With the calling of Abram we are witnessing the beginning of God’s greatest plan for His children to come. You are, I assume, one of them. He had brought His creation of life on this planet through the death of the flood, ending whatever plans us humans may have made. But death and resurrection is God’s way. You, as a born again believer, have yourself already passed through it in Christ Jesus.
Interestingly also, is the fact that Abram is told in Gen 15 :7 “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” although we were told earlier that: 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, Terah, for sure, believed it was his idea. Even though this idea is vacant in the modern church, this mystery is cleared when we remember that God often sends His own thoughts into the minds of humans such as Cyrus, Terah and sometimes you and I.
Also, another clue in Gen 13:14 where we read: “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever”.
“I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth”,
And so is Israel- created children as the dust of the earth- but Israel is not the only offspring of the man to be soon called Abraham, for he is also the father of a great nation (Abram) and later he becomes the father of many nations (Abraham) and we get a clue as to the nature of these nations of children as we read in Gen 15:6
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.” 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.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
The first, earthy, of the earth… Israel
The last, seated in the heavenly, that is… Spiritual. One new man, of Israel and the born again church! We shall see and hopefully understand this better as we go on.
So God has formed a covenant with Abraham. I recant it because of it’s importance to His Love and Fatherhood and our faith because this covenant covers us also, but ore on that later-
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear nt, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 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?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 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.” 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.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. Abram witnessed The Lord and God passing through the pices… Abram saw God promise Himself that everything would happen the way He had said. Abram KNEW for certain what God had promised wouldhappen as He said! 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, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Moving on: The Origin of the Arabic Nations:
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
Now, contrary to popular opinion, Abram has done nothing wrong when he goes into Hagar and has the child Ishmael. God had said only that a child would come out of Abram’s own loins. This child could be said to fulfill God’s promise. We shall see that God pronounces great promises over this child. In fact, the total Arabic Nation is descended from Hagar. However, as we shall see this is not God’s promised child. We account the first born as the important one but God so often foils our plans and choses the second or even (in the case of David) the last.
And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
Sari is against this boy about to be born by Hagar- Abram (as we shall see) loves the unborn child.
The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the LORD said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the LORD has listened to your affliction.
He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
The decedents of Ishmael believe the ownership prosperity of Israel is stolen fro them because Ishamel was the first born. God does not honor this fact because He declairs that the linage passes through Issac (at this point Issac is not yet born.
The conflict we see today is still between two of Abraham’s two children
We eill leave it here, but will continue with God’s desire, His plan, His motive and how it beautifully affects us in the life of Abraham. God bless and see you next time.
mcfalger 