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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!

First, however, a severe judgment would descend.

PRIMARY PASSAGES

Gen. 11–18; Josh. 24:2

KEY VERSE

“Now the Lord said to Abram. . . . I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen. 12:1–3

WRAP UP

“Dear God, sometimes You choose the weak to do big things. I’m glad. I love the way that You show Your power. Thank You for miraculously giving the elderly Abraham and his barren wife, Sarah, a son through the union of their marriage covenant! Thank You for showing me that You have kept Your promises! I need to follow the plan You’ve given us in the Bible and not try to get things my own way. Please remind me often that YOUR way is perfect. Please help me to live YOUR way, Lord.”

1 The city of Ur, near the Persian Gulf, is known for such amazing architecture as the “step pyramid” Great Ziggurat of Ur, which was apparently constructed for idol worship of the moon god Nanna.

2 “367 years” based on the genealogies of Genesis 11:10–12:4.

3 “260 years” since the dispersion at the Tower of Babel is based on the book, Annals of the World. note 47, where James Ussher presumes that the division occurred in the year of the birth of Peleg, which was 106 years after the Flood, although Genesis 10:25 (NKJV) says that the earth was divided (the Babel dispersion) in his days. Therefore, some feel that the confusion of languages and resultant dispersion from Babel occurred after Peleg became an adult rather than in the year of his birth.

4 Assuming that there were about 17,885 people (8,943 couples) by the fifth generation after the Flood, gen5, and if each couple continued to have an average of 7.203 children, there would be as many as 64,416 born in gen6, 231,994 in gen7, 835,526 in gen8, 3,009,147 in gen9, and 10,837,442 in gen10, which was the beginning of Abram’s generation. NOTE: For calculation regarding generations 0 through 4, see the endnote in “Tower of Babel” chapter 8.)

5 Joshua 24:2

6 Abram’s father was an idolater yet there is no indication that Abram followed in his footsteps. Friction about what to believe could easily have created a less-than-ideal relationship between the two men. Also, the size of the herds of Abram and Lot created conflicts between their herdsmen, and probably between Abram and Lot themselves (Genesis 13:8).

7 Abram allowed, and facilitated that his desired wife would be taken into the harems of two different national leaders; a king and a pharaoh. Also, he went along with his wife’s idea for him to have sex with her servant in order to try to produce a line of offspring, which ended up creating stress in their marriage when the pregnant servant began to take advantage of the fact that she was pregnant but her mistress, Abram’s wife, was not.

8 Abram exhibited a less than ideal walk. Although he is recognized for great faith in his later years, it was his lack of trust in God and God’s promise that resulted in him having sex with Sarai’s handmaiden Hagar in order to create offspring on his timeframe rather than trusting in God’s. (It is important to note that Abram’s extramarital relationship with Hagar was not God’s instruction. Ishmael was not Abram’s rightful heir and God didn’t count Ishmael as the legitimate son of promise (as exhibited in God’s command many years later to “Take thy son, thy only son Isaac” to be sacrificed).

9 Genesis 20:12

10 See Leviticus 18. Marriage of close relatives was not disallowed until c. 1491 B.C. when God gave the Law to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai through Moses, after they were led out of captivity in Egypt. For more than 2,500 years — from creation to the Mosaic law — marriage of close relatives was at first necessary and blessed of God (i.e., Adam and Eve’s children at first married one another) and later, common (i.e., Abraham and Sarah were half-siblings, c. 2000 B.C.).

11 Genesis 12:1–4

12 Genesis 13:10 describes the land that Lot chose, the Jordan River valley, as being Eden-like. At the time of Abraham, much of the region we now know as Israel was lush and incredibly beautiful with high quality vegetation.

13 Genesis 13:12–13

14 Genesis 12:10–15 (Sarai taken by the Pharaoh of Egypt).

15 Genesis 20 (Sarai taken by Abimelech king of Gerar).

16 Since Genesis 14:14 says that there were over 300 men in Abram’s clan, it is assumed that approximately this number of males were circumcised. Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar the servant of Sarah, was among those circumcised that day. He was 13 and Abram 99. See Genesis 17:24–27. Ishmael was not the son of promise, having been born by Sarah’s suggested extramarital compromise, not God’s covenant promise. Therefore, the yet-to-be-born Isaac was Abraham’s only “legitimate” son of the Promise.

17 Hebrews 11:12. Abraham was “as good as dead,” 18:11–12; Sarah was past the age of childbearing. Genesis 17:17.