Now about four hundred years after the Great Flood, God appeared to a man named Abram, who lived in the Middle East, in a city called Ur.
Abrams home was in a city called UR, there God appeared to him.God said to him, “Leave your country and your relatives, and travel to a land that I will show you. There I will make a great nation from you, and I will bless you, and make your name great; I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you: and through you shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
So Abram departed, as the Lord had instructed, and entered into the land of Canaan.
God said to Abram; “Look at the heavens, and count the stars if you are able. In the same way, your descendants shall be countless.”And again the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, “I give this land to your descendants; Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able. In the same way, your descendants shall be countless.”
Even though Abram and his wife, Sarai, had no children, Abram believed God; and God counted Abram's faith as righteousness.
Then Abram said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will inherit this land?”
And God answered Abram, “It will happen like this. Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirsBut Sarai, Abram's wife, still bore him no children, and she was getting old. So Sarai said to Abram, “I beg you to go have children by my Egyptian maid, Hagar, and I will just consider her children to be mine.”
Abram agreed with Sarai's plan. Though he loved the Lord, Abram failed to believe that God would give him a child through his wife. So Hagar bore Abram a son named Ishmael.
Thirteen years later, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared yet again to him, and said, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me. I am giving you the new name of Abraham, which means, 'Father of Multitudes' and Sarai shall be called Sarah meaning ‘Princess.’ Now I will bless Sarah and give you a son also from her, and she shall be a mother of nations.”
Then Abraham pleaded with God, “O that Ishmael might live before You.”
God answered, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you: Behold, I have also blessed him, and will greatly multiply his descendants; and I will make him a great nation.” God fulfilled his promise to the descendants of Abraham and Ishmael through the Arab nation.
God then said, “But with Sarah's son, and with his descendants after him, I will establish my covenant which is everlasting.”
After that, Sarah gave birth to Abraham's son whom they named Isaac. Now when Isaac was grown, the Lord asked Abraham to demonstrate his faith.
, and they will be mistreated for four hundred years. A nation will use them as slaves, but I will judge that nation, and afterward your descendants will come out with great wealth, and by the fourth generation they shall return to this land.”
God said, “Abraham”: and he answered, “Yes, I am here.“ And God said, ”Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon the mountain which I will instruct you to use.”
God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon the mountain which I will instruct you to use.”Then Abraham got up early in the morning and took Isaac his son, as God had told him.Then, on the third day, Abraham looked and, in the distance, he saw the appointed place.
So Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac to carry. And he took a torch in his hand, and a knife; and they both went up the hill together.
Then Isaac asked Abraham, “Father? We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
So they both continued up together until they came to the place where God had instructed Abraham to go. There Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order.
Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And Abraham stretched out his hand with the knife, preparing to kill his son.
Then the angel of the Lord called out of heaven, saying, “Abraham, Abraham.”
And he answered, “Here I am.” And the Lord said, “Do not lay your hand on Isaac for now I know that you revere Me, since you did not withhold your only son.”
And Abraham lifted up his head and looked, and there, behind him, was a ram caught in a bush by his horns. So Abraham took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
The Bible says that Abraham knew that God would fulfill His promises about Isaac, even if God had to raise Isaac from the dead.
Then because of Abraham's faith, God said,“ I will bless you. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of all heaven; And through your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because you obeyed my voice.”
Then Abraham rejoiced as he understood that the Savior, promised long before in the Garden, would come from his descendants.
God's test of Abraham also illustrated how, one day, God, the heavenly Father, would offer His only beloved son as a sacrifice for the whole world.
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