Where do we begin with Abraham and Revival?

By not starting on the Mountain of Moriah where ‘by faith ... Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead.’ [Hebrews 11:17a and 19]. No, the proper place to start is Ur of the Chaldees. This was a prosperous metropolis of some third of a million people, where many gods were worshipped, especially the god of the moon. There he lived with his father, Terah, and surely like his ancestors worshipped other gods. [Joshua 24:2]. But the Lord God revealed Himself to Abram, as he was first named and called him to “Go from [his] country, [his] people and [his] father’s household to the land I will show you.” [Gen 12:1] And Abram left. But why?

1. Abram’s call to a new future.

Abram left because he had a deep and unhealed hurt in his heart. His name meant ‘exalted father’ but he and Sarai, his wife, were childless. And the Lord God promised him children: ‘I will make you into a great nation’. [12:2] Every great nation must begin with a child. Even a son.

Whatever remedies he and Sarai may have tried through the medicines and religions they knew had not worked. A lack of conception that may have been seen as a shame if Chaldean culture valued child-bearing especially of a son. Abram and Sarai were bereaved by lost hopes of being parents. Abram’s own name was a permanent personal reminder of their grief, for it meant ‘exalted father’. A grieving perhaps made worse by the death of Abram’s brother, Haran, robbing Lot of his dad, leading to Abram, as the eldest son, taking on a fatherly role for Lot; yet Lot was not his own son. God’s promise of becoming a father of a great nation must have been greatly welcomed.

The good news has always found a welcome in the hearts of the hurting. The comfortable, and the familied who live the worldly good life – however minimally - are often closed to God’s care, and promises. Like Satan and his protege Nimrod their desire, however unspoken, is to be independent of God, to live life as they wish, making themselves their only ‘I am’. So e.g. King Agrippa, when challenged by Paul, “do you believe the prophets? I know you do.” [Acts 26:28f] was not willing to open his heart to Jesus.

2. Abram and Sarai take up God’s call and God’s response.

Abram’s father, Terah is grieving the loss of his youngest son, Haran. We can infer that Abraham shared God’s promise of children with his dad. If Abram obeyed God’s word ‘leave your father’s household’ Terah’s grief would be multiplied, for added to the loss of Haran he would lose Abram, and his grandson Lot, and the grandson[s] Abram would have when the promise was fulfilled. So Terah decides to go with Abram. Yes, he loses immediate relationship with his second son, but the promise to his eldest son over-rides that. In recognition of his parental role Genesis refers to him leading the leaving ‘Terah took his son, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and together they set out … to go to Canaan.’ [11:31] But instead of going all the way they settle in Haran.

Abram has left his country and his people but not his father’s household. This is still a separation that challenges many today God calls them to Jesus. As Jesus Himself experienced as Luke tells us He said to one man ‘Follow me. But he replied, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” [and] Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.’ Jesus’ response to him, is a not a word of tolerant understanding but a statement of judgement: ‘No-one who takes hold of the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ So long as Abram stays settled in Haran, he hears no more from God. To stay there is death to the promise.

But when Abram does get up and go to Canaan, ‘as the Lord had told him’ [12:4], and then travels through the land, the Lord appears to him [12:7] and reaffirms His promise, with those encouraging words: ‘To your seed I will give this land.’ To which Abram responds with worship, building an altar there and later also in the region of Bethel. When we respond to God’s call God responds to us. And even a worship may begin.

3. But to give time in your life to worship God is not the same as to trust Him for your living.

It is invariably the case that as we start to worship God something happens in the world that challenges our commitment, testing whether the seed has fallen on good soil or rocky. [Mark 4 and parallels] After the worship comes the famine, and Abram goes to Egypt to escape the famine. There is nothing in Genesis to say that he asked God if that is what he should do. It seems very much his own decision.

And when he goes there he tells Sarai to say she is his sister, which is true in that like Abram she was fathered by Terah but not mothered by the same mother. But Abram asks her to say this so that he will be treated well for her sake and his life spared because of her. Abram is mixing selfishness with being wise in the ways of the world. He had come to Canaan; he has answered God’s call; he has even worshipped God, but his attitudes are still of the world. In defence of his own well-being he is putting God’s purposes at risk. Abram might be safe outside, receiving honourable treatment as Sarais brother but she is taken into Pharaoh’s harem, from which she might never escape. But God acts to deliver her, causing serious diseases to affect the court, leading to questions that reveal her true relationship with Abram. Pharaoh returns Sarai and banishes them from Egypt. Do we think as God’s people that choosing to live by our wiles and worldly ways may bring harm to others?

4. Family mattersand publicly declared commitment

When Abram returns to Canaan he also returns to worshipping God [13:4b] and to Lot, who is his nephew, but also a member of his father’s household, whom Abram should have left. Now their mutual prosperity begins to divide them. The very blessing God is providing for them brings about the parting of the ways that Abram was called to but had not implemented. But again after Abram has done what God originally asked of him God renews their relationship. He speaks to Abram, repeating not only the promise of the land but stressing the miracle of descendants ‘I will make your seed like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust then your seed will be counted.’ [13:16] God’s promise to Abram is not limited to one child, nor even a family of children but to countless multitudes.

But Lot becomes a victim of conflict, a prisoner of war. Abram rescues him, then in a public event, graced through Melchizedek, a figure of Jesus, in the blessing of God Most High, with bread and wine foreshadowing communion, Abram rejects any hint of homage to the worldly king of Sodom declaring: ‘I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth [14:22]. This is like a confirmation event where the subject out of his own free will turns from the king of sin to the Lord God, acknowledging Him before all others.

5. Doubt springs forth yet faith is graced.

Doubt is not disbelief, though it may be its seed. Doubt is part of the burden of being a fallen people in a fallen creation. Doubt is a flower the enemy waters when we have stood in the sunlight of proclaiming our trust in the Lord. Like Thomas after the crucifixion we may seek hard proof, that what is said to be really is so.

After his public declaration God again speaks to Abram, but now Abram questions. ‘I remain childless. You have given me no children.’ [15:2 and 3]. These are not complaints against God, not a sign of him closing his heart. They are the expressed wanting of a long waiting, the speaking out of a deep hurting not yet healed, the uttering of a hope that yearns to be answered, of a grieving heart that seeks God’s consolation. At long last Abram is confessing his inner dependence. At long last in speaking of a promise not yet fulfilled he is expressing His trust in God. And the Lord, hearing what is in Abram’s heart not only re-assures him: ‘a son coming from you own body will be your heir.’ ‘Look up at the stars, so shall your seed be’ graces Abraham with faith. Abram believes, not because he has been blessed with children but because his questions, like Mary to Gabriel, reveals his belief, which the Lord credits to him as righteousness. [15:6] There can be no people of God without their belief in God. Yet coming to belief is only the start – there is more to consider.