Have you ever had that time when disappointment seemed to be your closest companion? A time when you wondered if things were ever going to change? I wouldn’t be honest if I said that I’ve never felt this way. I think we all go through times when we are struggling to keep our circumstances from overshadowing our faith.
In these times, we tend to look at others and think how great they must be to have it all together, to have it all figured out. We look for that special something in them that causes them to have such great faith and such favor with God. What we may fail to see is the road that got them to that place. We don’t see the troubles, the turmoil, the fight of faith (the failures and the victories), and the One that brought them through.
Great Faith?
I began my study of Abraham’s life, looking for the same thing. I was looking for that special something in him that caused him to have such great faith. Can you blame me? After all, Abraham was mentioned twice in Hebrews 11, which has been dubbed the “faith chapter.” Genesis 15:6 says, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” This statement about Abraham was quoted three times in the New Testament and is the basis for an entire chapter in Romans where Paul is explaining being saved by faith alone, apart from works. His faith essentially becomes the gold standard of Christian faith. Yet, I was surprised by what I found at the beginning of his life.
I expected to see great faith throughout his life. The faith that came through experiential knowledge of who God is, His awesomeness, His power – you know that faith that produces boldness and confidence. The faith that laughs in the face of danger. The Elisha kind of faith that says, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (2 Kings 6:16) That faith would come at the end of Abraham’s life. We see it when he took Isaac to Mt Moriah and believed that God was even able to raise him from the dead if necessary. However, that’s not what we see at the beginning of Abraham’s life.
Barrenness
At the beginning of Abram’s life (who becomes Abraham), we see a much different picture. He is most likely in that place of disappointment and wondering if things are ever going to change as well. We see the first indication of this in the very first thing the Bible tells us about Abram and his wife Sarai. “Sarai was barren; she had no child.” (Gen 11:30) While in today’s culture some people choose not to have children, during that time, this would have represented “a woman’s and a family’s greatest misfortune.”1
Looking closely at scripture, we see that this was very significant to Abram and Sarai. It was the driving force that led them out of Ur of the Chaldeans and into a relationship with God. It’s not plainly stated, but when we look closely, we can see it. We see the first clue in the scripture directly following Gen 11:30; It says:
“And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.” (Gen 11:31)
This doesn’t seem significant at first glance. However, we need to take a few things into consideration. First, the sentence starts with “and,” which connects it with the proceeding statement that Sarai was barren. Second, the mention of Sarai is significant. Women are not usually mentioned in the Bible unless there’s a reason. The coupling of this verse with the previous verse stating that she was barren, and Sarai being mentioned gives credibility to her bareness being the motivating factor for the move.
Abram's Call
Next, we need to look at other scriptures that speak about the move as well. We’ll see that while it was Terah that took them to Haran, it was Sarai’s bareness and God’s promise to Abram that motivated them to move. The Bible never says that Terah was called to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, it actually shows the opposite. It tells us that God spoke to Abram to move while still in Ur of the Chaldeans and to leave his family behind. First, we see in Acts:
“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran…” Acts 7:2-4
Then in Genesis 15 it says:
“Then He [God] said to him [Abram], “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” (v.7)
These two scriptures show us that the call was to Abram, not his father, Terah.
What these two scriptures don’t show is Abram’s motivation to answer the call. We see his motivation when we look at what God said to Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans. “Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation…” In those last 7 words we see Abram’s motive. God promised to make him a great nation. Before one can become a great nation, he must first have at least one child. This was essentially the promise to remove the heartbreak of bareness.
False Hope
Knowing that Sarai was barren, only speaks to a portion of Abram and Sarai’s struggle. You see, Abram didn’t even know God when He called Him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Joshua 24:2 says, “‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.” This doesn’t mean that they knew God, but served other gods. This is referring to the fact that they didn’t know God at all. We see this when God speaks to Moses in Exodus, He says, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Notice He doesn’t say that He is the God of Terah. God’s relationship to the children of Israel starts with Abraham.
Living in a polytheistic society, Abram and Sarai’s outlook would have been grim. Believing in false gods would have meant that they believed that these false gods had supernatural powers and could control some part of nature or reality. At best, they would’ve worshiped idols made of wood or stone that had no power at all. At worst, they worshipped demons.
In the best-case scenario, they would have never heard or seen any answers to their prayers. This would have meant false hope, heartache, and broken dreams. At some point they would have had to wonder, as Isaiah urges those worshipping idols to ask, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isa 44:20) How many prayers to do you pray and sacrifices do you make to an idol, before you wonder if it’s all a lie? That’s the best-case scenario. Worst case scenario, there was a demonic force behind the false gods. We know that satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, so anything that came through worshipping the demonic would fall under those three categories. It would be constantly hoping for life, but instead receiving emptiness, death, and destruction.
Hope versus fear
Abram and Sarai’s every hope would’ve been crushed time and time again. It may seem like it would be easy for them to believe and answer the call of God. The thing they lacked was being offered, they just needed to reach out and grab it. However, look at what Proverbs 13:12 says: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” When hope makes the heart sick again and again, there can come a point when the faintest ray of hope is accompanied by the fear of disappointment. The enemy of our soul whispers, “Why hope? You’ve been here before. What’s the point? It’s not going to happen.” With a life full of false hope, they would have been afraid to believe.
Despite Abram’s hopelessness, I imagine there was something in the appearance of the “God of glory” that Abram couldn’t shake. It might have taken some convincing for him to get Sarai on board, but not much. Her despair would’ve led to despondency and listlessness – just going through the motions. Even if she wouldn’t allow herself to hope, leaving a place of pain wouldn’t be hard to do.
Family Conflict
Abram would’ve faced the greatest conflict with his father. The false gods were the gods of his father. When Abraham wanted to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, his father most likely would’ve questioned him. I imagine the conversation went something like this, “What’s wrong with the gods here?” Terah, his father, would say.
Abram would’ve pleaded in response wanting his father’s blessing, “But there was something different about this God. He wasn’t like the gods here. He’s real, and He’s glorious! Sarai and I need to go. He’s promised to make me the father of a nation,” Terah may have discouraged him, because he didn’t want him to get his hopes up, having seen the heartache time and again. But even more, Terah couldn’t stand the thought of his son leaving. He had already lost one son. He couldn’t stand the thought of losing another.
Trying to appease Abram, Terah would make the decision to leave Ur of the Chaldeans. He took Abram, Sarai, and Lot with the intention of going to Canaan. However, they would end up in Haran, where they would stay until Terah passed away. At this point, we see Abram take Lot and journey to Canaan.
Humble Faith
Looking closely at the beginning of Abram’s story, gave me a new perspective. What I realized was that God was meeting Abram at the same place He met the prodigal, the same place He met you and me, the same place He meets all of mankind – at our point of need. God met Abram where he was lacking and bid him to trust in Him. The great faith I thought I would see wasn’t there yet. What I saw was a humble faith. It’s the faith of which Paul speaks to the Romans, “For I say… to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
Abram, had nothing to boast about. He had nothing to offer God. He had the measure of faith given by God. Much like the prodigal, his own lack had motivated him to answer the call. There were only two choices – either stay in this current situation of “great misfortune,” or trust God. He didn’t have the faith to leave his father’s house and his relatives as God had instructed. He had only left Ur of the Chaldeans when his father led him out. Even after his father passed away, he still took his nephew Lot with him to Canaan.
God's Magnificence
What I realized is that sometimes we are looking for magnificence in a person, and what we find is the magnificence of God. It’s a magnificent God that takes someone at the lowest point of their life, with absolutely nothing to offer, and chooses to use him to set in motion a plan that will reconcile all of mankind to Himself. Think about it. It’s a plan that is impossible to be fulfilled in man’s strength. It stretches over thousands of years. Generations will be born and pass away and the plan will go on. Prophets will prophesy of its fulfillment. Servants of God will play their parts as the manifest hand of God moves on them and in their lives. Yet, it will only be fulfilled in God’s strength.
Abram would become Abraham, because he chose to trust God, and God enabled him to fulfill his part in God’s plan. God says concerning Abraham, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” (Gen 18:19) What was spoken to Abraham that God is going to bring? Genesis 12:3 says, “…And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The promise for all mankind that would find its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, who would come through Abraham’s lineage.
We wouldn’t have understood the plan of redemption had God not made Himself known to Abraham. It was Abraham’s descendants that would keep a record of God’s character, His plan, and His purpose. They recorded the prophesies, their interactions with God, and the foreshadows that pointed to Christ. It’s these records that Jesus and the New Testament writers point to when explaining the gospel.
Magnificently Personal
While Abraham plays a huge role in God’s plan to redeem us, God doesn’t see Abraham as just part of His plan. God sees and loves mankind, but it’s His individual love for each one of us that causes Him to love us collectively. He doesn’t see us as a sea of people; He sees each of us as His son or daughter that He created and laid down His life for. God didn’t want to just bring Abraham the promise for mankind. He wanted to bring Abraham everything He had spoken to him, which included blessings, land, descendants, and a covenant relationship.
God told Abram, “And I will establish My covenant… to be God to you and your descendants after you.” (Gen 17:7) This is the most important part of the covenant promise. Everything else that God promised to Abram comes, because He is Abram’s God. He takes care of His own.
God promises the same thing to you and me. The new covenant, which Jesus established with His blood, contains the same promise. “…I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Heb 8: 10) I like the way Matthew Henry explains what this means. “What God is himself, that he will be to his people: his wisdom theirs, to guide and counsel them; his power theirs, to protect and support them; his goodness theirs, to supply and comfort them.”² We are His very own, and He will take care of us. There’s nothing that we have need of that God cannot supply. Everything that pertains to life and godliness is promised to us.
“as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” (2 Peter 1:2)
Humble Faith Rests
The other thing that I realized by looking at Abraham’s life is that all faith at its root is humble faith. Whether it’s the meager faith we see in Abram’s life, or the great faith we see in Abraham‘s life, humble faith rests fully on God and His character and ability. When Abram’s faith was meager, he still had to rest his hope for a child on God’s character and ability. His faith was meager, because he didn’t know God yet. Truly Abraham’s measure of faith didn’t change. He still had the same measure given by God. What changed was his knowledge of God. As we’ll see further along in this series, it was in seeing the greatness of God that Abraham begins to have great faith. Not because of something magnificent in Abraham, but because he began to see the magnificence of his God.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed…”
So, when we’re struggling through troubles, turmoil, and the fight of faith, and satan is whispering, ‘why hope? It’s never going to change,” we can look to Abram’s example and be encouraged knowing God has promised to be our God too. God’s the One that gives us a measure of faith, He’s the Author and Finisher of our faith, and He gives us everything we need for life and godliness through knowing Him. What do we have of ourselves, but to trust? Just as God brought Abram through his journey to becoming Abraham, He will bring us through our journey. As we look to God and walk with Him, we will begin to have great faith, not because of something great in us, but because it rests in the greatness of our God.
1. Rees, T. “Barren; Barrenness – International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia.” Blue Letter Bible. 5 May, 2003. Web. 4 Dec, 2022. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/dictionary/viewtopic.cfm>.
2.) Henry, M. “Commentary on Genesis 17 by Matthew Henry.” Blue Letter Bible. Last Modified 1 Mar, 1996. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Gen/Gen_017.cfm