The Patriarch

I've been studying Abraham lately. In the past, I never really paid any special attention to this man who is so important in the story of God. I mean I knew all the different stories about him from Sunday School and stuff growing up so when I got to the parts about him in the bible I would just read them as that: stories. This time around though I stopped and started really thinking about what I was reading, and I noticed a lot of things that I feel like aren't really emphasized enough. Abraham lived the first 75 years of his life outside of the land that would later become Israel. In fact, the first time that it's recorded that God ever spoke to him wasn't until that time. Now, I know that people lived much much longer back then, but I think that the fact that the father of the Hebrew people did not begin his life in God until he was already 75 years old is a very significant thing. I mean that's crazy to my way of thinking! God comes to this guy out of the blue and tells him when he's already 75 to leave the land of his father because he's going to create a great nation from his children! Abraham listened to Him too! He just got up and left. He lived an amazing life after that too. God just kept blessing him and blessing him. I mean he inherited an entire country from God! He was blessed with tons of goods and livestock. He was so wealthy that the people in the land that surrounded where he lived called him a prince. This guy was patient too! He was 75 when God promised him children, and his wife Sarah didn't have the child that God promised him until 25 years later! Twenty-five years of waiting, trusting God, and doing everything that He asked without exception. I know that Abraham lived to be 175, but that does not change the fact that 25 years is FOREVER!!! I mean if I had to wait 25 more years to have children I don't know how I would make it! Abraham was actually called Abram for most of his life. Abraham was the name that God gave him. Abram meant "exalted father" while Abraham meant "father of a multitude". Either way, this man was called to be a father his whole life, and he waited most of his life for it! I think that's amazing! So, here we have this guy who had this amazing relationship with God, was blessed beyond measure, but still he waited 25 years to have Isaac, the child of promise. And after the big wait for this kid; after he waited his whole life to be a father; after he received promise after promise from God that he was going to be the father of nations; God tells him to go up to the mountains, and sacrifice his one and only son that he waited so long for and whom he loves more than anything. This wasn't a "spiritual sacrifice". This was real. God was saying "Abraham, I want you to go up to the mountain and stab to death and burn your one and only son whom you love more than anything. The one whom I promised to you in the first place 25 years before he was born." I don't think I could ever understand what Abraham thought at that moment. He actually did as God asked. He really was going to sacrifice Isaac. It wasn't like he didn't love this kid or care about him. He waited 25 years for him. He was already 100 years old when Issac was born. You cannot even say that it was all God's idea for him to have children and that he never really wanted it. God said"Take now your son, your only son Issac, whom you love..." in Genesis 22:2. That verse is the first time in the entire bible that the word "love" is even used. Abraham loved this child more than you or I have ever loved anything in our lives, and his faith in God was so strong that he was still willing to give him as a sacrifice. As a sign of his love for God, he was willing to give the one thing that he loved most on this earth. We know that he didn't end up having to go through with it and that God provided another sacrifice, but I still cannot even begin to fathom how amazing this story is. I cannot wait to meet him when I get to the New Jerusalem. This man truly was great. God chose him to be the father of His chosen nation. I believe that God also chose him to have the greatest revelation of His heart that anyone has ever had because when Abraham was willing to give up Isaac in love for God he became a picture of God sacrificing His own Son in love for us.