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| Billie Silvey |
| Abraham's Journey of Faith |
| March 2006 |
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| The story of Abraham begins with God’s call to travel: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). God wanted Abraham to separate himself from the familiar and comfortable and strike out into the world. And Abraham obeyed. Beginning in the city of Ur, near the southeastern tip of the Fertile Crescent, in modern-day Iraq, he moved north to the city of Haran, in today’s Turkey. When God’s call was repeated at Haran, Abraham traveled south through Syria into current day Israel. According to Rick Marrs, “Journey provides the overarching metaphor for the patriarchal narratives. Journey says something significant about the life of faith and our relationship with God.” Three promises were connected with God’s call to Abraham. He was promised descendants (“I will make you into a great nation”), blessing (“I will bless you; I will make your name great”), and blessing for others (“and you will be a blessing”). At the time, Abraham was 75 years old, and he had no children. Thus his journey became a journey of faith, of trust in a God who makes promises. Despite incredible odds, Abraham became the father of three distinct groups of people who represent three major world religions. Through his first son, Ishmael, Abraham became the father of the Arabs, the followers of Islam. Through his second son, Isaac, the son of the promise, Abraham became the father of the Israelites or Judaism. And through his faith, Abraham became the father of Christians who are justified by faith (see Romans 4:1-21). God credited Abraham’s faith as righteousness, and he does the same for us. As Marrs puts it, “God pronounces his relationship with Abram [Abraham] ‘right’ because Abram has embraced the call.” Abraham’s faith journey parallels our own. We, as well, have a promised home, we have the blessings of being children of God, and we bless others. Like Abraham, we are made right by God--not because of our own righteousness, but because God kept his promise and provided the means of making us right through Jesus. Though our journey takes us through periods of deep faith, as well as times of weakness and fear, we, like Abraham, are God’s children when we accept his call and follow his way, wherever it leads. |