Abram came from the line of genealogy of Adam and Eve’s third son Seth, and from Noah’s favorite son Shem.
Genesis 9:26 says,
26 “And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”
A quote from Malcolm Smith.
[1] After the Flood and the giving of the Noachic Covenant, the true faith was kept alive by a remnant of people. Literature outside the Bible names Shem, who lived to a great age, as the one who kept the faith alive.
Outside of the remnant, the race degenerated rapidly. It appears that the degeneration was led by Ham and his descendants. Nimrod was an immediate descendant from Ham. He was the author of the Tower of Babel, which would mature into pagan religions and cults of Babylon.
A Quote from Watchman Nee.
[2] Abraham was called and chosen not just for himself but for his descendents; not merely to receive grace, but to transmit grace to others. There had been men of faith before him, men like Abel, Enoch and Noah, who had nobly stood out as different from their contemporaries; but to judge from the record, they almost seem to have done so from birth. Abraham, was in his beginnings, an idolator just like those around him. By himself, until God called him, he could not be ranked alongside Abel, Enoch or Noah. Yet Matthew's Gospel opens with his name. Of all Old Testament names, his occurs most on the lips of Jesus. And this idolator was the man chosen to bring blessings to countless multitudes, chosen for no other reason than that God was pleased to choose him. There was nothing inherent in his character to suggest that through him such blessing should come to so many. God took him, led him, and multiplied him. Cannot the same God do the same for you?
Abram heard God's voice.
Genesis 12:1-6 says,
1 “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
4 “So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.”
God asked him to leave everything he trusted in. He made him a promise of becoming the father of a great nation. Nation, in this sense, I believe refers not only to a race of people, but also a land. God has not forsaken the promise of inheriting a great nation. The physical land of Israel is still promised to Abraham’s natural seed (through Isaac and Jacob), and the spiritual promise land is promised to Abraham's spiritual seed through Christ.
Abram obeyed the voice of God.
Notice, this was really an act of great faith. How did Abram know for sure that this was God’s voice?
Abram "saw" God.
Abram had experienced something even greater than having heard from God; he saw God. God appeared to him. Perhaps that was the result of obedience to the voice of God. John 14:21-23 contains the message that when we obey God that He makes Himself real to us.
Genesis 12:7 says,
7 “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.”
That word “appeared” is very strong. It infers seeing the real and true identity of a person or thing.
A quote from Watchman Nee.
The man who sees that glory knows he must respond. He cannot do otherwise. Abraham responded, and through all the setbacks and discouragements of his pilgrimage, the vision of God's glory carried him in triumph. Stephen set out first of all to remind his hearers of this.
They heard Stephen's testimony, and rejected it, only to become suddenly aware that he himself was beholding that of which he spoke! Full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up steadfastly "and saw the glory of God."
He who appeared to Abraham and he whom Stephen saw were one and the same. There is no change in Him. And that same God, his splendor still undimmed, now carried Stephen through his own terrible crisis. What matters an extra stone of two to the one who beholds the glory of God? [3]
Abram’s response to hearing and seeing God was to shed blood.
That should always be our response. In our case that means to “take up our cross.” When I say, "take up our cross," I mean that we need to willingly give up our flesh nature, repent for the sins we are allowing that old nature to do, and allow God to replace our old nature with His likeness in us. Compare that to Jesus taking up His cross. He willingly gave up His divine nature by taking on our nature through the blood covenant, and allowed His own crucifixion in order to make the exchange with us.
Notice, Abram built an altar. The word “altar” used here means a bloody sacrifice. According to Strong's Bible Concordance, the word means, “will remove, release, to be removed, to depart to set free, deliver.”
I asked the question: “Lord, why would Abram have performed a blood covenant sacrifice on an altar? It does not say that you asked him to do that.” I submit that the Lord showed Himself to Abraham for Who He really is.
John 8:56 (Amplified Bible) says,
56 “Your forefather Abraham was extremely happy at the hope and prospect of seeing My day (My incarnation); and he did see it and was delighted.”
It is interesting that God give each person an opportunity to "see" Him.
Titus 2:11 says,
11 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”
When one sees the grace of God’s blood covenant, as did some of these First Testament [4] characters we have been studying, the natural response is to shed blood, perhaps even taking up your own cross. Now we can see even better; they just saw from afar off.
While I believe that God revealed Himself to Abram little by little, as we will see through Genesis chapters 15-22, I submit that he saw enough of God in this appearance to know that He was a blood covenant God, unlike the idols he had been worshipping. I submit that he saw this loving God in the blood covenant taking his curse and giving him, Abram, God’s blessing. Abram saw a giving God, not a hard taskmaster. He saw a God who would die to bless him. That is why Abram would cut blood at the altar; that is why he would follow him anywhere.
With this appearance, Abram obeyed a very difficult command, which was to leave his family. That was not like today’s families. Family back then was like a huge corporation. It represented financial and spiritual security. They believed in ancestral worship. Forsaking that, they thought, would put them under a curse. The family was like a multi-national corporation with its wealth and influence. Leaving that would require a great vision of something or Someone far better. Also, recall that Abram was at his wits end being childless, and this wonderful blood-shedding God promised him a seed, an offspring. Therefore, Abram did have some natural reason to be open to God seeing that he was at his wits end because he was childless.
God told him that He would be the One to bless him, and that the blessing would be too much for him to contain. Abram would have to pour it out on others. God also promised that He would be Abram’s protector and that He would make his name or family a great nation. The following Scripture talks about Abram and others.
Hebrews 11:13 (Amplified Bible) says,
13 “These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God’s] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth.”
I feel that Abram saw Jesus revealed, the Lamb of God, and he had no other response than to shed blood and give himself to God unreservedly as a consecrated offering.
The Lord also appeared to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, as recorded in Luke 24. When they saw Him as the Lamb of God, revealed to them by Jesus Himself by going through Moses and the Prophets, their hearts burned. God met them at their wits end.
Abram was not perfect, but he set his priorities correct. His obedience was “straightway.” Straightway is a word used often in the KJV Bible and means immediate, forthwith. It is the word eutheos in Greek.
Abraham made an important decision that we all need to make.
Genesis 12:8 says,
8 “And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.”
Bethel is the House of God, and Ai was the place of the Canaanites, “heap of ruins.” Commentators have said that Abram’s tent door was facing Bethel and his back was to Ai. He turned his back to the world and his face towards God. I submit that Abram was motivated to turn his back on the world system because he "saw" God. I can testify that happened to me!
How did God teach Abram his first practical grace lesson?
All of us, like Abram, have valuable raw character material that needs to be purified. In that perspective God needs to deal with our self-sufficiency, or some call it our “flesh.” Sometimes it is difficult for us to discern between the works of the flesh and the wind and grace of God, but God has a way of defining that for us. It is called “breaking.” I call it “ordained failure.”
Abram entered his training period, his preparation for his destiny and purpose. Do not despise your “mountains,” your disappointments, challenges or failures. God wants to bring His purposes to you by His power, His grace, and He needs to get your self-sufficiency out of the way. Often He cannot do that by doctrine, but by experiences.
Notice, in the following passage of Scripture that Abram left his promise land when the famine came and went to Egypt, a type and shadow of the “world system.” Abram used his craftiness to escape the famine. Wouldn’t you?
God wants our secret “mountains” revealed, as well as our performance based “flesh,” so that we can bear fruit through His grace and not our works. Also, notice that he hit a circumstance in lying about Sarai that could have spelled disaster. However, God’s grace kicked in to give Pharaoh the plague and the understanding of it. This saved Abram, and also thrust him from Egypt with all of his riches in tact. Not only were Abram’s original riches in tact, but he and Lot acquired much more wealth through Pharaoh’s gifts to them. That is amazing grace!
Genesis 12:9-20 says,
9 “So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.
12 Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.
13 Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.
15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.
16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.”
20 So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him; and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.”
Just imagine yourself in this story. What a rescue by God! Grace, grace!
Why is God so determined to have us reach the end of our self-sufficiency? Because the flesh is under a curse and Jesus died to take that curse and give us the blessing. Abram saw the blood, but he needed the discipline of the Holy Spirit to help him reach his wits end, to reveal his “mountain,” so that God could bring His grace to bear.
As we learned in the previous chapter from Noah, grace and faith came into his life before his works were fulfilled. Our works should be the result of grace and faith, not a way to grace and faith. We should see the fruit appearing and tend the fruit, doing that which only man can do, as faith without works is dead. But the fruit is still initiated and produced by God. Later we will discover how Abram learned this painful lesson again with Ishmael.
The powerful strong willed apostle Paul learned grace the hard way also.
The Apostle Paul grasped this truth. Paul expressed this time and time again. I would just like to use two Scripture passages to demonstrate how he felt. When the messenger of Satan afflicted him, it probably had to do with his list in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. That list included, being flogged with thirty-nine lashings five times, shipwrecked and spending the night in the sea, being robbed, facing perils by the heathen, perils in the city, in the wildernesses, in the sea and among false brethren, being hungry, cold and naked, and then having the cares of the new churches that had many problems and attacks. In addition, history records that these false brethren were legalistic Jews who always attacked Paul’s message of grace. His response to all this was recorded in the following Scripture.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 says,
8 “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
9 And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Notice he said, “I take pleasure.” He did not say he just endured them, but rather they were profitable for him. Also notice that God did not deny Paul’s request to deal with these thorns, but rather informed him that he simply needed to allow the grace working in and through him, God’s power, to overcome them.
Grace is something that we best learn by experience.
I don’t think that Paul learned this lesson overnight. I believe that God had to take him through much breaking. Perhaps the Lord revealed this concept to Paul during his wits end in Zechariah 4:7 which says, “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
Zechariah 4:6 says,
6 “So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.’”
Grace misunderstood!
I believe that the reason some people do not behave in a godly way is that they do not know who they are; their identity is lost and the are mourning for the real “me.” I do admit however that there are various types of heart responses to God’s mercy and grace. There are those who would tend to presume on God’s grace as a way to live in their old nature. Guess what? They will remain in bondage because it is impossible to receive God’s grace with a proud or selfish heart and without the exchange of the blood covenant. There are those who feel that they do not need God’s grace because they are strong performers. Guess what? They will remain in bondage for the same reason. God will not allow His grace to be misused, only misunderstood.
But if you, with an honest, humble heart, bring your “mountains” to God in humility and repentance, He will not only speak grace to your mountain, you will become most intimate with Him, and you will come to appreciate His blood covenant and who it has made you to be. Lifestyle and godly behavior will simply be a result of who you know yourself to be. God wants to make contact with you, let you know what His blood has done, so that He may see you understand your true identity and become very close to Him. We need to treat others with grace and not disgrace so that they too can come to know the Creator personally through His blood.
Romans 2:4 says,
4 “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
Grace is found when you experience your first salvation experience, but I know from experience and from Scripture that it is continually found as we walk out our life. Sometimes one does not realize that it is needed, until it is needed.
Paul made this clear to the Galatian church which had backslidden into performance and legalism.
Galatians 3:1-3 says,
1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
Abram came back to the blood after he had learned some lessons in Egypt.
Abram chose the place of the Lord rather than the place of worldly prosperity. He allowed Lot to choose the green fertile plain towards Sodom, and he accepted the barren desert trusting in God to provide for his flocks.
Genesis 13:1-12 says,
1 “Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South.
2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.
6 Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.
7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
8 So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren.
9 "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left."
10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.
11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.
12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.”
After Abram was separated from Lot [the ways of the "world"] he saw more of God and God’s promises.
Genesis 13:13-18 says,
13 “But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.
14 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.
16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.’
18 Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.”
God called Abram back to the "world," but this time it was to rescue his nephew Lot.
Genesis 14:14 says,
“14 Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.”
God is not a respecter of persons, He will do the same in your life as He did for Abram, if you choose His ways and forsake the ways of the "world."
What about Abraham’s faith?
Ephesians 2:8 indicates that grace is the product of faith.
Ephesians 2:8 says,
8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
We know that Romans 10:17 says that faith is the product of hearing God speak. Jesus indicated that He wanted us to live our lives (that our lives would be sustained) by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, Luke 4:4 [5]. Hebrews 10:38 [6] says that we, as righteous people, should sustain our very lives by faith. Sustain means to supply every single need, to provide the nourishment required just to keep something alive. God’s Word, as in creation, creates those things He wants that are not yet in existence. He desires to use you as a co-creator with Him. Sustain means to supply every single need, to provide the nourishment required just to keep something alive. God’s Word, as in creation, creates those things He wants that are not yet in existence. He desires to use you as a co-creator with Him.
Faith can be so watered down and misunderstood. I believe that the greatest lesson we can learn from Abraham about faith is found in Romans chapter 4.
Romans 4:16-22 says,
16 “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17 (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed – God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
22 And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’”
Notice, Abraham had many opportunities to not believe what God said to him. However, believing God’s Word is what allowed God to perform His purposes, not only in Abraham’s life, but also for the world.
He was beyond child producing age, Sarah had a “dead” womb, the promise that his seed would be as the stars was too big of a promise to stand for, and there were many other circumstances and thoughts that battled Abraham’s faith. However, he must have taken his thoughts captive and hoped against all hopelessness. He did not consider the circumstances, but instead put the Word that God had spoken to him in first position. To consider means, “to consider attentively, fix one’s eyes or mind upon.” He fixed his eyes on God’s promise, knowing that God was able to perform that which He spoke. When God speaks to you, not only does faith rise, but also His seed is planted in your heart. That seed, like agricultural seeds, has in it the power and intelligence to produce what it was intended for.
I want to raise an alert for all of us to use caution in doctrines sometimes followed by branches of Christianity. There are branches of the church world that seek signs and wonders and a personal word of prophecy, primarily. Make no mistake, I love signs and wonders, and I have been used in personal prophecies, and have received personal prophecies that have been from the Lord. However, it can be dangerous to your relationship with God to depend and rely upon others to speak to you on behalf of God. It can be dangerous to always seek signs and wonders as your way of believing.
About three months after I first got saved in 1979, I met a man who told me about a church service he had just been in. He told me that the visiting evangelist had a personal word of prophecy for almost everybody in the congregation, except for him. He was devastated. In my uneducated naivety, I asked him, “Would it not be better for God to speak to you personally?” He looked at me and said no more.
Abraham waited a long time, for many years, but he stood on what God had spoken to Him. He understood how God operates when He speaks. God “calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” When we hear God tell us something that we need for our lives, or that He needs for His Kingdom, that does not presently exist, if we hang on to the Word it will ultimately manifest in our lives. If we do not seek that process, we will remain in bondage.
Satan will indeed come to steal the Word when God speaks to you. Or, he will convince you that you do not need to seek God’s voice, either way, Satan has his way.
Isaiah Chapter 55 (Amplified Bible) gives us a beautiful poetic picture of the benefits of hearing God speak. Of course, as we have stated, obedience to God’s Word is always required of you as you hear Him speak.
Isaiah 55:1-2 (Amplified Version) says,
1 “WAIT and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price [simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing].
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy].”
Here the spiritual wine is joy, and the bread is our provision. That includes everything that we need. The word milk, carries with it the meaning of abundant life. Notice, the price we pay is self-surrender.
Next, God tells us the source of this wonderful provision, spiritual wine and milk. It is hearing His Word.
Isaiah 55:3 (Amplified Bible) says,
3 “Incline your ear [submit and consent to the divine will] and come to Me; hear, and your soul will revive; and I will make an everlasting covenant or league with you, even the sure mercy (kindness, goodwill, and compassion) promised to David.”
Next, God shows us how His Word works, and why we can always depend on it.
Isaiah 55:8-11 (Amplified Bible) says,
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
When rain falls on my garden, I can go out the next day and the ground may be dry. It has evaporated and gone back to heaven. However, it accomplished its task of causing fruit to grow before it left to go back to heaven. In the same way, when we hear God speak, we are to speak His Words back to Him in heaven, and then we can be assured that His fruit will prevail in our lives, provided of course that we keep out the satanic weeds.
[1] Smith, Malcolm, The Blood Covenant, 1990, Malcolm Smith Ministries, San Antonio, TX.
[2] Nee, Watchman, A Table in the Wilderness, August 20 Christian Literature Crusade, Ft. Washington PA 1965.
[3] [1] Nee, Watchman. A Table in the Wilderness. Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1978.
[4] The term First Testament is used in lieu of Old Testament as a matter of courtesy to those precious Jewish friends of ours who may be reading this. To many of them, their Testament is not old, but it is the first.
[5] Luke 4:4: “But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live [sustain his life] by bread alone, but by every word of God.’””
[6] Hebrews 10:38: “Now the just shall live [sustain his life] by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.””