Burning Bush Blogs
Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: New to the Bible – The Patriarchs – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Post Topic: Abraham
Post in Thread: #1
Next: Isaac – the miracle child
Scripture: Genesis 12:1-8
Genesis 22:1-18
Genesis 16:1-6; Genesis 21:1-14
Note on this series of posts
This post fits within a continuing series meant for readers who are less familiar with Scripture, but anyone can enjoy.
The patriarchs are the fathers of the Hebrew nation, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. For this series we’ll be giving honorary patriarch status to Moses, and we’ll throw in a bonus study of Joseph’s brother Judah. The patriarchs gave birth to the Jewish nation, but were quite human. Genesis doesn’t shy away from describing both their successes and failures; their virtues and their failings. Neither then, shall our blogs shy away from these topics.
Today’s story introduces Abraham, the patriarch of patriarchs. There are numerous stories of Abraham that could not all be covered here.
Key Verses:
Genesis 12:1-2; Genesis 12:4
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you…
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Genesis 16:1-2; Genesis 21:14
…
Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
Observations
The Good – Abraham’s faith
- Abraham was a man of faith. He gave up everything to go to a faraway land, trusting God to do so (Genesis 12).
- God tested Abraham, asking him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (Genesis 22).
- How would God’s promise to make a great nation out of Abraham be fulfilled if he obeyed?
- Abraham obeyed, somehow trusting God to make it all right (more on this under Correlation).
- God stopped Abraham from hurting Isaac, providing a ram to take his place.
The Bad – Fearful liar – about his wife
- Twice – Abraham lied about his wife Sarah
- During a famine he traveled to Egypt and told Pharaoh she was his sister (Genesis 12).
- While living in the Negev, he again presented Sarah as his sister to the king of Gerar (Genesis 20:1-18).
- Because of her beauty, he feared that he would be killed and she would be taken from him.
- In both cases, the leaders felt they could claim her as their wife.
- In both cases, God’s disfavor fell harshly upon those leaders, through no fault of their own.
- Abraham rationalized his deception – “she’s actually my half-sister and my wife.”
- He conveniently left that wife part out until confronted.
Imagine – What must that have been like for poor Sarah as she’s being pulled away to Pharaoh’s palace? Did she willingly go along with the plot because of her love for her husband? Or did she hold it against him?
The Ugly – It gets uglier than that thing with Sarah?
- God had promised to make a great nation from Abraham, but his wife, Sarah, appeared old and barren.
- He slept with Hagar, Sarah’s servant, and produced his first son, Ishmael (Genesis 16)
- Naturally, conflict grew in his household between Sarah and Hagar.
- It came to a head when God kept his promise, and Sarah finally conceived a child for Abraham – Isaac.
- Eventually Abraham sent away Hagar and his son Ishmael into the wilderness to fend for themselves (Genesis 21).
Interpretation
This map from www.biblemapper.com shows a more northern location for Ur, and a shorter trip for Abraham. Notice the Ur near the Persian Gulf that many scholars believe to be the original home of Abraham.
Obedience
- God instructed Abram to leave the comfort of Harran to journey to a strange land.
- Abram trusted God to keep his promise of blessing.
- Abraham is known as a great man of faith, but even his faith was not perfect.
- A moment of weakness caused him to sin with Hagar.
- A great nation arose from Ishmael; a race that is in conflict with the descendants of Isaac to this day.
Geography
- Abram’s journey from Ur to Canaan skirted around the desert along the fertile crescent (Mesopotamia). He traveled north to Haran, then west, then back south to Canaan. Think of the route as an upside-down ‘U’.
- Note – there is some scholarly support for locating Abraham’s Ur much farther north, close to Haran (Syria/Turkey area).
- As the crow flies, it would have been a much shorter trip straight across the desert. But the crow would have died en route. 😒
- Israel is a strip of fertile land between Egypt to the south, and Turkey/Syria to the north.
Correlation
- Hebrews 11:8; Hebrews 11:12 – Describes the faith of Abraham, who called to go to a distant place to receive his inheritance, obeyed. From this one man descended countless children as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Hebrews 11:17-19 – Reasoning that God could raise Isaac from the dead, Abraham was prepared to accept God’s command to sacrifice his only offspring from Sarah. In a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Application
Generic Applications
- Like Abraham with Isaac, faith has its trials.
- Being a Christian does not mean that trial is impossible or unnecessary. The greater the faith, the greater the trial.
- How the patience and meekness of Jesus are exemplified through His trials!
- Without Abraham’s trials, where would we know of his faith?
- Faith in spite of trials brings glory to God, which is our ultimate purpose on earth.
Personalize it
- Trials
- Are we prepared for the trials that will come with our faith? They will come, if they aren’t here already.
- Can we actually be thankful for these trials as a chance to glorify God?
- Even with his great faith, Abraham sometimes wavered. Sometimes failed. Yet he is revered as a hero of the faith.
- Am I wallowing in guilt over a failure, thinking God can’t use me?
- What if Abraham had thought the same?
Historical Significance of Abraham
- Because of his faith, Abraham became the father of multiple people groups and religions.
- He inherited the land that would become Israel, from which all people would be blessed.
- Check out this page to learn more about the Promised Land.
Bible study methodology adapted from Searching the Scriptures with permission from Tyndale House:
Swindoll, Charles, Searching the Scriptures. Tyndale House Publishers, 2016.