Lord and prayed.

Would that more could realize how indispensable it is to have an altar to the Lord in their homes where the prayer incense would ascend to the Father through the merit of the Redeemer. The true altar not yet having been provided of the Lord, Abraham and others of his time reared altars of stone for use in the worship of God. But we have the golden altar of the Holy and are permitted to offer sacrifice thereupon as members of the body of the Great High Priest, under Him as our Head and glorious representative.

Whenever God calls one for any purpose He sets before the called one an object, a reason, a motive; and this He did with Abraham. He not only called him out of his own country to a life of separation from sin, but He attached to that life of separation a great promise, which had a mighty influence upon the mind of Abraham, his children and all the Jewish nation, and since then upon all the spiritual Israelites—the Israelites indeed. The promise was that not only would Abraham receive a blessing, but that in and through him, “all the families of the earth would be blessed.” This must have seemed a very obscure promise to Abraham, and his obedience to it is the more remarkable; so that he is held up as an example of a proper, unquestioning faith in the word and wisdom of the Almighty—“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”—Galatians 3:6

The spiritual lesson in the story of Abraham is that God is pleased to honor faith, and that the experiences of life which He permits to come to the faithful are intended for their development in faith and in the graces of the Holy Spirit, and that these all are unitedly in preparation for God’s still greater work of the future.

It was his faith in the promise of God—that in a future time through his seed a reign of righteousness would be established in the earth—that led Abraham to look for that city (government) of sure foundation upon principles of righteousness—the heavenly city promised—the government or Kingdom of God’s dear Son, which is to put down all insubordination and bring everything into subjection to the divine will. And he was willing to waive any share or position in the governmental power of that time, under present adverse conditions, that he might have a share in the glorious Messianic Kingdom of the future.

QUESTIONS:

Does the Bible tell us about more than one “seed of Abraham”?

In what sense are Christians of this age considered to be the “seed of Abraham”?

What is the practical application of today’s lesson?

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