Sunday, January 7, 2024

Even Abraham Didn’t Always Get It Right

Even Abraham Didn't Always Get It Right

Writing & Photography by David K. Carpenter

Jan 7

Since the Daily Audio Bible's annual journey through the Bible returned to the starting gate at the beginning of the year, we're once again getting reacquainted with Abraham, who is basically each of our father in the faith. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote about him:

So also Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Galatians 3:6-9 (NIV)

But here's the thing--even with these glowing credentials, not even Abraham got it right every time. In Genesis chapter 12, God promises Abraham (Abram at the time) that He will make Abram into a great nation and that all peoples will be blessed through him.

Jumping ahead to chapter 15, though, we see Abram asking God for clarification about that prior promise. He had not yet had a child through whom God could create a great nation, so he's wondering aloud whether God may have meant that the great nation would actually come through Abram's servant and not his direct lineage. But God reassures him, saying, "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir." (Genesis 15:4, NIV). To this God adds a covenant and a promise that his own descendants will be as numerous as the stars.

Sounds good, right? There shouldn't be any reason for Abram to doubt that commitment, should there?

Well, not so fast. In chapter 16, we see Abram and his wife Sarai wonder if she might be the reason Abram still has no heir. Sarai helpfully suggests that maybe her servant Hagar could provide Abram with a son. Hagar succeeds, and Ishmael is born. The problem is solved, right?

No, not really. In fact, more problems are created, which we'll come back to in a moment. By the time we get to the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, we see God telling Abram that Ishmael was not the answer He had in mind. He clarifies that Abram's wife Sarai will bear him a son, whom they are to name Isaac. And both Abram and Sarai receive new names from God: Abraham and Sarah.

However, before we reach that happy resolution, Abram receives the prophecy from an angel of the Lord that Ismael "will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." And that prophecy has rung painfully true, since the abrasion between Isaac and Ishmael formed the root of the Israeli/Arab conflict that persists even to this day. And all because Abram/Abraham didn't quite understand the direction God had been giving him.

Why do I point this out? Certainly not to paint Abraham in a negative light. Not at all.

My goal in going through all of this is to give us all hope in our relationships with God. I'm making the assumption that you are like me in that you don't usually have a clear picture of what God is saying to you or how He is directing your life. Like me, maybe you're trying your best to live true to God's calling for your life, but it's not usually clear what that is. So what should we do? Give up?

By no means! Reading through this story of Abram/Abraham, we see that he has what appear to be some very direct conversations with God. But even then, he doesn't get it right. He misunderstands what God is telling him, but it doesn't really matter.

Why not? Because he remains faithful to God, even when what's going on makes no sense. His faith is counted as righteousness, and God works with that. In the end, God achieves the outcomes He was after all along. In the end, God wins and Abraham wins.

And we can win, too, if we'll let God work in us and through us, the way Abraham did.