We will look now at the faith of the biggest name in religion who is Abraham. I say this because Judaism, Christianity and Islam all have a connection to Abraham. I do want to point out that the connection that each of these religions have are different. For Judaism he is father Abraham, the patriarch of their religion. He received the promises of Israel’s right to the land and promises from God.
For the Islam faith he has a similar position with the claim of their descendant of Ishmael, who was Abraham’s son from Hagar Sarai’s handmaid that he has the right of the promises of the land and blessings of God.
For the Christian, Abraham is the model of one that possess faith in God. He is the example of what true faith looks like as he trusted God for the impossible. Christians do not claim ancestral rights to the promises made to Abraham but spiritual rights to salvation for those that have faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. Galatians 3:29 says And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
What we see is that Christianity is the only religion that gets it right when it comes to Abraham. Yes the Jews will receive promises made to Abraham concerning land and blessings, yes Abraham was promised that his son Ishmael would become a great nation as well but Christianity focuses on the eternal aspect of what Abraham’s faith did. This is what we will see here in this study and also as we look at Abraham again in another study when we get to Hebrews 11:17. So let’s look at our first point for this study.
1.Abraham’s obedience leads to the unknown.
Look with me at Hebrews 11:8-9 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
The mark of a true follower of God or Jesus is always seen in faith. It is not a knowledge of faith, it is not a profession of faith but it is in the action that comes from faith. A person that has faith in Jesus for salvation does not simply believe the facts that happened but believe or has faith in the power of what happened in what Jesus did on the cross and resurrection. That faith transforms that person from living for self and sin to living for God. So the proof of salvation is seen in the obedience of the life of the one that has been saved. You are not saved by that obedience but that obedience is what shows the genuineness of that person.
This is what we will see in respect to Abraham. He did not simply believe in God, yes it must start there but he showed he had faith by living a life of obedience. He was not perfect but his life pointed to the fact that he lived by faith in God. We see this first in what we see here in Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
As we have been doing with the other people that we have been studying in this series, we will look at the original account of this calling. First I want to look at what Stephen says in Acts 7:2-4 Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
I want to make clear as we see here that Abraham’s call to leave his land and his kindred was before he lived in Haran. I think we can definitely go back to see first in Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
This verse seems to show us that even Abraham’s father was on this journey to Canaan but settles in Haran and does not finish the journey. But according to Stephen, Abraham had already received the call to leave the land of where they were living which was Ur of the Chaldeans. So it seems that this move to Canaan pleased his father but somehow got caught up in Haran. Then in Genesis 12:1 the Bible says Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
Notice the added words from what we see as the original call that Stephen proclaimed to the call we see in Genesis 12:1. Stephen says that the call was to Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you, then we see in Genesis 12:1 that Abraham was told to Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
In other words don’t stop the journey that you started just because your father refuses to leave Haran. The call originally according to Stephen did not include leaving his father but now that his father has decided to stay in Haran, Abraham needed to remember the call to leave not only his land but his father’s house as well. This would have been a tough challenge for many people in those times as well as today. But Abraham did not sit around and wonder at what he must do, he moved on in obedience to the call that God had given him.
Abraham was going into the unknown. He had lived in a place that worshipped many gods before but now he was listening to the only true God yet this was something out of the ordinary. Most people stayed within the same area that they grew up. They would not move to a totally different land especially without most of their family. This was a call to leave pagan worship, idolatry, the comfort of family and friends to go to the unknown. But we know that Hebrews 11:8b says And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Genesis 12:4-5a says So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
Clearly he was going to an unknown place but he knew to go in the direction of the land of Canaan. This land was unknown to him and his family but he did know where he was going. I think people get confused thinking that he just packed up and went without knowing but clearly we see that verse 5 says they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
There was no wavering in his decision but only faith. Does this mean that Abraham did not ever sin or ever wonder how this would all work out? No but primarily we see that his life was pointed in living by faith. This is what Hebrews 11:9 says By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
He knew the promise but he did not know what he would have to endure during this trip to get the fulfillment of these promises. In fact we see many struggles along the way in Abraham’s life. There were wars and troubles with nations, there were even problems between his men and Lot’s men and yet he went out and continued to be obedient to God in spite of the difficulties that he would and was facing along the way.
Now this really bring us now to our next point that really reveals the truth behind the faith he had. It is summed up in our last verse for this study.
2.Abraham was seeking God.
Look with me at Hebrews 11:10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
Abraham’s faith in God drove him to obedience to God. Why? Because he believed that the place that he was going would take him to God. Remember what we talked about when we looked at Hebrews 11:6 in our last study that says And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Abraham believed that the promises of God were not only true but that God would be in that city. He had faith in God who he can not see and he was going to a place he did not know but what he did know was that God would be wherever He led him. Abraham was not promised that he would see the fulfillment of the promises that God had given in his lifetime. In fact if you look at Genesis 15:18-20 we see that the covenant that God made with Abraham was for a future generation, it says there On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Abraham was promised in Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Then again in Genesis 15:1-6 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
There was no promise of earthly riches and prosperity, there was no promise of ruling the nations around him but only a promise that he would become a great nation, so great that a person could not count. This faith that Abraham possessed is what counted to him as righteousness. It was this faith that he had that moved him to look for a city where God was the designer and builder. He looked to an eternal kingdom that was not on Earth but in Heaven with God. This too is what we should be striving for in our every day life. Not focusing on the struggles and problems that we face, not falling into doubt that God is with us but trusting God and living that faith out in our life as obedient children that He has called us to be.
Do you live as if you are a citizen of Heaven? Philippians 3:20 says But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are already heavenly citizens and we wait for that redemption that we will have one day. Hebrews 13:4 says For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
2 Corinthians 5:1 says For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Do you live your life with Heaven in mind? I don’t mean the fact that there will be streets of gold or that you may have some type of family reunion, I am speaking of the fact that we will be in the presence of our Lord and our God. We will worship the Lord Jesus and be in His presence forever, out of the presence of sin and in the presence of holiness. This is what Abraham looked for and guess what, according to Jesus he saw it. This is what Jesus said in John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Abraham may have faced difficulties throughout his life, he may have wondered at when God would bring to him an actual heir but it all paid off because the faith he had resulted in him seeing Jesus in His glory. We too must have faith and live out that faith in obedience.
Disciple's Direction 