Introduction
Abram and thePromise
I cannot even begin to explain theimportance of a study on a person who has touched more people’s lives than almost anyone who has ever lived.
Without Abram where would this world be? The atheist would say, "Good riddance, we would be better off if he had never been born," but not the student of the word of God, because it is through Abram'sseedthat redemption is made available to every member of Adam's race.
Atheists have been thumbing their noses at God during their youth, and during their struggles, but many have later discarded their unwarranted bitterness towardsGod and have received mercy from Himin return.
Remember friend, God is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
For any Pagans reading this you have a lot in common with Abram because Joshua 24 tells us that Abram's family were also idol worshippers before God got ahold of him:
Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor:and they served other gods.
The Early Years
Genesis 11:26-32
To find the story of Abram we must go to the eleventh chapter of the book of Genesis. But to understand the whole story we must go back even further.
We must go back through the story of creation, through the fall of man, and through the flood by way ofthe ark of faithbefore we can begin to fully understand the significance of Abram's life.
Which brings us to the place where we are now, back in Ur of the Chaldees (modern day Iraq). It is interesting to note that the Bible begins in a Garden of Eden and it also ends in a Paradise.
The Bible then proceeds from Eden to Babylon and it culminates with MysteryBabylon just prior toa Kingdom on this Earth in the Last Days ruled by Christ himself.
It is also interesting to note that today the focus of the world is once more directed towards the place of Abram's birth, especially with ISIS threatening the world.
The story of Abram begins with his Father Terah, who was living in Ur of the Chaldees when his firstborn son Haran is born unto him.
Although Abram's name is mentioned first in verse twenty-six, he is not the firstborn son as many would suppose, he was most likely born second for reasons I will share with you later in this chapter.
26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begatAbram,Nahor, andHaran.
The three brothers were not triplets as you might suppose at first glance, but it was at the age of seventy that Terah had the first of his three sons.
Abram is mentioned first because of his preeminence over the other two, as is often seen throughout the Scriptures.
27 Now thesearethe generations of Terah: Terah begatAbram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
This verse initially leads us to believe that Haran is most likely the oldest of the three because he is the first to have a son.
28 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
How or why Haran died is not the story here, Abram is. All too often we waste God's time and our own by asking questions that God never intended for us to know the answers to.
We do know that Haran's death was especially hard on his father Terah because as we shall see later that Terah names a city after his firstborn son and stays there until his own death. (Some say Terah named his Son after the city which is also possible).
It is most likely that Haran's wife was dead by this time as well because it was customary to have the oldest surviving brother marry his deceased brother’s wife to raise up seed unto his brother, but this, as we shall see, does not happen.
29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abrams wifewasSarai; and the name of Nahors wife, Milcah,the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Notice that Nahor takes his brother Haran's daughter as his wife. This implies a considerable age difference between the two siblings.
Nothing is mentioned ever again aboutIscahor his fate. He may have lived out his days in Ur of the Chaldees with his Uncle Nahor. Nothing is recorded in Scripture to substantiate that Iscah made the trip to Haran with Abram.
30 But Sarai was barren; shehadno child.
God withheld Sarai from having a son for many years for His own glory. Sarai did not become bitter during this trial as many through the ages have, but she allowed God to work through her during this time to prepare her for a much greater task later, to be the mother of a great nation.
God would have Abram's heir and the future heir of the promise that would soon be made to Abramborn in the land of promise, not in the Pagan cities of Ur or Haran.
31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his sons son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abrams wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot to go to the land of Canaan but for some reason stopped short (halfway) and ended up either establishing a city named after his firstborn son Haran or sojourning in the very city named after Haran.
We have a clearer understanding from chapter twelve and in other places that it was Abram alone that God called to leave that area. Terah, I believe,just decided to tag along, most likely not wanting to be separated from Abram, his second son.
32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Now we come to the death of Abram's father in the city named after his older brother and we learn a little more about the ages of Haran and his much younger brother Abram.
If Terah was seventy years old when he begat Haran, and two hundred and five years old when he died, that would mean that Haran, if he would have lived, would have been one hundred thirty-five years old at the time of his father's death.
And if Abram was his older brother he would have been older than that, but the Bible records thatAbram was only seventy-five years old when he left his father’s grave in Haran. That would make Abram sixty years younger than his older brother Haran.
If the age difference is too much of a gap for you to swallow I suggest you go back to Genesis chapters one through eleven and re-read them by faith, for in them you find men living up to nine hundred and sixty-nine years, as was the case with Methuselah.
If you don't believe that then this book is just another book of fairy tales to you and it is hardly worth your time.
But if you want to believe the Bible and are struggling with it, remember this: God, who is all powerful, created man to live forever and mankind fell into sin and the Bible records that the wages of sin is death.
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth it shall die.
God warned Adam thatinthe Daythat you eat thereof you shall surely die. Adam died spiritually, as most believe, but he also died physicallyin that same Day.
Remember,
A Day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as a Day. 2 Peter 3:8
Adam died in the same spiritual day that he disobeyed God which was prior to his reaching a thousand years on man's time clock.Adam died at 930 years of age according to Genesis 5:5.
Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
A New Dispensation(Economy)would now begin
God was now going to operate differently than he had in the past with mankind. A new dispensation,or economy, was beginning between God and mankind.
It would be through the person of Abram and his descendants that would come to be called Israel who would make up a future Kingdom that would one day rule and reign here on the Earth with the Messiah as a nation of Kings and Priests.
The word dispensation comes from the Greek word: Oikonomiah or Economy. The word is used of the Apostle Paul four times in his epistles, three of those times he refers to the dispensation, or economy, of grace that was given to him: 1 Corinthians 9:17, Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians 1:25.
It bears record that if a dispensation was given to Paul during the latter part of his life then there must have been other dispensations that came before the one God gave specifically to him.
Paul also mentions the worddispensationregarding a future dispensation calledthe dispensation of the fullness of times, so from just these four times in Paul’s Epistles we learn that God is a dispensationalist, or God works differently with mankind at various times.
God also uses the Greek word Oikonomiah three more times in the Gospel of Luke which spoke to Israel just prior to the dispensation/economy of grace that was given to Paul to give to us in the body of Christ today.
Those three timesare all found in Luke 16:2-4, and the word Oikonomiah is here translated as the word, Stewardship. We are to be stewards or the stewardship we have been entrusted with from the Apostle Paul today just like any steward of any other dispensation.
Luke 16:2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account ofthy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from methe stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out ofthe stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
Of course, the word stewardship comes from the root word steward also found in these verses and it means a ruler over a household:
Luke 12:42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
In Titus 1:7 Bishops (Pastors) are called the stewards of God.
Genesis 12
Separation from the World
Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Abram had to separate himself from his past as an example to the nation that would eventually come out of his loins.
Genesis 12:2-3God makes seven promises to Abram:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
1. God promised to make a great nation from Abram:
This was a first. With no other person did God make such a promise. If a person or a nation wanted to be blessed by God they would have to bless Abram, or eventually his offspring.
This promise of a nation is later repeatedto his son Isaac, and later to Jacob andthen to all twelve tribes that descends from Jacob’s loins.
This promise is latter mentioned to Moses concerning the descendants of Abram becoming a great nation. This promise will ultimately be fulfilled in the future Millennial Kingdom.
2. God promised to bless Abram:
Up unto this time, God had not given Abram anything according to the scriptures, but that was all about to change. Notice what God's word says near the end of his life:
Genesis 24:1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: andthe LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.
Isaiah 51:1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you:for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3. God promised to make Abram’s name great:
Nehemiah 9:7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest himthe name of Abraham;
Abraham means: Father of Nations
4. God promised that Abram would be a blessing:
Abram blessed his 316 hired servants with food, tents, employment, protection and he blessed Lot and the five kings after he had defeated the army of Chedorlaomer in Genesis 14 by returning all the spoils and those held captive to their families.
The list goes on and on, but yousee other examples as we continue our study.
5. God promised to bless them that blessed Abram
Melchizedek blessed Abram with wine and bread after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and God blessed him for blessing Abram with a tithe of the battle. Genesis 14
This is the only time we read about Abram tithing in the scripture and it was not from his salary but from spoils of war.
6. God promised to curse them that cursed Abram
What happened to the five nations that had captured Abram’s nephew Lot, they were cursed. What later happened to the Egyptians? Cursed. Just go down the list, nation after nation that cursed Abram’s offspring were cursed.
There will be a judgment of Nations after the Tribulation Period that we will look at later in or study of Israelology Future and we will see how these nationswill be judged for how they treated Jesus’ brethren, the Jews.Matthew 25:31-46
7. God promised to bless all the families of the earth in Abram.
How could God bless all the families of the earth in Abram? All the families of the earth had not been born yet, but when the promised seed of Genesis 3 (Jesus) dies for mankind, thenall families could be blessed in Abram through his seed the Messiah.
Genesis 12:4Abram’s obedience to the LORD:
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Abram was obedient even though he did not know where he was going. Did Abram obey completely? No, he brought Lot and he went to Haran and stayed there until the death of his father.
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out,not knowing whither he went.
These promises made to Abram are not just to Abram but also to his descendants as we shall see later, and these promises were unconditional.
God is going to keep his promises because he gave his word regardless of how Abram or his descendants behave. The Calvinist would have us believe that God has fulfilled every promise made to Abram/Abraham and the Jewish Nation, but we will see that simply isn’t so as we continue chronologically going through this study on Israelology.
God later would make a conditional covenant with Israel (not a promise) and if they were obedient to that covenant they would be blessed but if they were not they would be punished, but that is also for a later chapter in this study. The Law Covenant however did not disannul the promise:
Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Genesis 12:5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. 6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh.And the Canaanite was then in the land.
And the Canaanite was then in the land. Why did God inspire Moses to write that line in the text? Was it just filler, or something to enhance our image of what it was like in the land at the time Abram arrived in it?
No! It was to remind us of the curse on Canaan which we read about earlier in Genesis and that God,because of their vile sexual practices mentioned in Deuteronomy 18, was going to expel them out of the land because they had defiled.