Abraham Called Out of Paganism - He had Faith

Vol 1 - No 7, March 9, 2004:

The Word of God to Abram, renamed Abraham, the father of all that believe -

Romans 4:1111 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

- Part One:

Abram was an idol worshipper but God chose him as one of His own and for a unique and special place in history. Between Genesis 12:77 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

and Genesis 22:1818 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

are records of God Himself speaking to Abram/Abraham at least twelve times, apparently either directly or through angels. The Words of God to Abraham are many and varied so more than one study will be necessary to learn something about his response of faith and lessons therein for us.

We saw in our last study that the world wide flood of Noah's time occurred in approximately the year 2348 BC, that is, 2348 years before the birth of Jesus Christ (Appendix 50 of the Companion Bible.) Genesis 9:11 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

informs that after the flood God blessed Noah and his sons and His Word to them was that they were to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. They did and the Biblical account provides a list of their generations, which makes it apparent that it did not take long to create a large population. The Scripture is silent as to how many true believers or followers of God, if any, lived between the time Noah and his family disembarked the ark and the time of Abram.

Genesis 11:1 - 91 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

explains that everyone spoke the same language and they gathered in a place named Shinar, (verse 2) translated Babylonia, which is in the area of modern day Iraq. Contrary to being followers of God they began to build a tower whose top was to reach to the heavens. This is not an indication of the height of the tower but refers to the Zodiac depicted on it as in ancient temples. That is, they had turned to the worship of idols. Genesis 11:44 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

states that the men at that time said "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." As a result of mankind's worship of idols and rebellion against God's will to inhabit the whole earth, God caused them to speak different languages. Their tower was called Babel and they were scattered throughout the face of the earth.

The descendents of Shem, one of Noah's sons, are listed in Genesis 11:10 - 2610 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:

13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:

15 And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

16 And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:

17 And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.

18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:

19 And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.

20 And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:

21 And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.

22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:

23 And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

24 And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:

25 And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.

26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

and one was Abram. Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldees, which was on the west bank of the Euphrates River in the area of modern day Iraq. According to Joshua 24:22 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.

Abram and his family had been idol worshipers. Deuteronomy 26:55 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

calls Abram a Syrian ready to perish.

It is estimated that Noah died in 1998 BC and Abram was born two years later, in 1996 BC. At the time Abram was born, Shem, who was his great grandfather approximately nine (9) times removed was still alive. Shem died at 600 years of age in the year 1846 BC, when Abram was 150 years old.

We saw, as quoted above in Genesis 11:4, that men said "let us make us a name" when they went about to build the Tower of Babel. This turned out to be a pattern for all mankind to follow, that is, men desire to make a name for themselves in one way or the other. However, the name man creates for himself is only temporary. When God makes a name for someone it is for eternity, as in Abraham's case. God's first Words to Abram are found in Genesis 12:1 - 31 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:

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.

, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: 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: 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."

Abram was 75 years old when he, by faith, left Haran and went into the land of Canaan to a place called Sichem where the Lord again spoke to him "Unto thy seed will I give this land:" Then, in Genesis 12:66 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 13:7 we learn something very noteworthy. That is, Canaanites and Perizzites, who were two nations of ungodly idol worshipers, inhabited the land that God gave to Abram. So Abram finds himself in a land promised him by God but belonging to people that were totally opposed to God. (It was because these people were so utterly wicked and anti-God that later in history, when Joshua and Caleb entered the Land of Canaan with the Children of Israel, God ordered that they be completely destroyed - Deuteronomy 20:16 - 1816 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

and Joshua 3:1010 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

.)

Abraham, by faith, lived and ultimately died in the land that was given to him by God, but he did not own it. It was owned and inhabited by ungodly people. The substance or title deed to this land, the evidence that it was Abraham's, was his faith in the Word of God. Some day Abraham will be resurrected from the dead into the Millennial Kingdom and at that time his faith will be reality.

There is an application of this aspect of Abraham's faith to us today. When we come to believe that Jesus Christ died for us and place our faith in God's Word that His finished work on the cross is what saves us, we are brought into a right relationship with God and we are "born of the Spirit" - John 3:6 - 86 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

. (Figuratively, we are brought into the land of Canaan.) The substance or title deed to our new and perfect Body, the evidence that we will live for eternity with our Savior is faith in the Word of God to us. However, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ continue to live in human bodies that are subject to sin, which in the New Testament is called "The flesh." But, we are to reckon The Flesh within us, (that is figuratively the Canaanite) as dead. Romans 6:1111 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

tells us "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Galatians 5:16 - 2616 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

teaches that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and we are instructed to "walk in the Spirit" and so not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Some day our faith will be reality, as stated in 1 Corinthians 15:51 - 5451 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

" --- but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality --"

People today either have faith in these Words of God, as Abraham had faith in what God told him, or they do not.