Who was Abraham? (Week 7 Part 1/7) Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2 | Feb 7 – Feb 13 – powered by Happy Scribe
In the Bible. Abraham suddenly shows up in the 11th chapter of Genesis as a fully formed figure. We get to learn his lineage, and then just a few verses later, he is promised by God that he will be the father of a great nation and that every family on Earth would be blessed by his family. He becomes the primary figure of the book of Genesis for the next 15 chapters. Dominating the story later, he is referred to by believers as the father of the faithful.
Even Jesus Christ used the phrase Abraham’s bosom as a kind of shorthand for going to God’s presence because you were a righteous person. Now we know Abraham is a great example of righteousness, but where does he come from? What kind of family did he grow up in? Was he born of goodly parents like Nephi? And why did God choose Abraham among all of his children as the bearer of the everlasting Covenant, a Covenant that is sometimes just called the Abrahamic Covenant.
Abraham one is Abraham’s origin story. We find out that Abraham, the father of the faithful, didn’t grow up in a faithful family. He grew up in a world where the people around him who tried to do what was right were literally sacrificed to the idle gods of the society they lived in. He mentions that in his city, three virgins Royal descendants from Noah were offered up to these idle gods because of their virtue and because they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or stone. In the middle of this terrible environment, Abraham wanted more.
He spoke of desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge and to be a greater follower of righteousness and to possess a greater knowledge and to be a father of many nations, a Prince of peace. He wanted to become a rightful heir, a high priest holding the right of belonging to the fathers. In some ways, it is comforting to know that Abraham didn’t grow up in a great family. His story is designed to teach us that we can become more than the world we grew up in. Maybe you had a terrible upbringing, maybe your ancestors made the wrong choices, but you can become more than that.
Abraham’s own fathers turned from God and engaged in a false religion that engaged in horrible crimes, including human sacrifice, to worship false gods. It was probably because of Abraham’s virtue and righteousness that he was marked to be a human sacrifice for all his desires to be something more. The society he grew up in tried to drag him down and then finally extinguish his light. But it was at this darkest moment in Abraham’s life when he came to know that he was not just part of his wicked earthly family, but part of a larger celestial family. Right at the moment of sacrifice, an angel intervened and destroyed the priest, seeking to end Abraham’s life and loosed his Brandt.
Then Abraham heard the voice of Jehovah speaking unto him saying, Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah and I have heard thee and have come down to deliver thee and to take thee away from thy father’s house and from all thy Kim’s folk into a strange land which thou knowest not of. Abraham was called to a higher and holier purpose in life and was allowed to transcend the environment he grew up in. The Lord promised Abraham, behold, I will lead thee by the hand. I will take thee and put upon thee my name. Even the priests of thy father and my power shall be over thee as it was with Noah, so shall it be with thee.
But through thy Ministry my name shall be known in the Earth forever. For I am thy God. Not all of us come from the best background. We’re all flawed, but the Lord sees us not for what we are, but for what we can become. The reason why Abraham’s origin story still resonates with us today is because it is really the story of everyone who the Lord takes by the hand.
We all have the potential to become more than what we are and rise from being a child of the Earth to being a child of God.
Guest Author
dyejo
