10 Minute Bible Journey, The. Dale Mason

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      GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAM

      (c. 1921–1897 B.C.)

      Through both the faith and faithlessness of this one man, three major religions — Christianity, Judaism, and Islam — were conceived.

When first introduced in Scripture, Abram is 75 years old and lives in Haran. He moved here from Ur, a busy city on the Euphrates River near the southern coast of modern-day Iraq.1 It has been nearly 370 years2 since the worldwide Flood, and about 260 years since the dispersion at the Tower of Babel.3

It is possible that millions of people now lived throughout the earth.4 Abram is the tenth generation after Noah, who died only two years before Abram’s birth. Noah’s son Shem is still living.

We know very little about Abram’s life prior to age 75, but the Bible does state that years earlier his father Terah set out from Ur with Abram, Abram’s wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. Terah’s destination was Canaan (later called Israel) but when he reached the city of Haran — about two hundred miles northeast of Canaan — he settled there instead. In Haran, idolatry was rampant and Abram’s father worshiped false gods.5 But by His grace, God called Abram and pursued him, for God’s glory!

Abram was very ordinary. He had stresses with work and family,6 was sometimes a less-than-ideal husband,7 and struggled to stay consistent in his walk with the Lord.8 Nevertheless, the Creator loves to show His grace and power through ordinary people, and He had big plans for Abram!

Part of God’s plan had been that Abram marry his half-sister Sarai,9 which was fine at the time. By God’s design, Adam and Eve’s original gene pool was perfect. Brothers and sisters and cousins married, and their children were free of genetic deformities. It was not until the time of Moses about 400 years after Abram, that God prohibited marriage between close relatives.10

After Abram’s father died, God told him to leave the comforts of Haran, take Sarai and his nephew Lot, plus his possessions and servants, and go to Canaan. God promised 75-year-old Abram that all the people of the earth would be blessed through his descendants, though Sarai had not yet borne any children.11

Years later, after God had greatly blessed both Abram and Lot with large herds and households, the two men agreed that one of them should move, because the land could not support their many animals and there was strife between their herdsmen. Abram allowed Lot to choose. Lot selected the better land,12 and to live in the sin-filled city of Sodom.13

Although Abram’s life is an amazing example of great faith and obedience, it is also a sad reminder that all who love God are fallen, imperfect people who often exhibit faithlessness. In Abram’s case, the most striking examples are that on two separate occasions when he feared for his life, he told his wife — who was also his half-sister — not to tell that she was his wife. Only that she was his sister. When she was about 6514 and later when nearly 90,15 Sarai was so desirable that both a pharaoh and a king took her to become their wife. Yet, God protected and returned her to her husband.

Genesis chapter 17 states that when Abram was 99 and Sarai 90, God confirmed his covenant of a quarter century earlier and promised anew to make Abram the father of many nations. For Abram’s part, he and all the males in his clan had to be circumcised.16 Then God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and Sarai to Sarah. He swore to give Abraham the son of promise by his wife Sarah, who laughed because both were beyond childbearing years.17 But it is in impossibility that God’s power is seen!

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