 The story of Abraham is told in the book of Genesis in the Bible. He lived about 4000 years ago and was
born in a place called Ur, which is in the very south of modern Iraq. Abraham believed in the one, true God, the Maker of heaven and earth, but in the city
where he lived, they worshipped the sun, moon and stars. There was a special temple to the moon goddess, the type of temple which today we call a ziggurat.
One day, God told Abraham to leave the city and his relatives, to go to a special land which God promised would belong to his millions of descendants. Abram (as he was called at first) left Ur together with his wife, Sarai (later called Sarah). His relatives must have gone with him, for they all ended up in the northern city of Haran. When Abram's father, Terah died, Abraham obeyed God's call and left for the land God had promised. When he first left Ur, Abraham was 75 years old and his wife was nine years younger. They were childless - how could God fulfil His promise of many descendants? They arrived in the Promised Land and the years went by without any sign of a child, let alone a son to carry on the family name. Sarah despaired of ever having a child and resorted to an accepted custom of the day. She gave her Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, to Abraham to be another, albeit servant wife. By her, Abraham could have a son which, because Hagar was a slave, would belong to Sarah. (Hagar belonged to Sarah and so anything she had belonged to Sarah too). In this way, when he was 86 years old, Abraham became the father of a son Ishmael. Abraham was very proud of his son Ishmael and felt sure that through Him God would fulfil his promise of millions of descendants. However, God spoke very clearly to Abraham and told him that when He had promised Him a son, He had meant a son by his wife Sarah. God's promise was to be fulfilled in God's time and Abraham must trust and wait upon God. And so, against hope, Abraham believed in hope. He became the great example, not only to the people of Israel who were his descendants, but also to Christians, of a man of faith. The years went by and still there was no sign of the promised son. Then one day, when Abraham, at 99 years of age, was relaxing outside his tent after a rather busy day,
he espied three visitors coming their way. Quickly he made ready to prepare food and drink so that the visitors could be received with the customary hospitality. On arrival
they began to talk with Abraham and one in particular (it was in fact the Lord Himself) seemed to know so much about him and Sarah.
His son Isaac became the father of Jacob and Esau. And Jacob became the father of twelve sons, who became the ancestral fathers of the twelve tribes which made up the nation of Israel - the millions of descendants of Abraham. |