ABRAHAM THE TENT DWELLER

Introduction

There are two types of sermons, topical and narrative.  I have concluded that the story sermon might be better. Isn’t that what our Lord himself used a lot of the time? I think we would have to say that Jesus gave the best sermons ever. Although I may be following in His footsteps in telling a story sermon, it will not be perfect.

I am going to speak about Abraham. I will highlight a few points from his life, which I hope we can take to heart as a challenge and inspiration.

1. Abraham

The story of Abraham could be said to begin in Genesis ch. 11:10. This is the genealogy of Shem, the son of Noah whom God blessed. It leads to Abram, as he was first called, in vs. 26, whom God also blessed. If one takes the names and ages of the members of this family tree and when they had children literally, Abram was born 292 years after the flood. Some say this was about 2166 B.C.

 It’s interesting to note how the ages at which men became fathers is suddenly not that different from current figures, Abram’s father Terah begin somewhat of an exception. He was 70 when he had Abram, whereas many of his ancestors were only in their thirties when they had their first child. There is a theory that the span of man’s life became shorter after the flood because the vapour shield that may have surrounded the earth until that point was disrupted with that first big rainfall. That allowed all those toxic rays from the sun and outer space began to exert a life-shortening effect on our chromosomes.

Abram’s story goes on until ch. 25:10, the reference to his death in about 1991 B.C., covering then some 15 chapters of Genesis. Of course, much is said of Abram throughout the Bible, especially in the book of Romans when it comes to the New Testament. The word Abram occurs 48 times in Genesis, starting in 11:26, and in the Old Testament, only twice outside of Genesis – once in Chronicles and once in Nehemiah.

Later, as we know, God gave Abram a new name, as recorded in Genesis 17:5, Abraham, meaning ‘father of many nations’. This was given in conjunction with the promises God made to Abraham, the covenant God made with him. This name appears 250 times, in 95 verses in Genesis while he was still alive, and in 135 verses in reference to him in the rest of the Old Testament, the Bible of the Jews, his descendants.

Abraham is also named 74 times in the New Testament. Our Lord mentioned him 29 times.

To put the importance of Abraham in perspective, I suspect the only human who is mentioned more in the Bible, by a wide margin, is King David, at 1139 times. However, that’s not a very fair comparison. He gets two versions of his life story in Kings and Chronicles, which give him 264 extra references, plus he is mentioned 88 times in the Psalms, many of which he is believed to have written. Abraham never left any writings that we know of. Again, by way of comparison though, Jesus mentions David only 9 times, compared to Abraham’s 29, and that’s with the repetition of the four gospels. Obviously, when it came to matters of faith, Jesus had a lot more to say about Abraham. Of course, I know some of you are already thinking, yes, but when Jesus mentioned Abraham, it wasn’t always in a good way. This is true; he often used to refer to the Jews of his day as children of Abraham when he was being critical of them. Then again, David is mentioned in only 31 verses of the New Testament outside of the gospels, less than half the references Abraham gets. Remember too, that many of those 31 references to David are only to him being Jesus’ ancestor, not really having anything to do with him as important otherwise.

Of course, all of this pales before the Internet as a source of information. When I began working on this message, there were 427,000 references to Abraham+Bible on Jake Dyck’s favourite search engine, Google. One has to put Bible with Abraham or you’ll get references to every Abe under the sun who has a site on the Internet – an unbelievable 2.8 million when I checked. Abraham is a popular name, and with good reason.

What we can learn from Abraham

I would like to emphasize five things about Abraham that, I believe, played a large part in earning him this respect and biblical prominence. To keep you in suspense, hopefully keep you listening, I’m only going to tell you them as I go along!

In the first place,  

1. Abraham was obedient. When God called, he listened, and he followed. This happened a number of

times in his life. He seemed to do it without a lot of hesitation and questioning.

Why Abraham was called is an important question. If we believe in God as all-knowing, God would have known that Abraham had the right spirit within him. God would have looked into the future and seen how Abraham was going to respond to God's call. We usually think of God's call as being future oriented. God calls us for a purpose. However, as I listened to Sister Anna last Sunday, and her reading of Jacob Wiens' letter to his relatives in Russia, it occurred to me that maybe there was also another reason for God calling Abraham out of Ur. Jacob Wiens, who is actually a direct ancestor of mine, believed he had been given an opportunity by the grace of God to leave a place where he saw revolution coming. He prophetically saw that things would not go well for the Mennonites, the Christians. Perhaps God saw the same thing in the future for Abraham's people. Indeed, we know from history that for centuries the place were Abraham came from turned to paganism and idolatry, worship of the Kings. We know how Abraham's descendants suffered, for example Daniel and his friends, when they were taken back into those lands as exiles centuries later.

God had a purpose for taking Abraham out of the Chaldees, out of Babylonia. Abraham does not appear to have been told of the purpose in these terms though. What he was given was a promise. The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3)

Abram obediently left for Canaan (today Israel) with his family, including his wife Sarai (later renamed Sarah) and his nephew Lot. He traveled down through the land, Shechem, Bethel, Ai, and right south toward the desert of the Negev, the South. When he arrived there, the Lord appeared to him and told him,  "To your offspring I will give this land." (Genesis 12:7). In doing all of this, Abraham trusted God. He didn't see it all happen in his lifetime. He had faith in God and hope for this future. 

Secondly,

2. Abraham was a man of prayer. Indeed, Abraham not only prayed as we often think of prayer. It seems

he had a number of opportunities to talk with God and God’s messengers face to face, as it were.

When Abraham was confronted by a problem, he prayed about it. Abraham was generally a peaceful man, as we will discuss in more detail shortly. I can think of only one occasion where Abraham seems not to have followed a path of peace. It had to do with his nephew Lot. It seems Lot figures often in Abraham's life. Maybe God sent Lot with Abraham to keep him on his toes. He certainly appears to have done this. In drama and literature, we sometimes refer to the foil, the antagonist. This actor causes things to happen to bring the plot along, to bring out the characteristics of the main character, the protagonist. 

Lot had barely had the meeting with Abraham where he went away with the best land and water when a war raid occurred and Lot and his family were taken away. Gen. 14:ff tells the story. There was a coalition of five kings that came to do battle with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring states.  Abraham, when told of this, armed 318 of his trained servants. That tells us something of the size of operation Abraham was running. This was no father son farm. It was a corporation, a company. They pursued the raiding kings and got Lot and his fellow citizens and their goods back. As the victor of this battle, Abraham was entitled to keep the people and possessions he got back. Rather than hold back keep these spoils of war, Abraham wanted to give them all back to their owners.  Abraham, in humility and modesty, had said nothing of how he came to be involved so successfully in this whole affair until the defeated kings whom he had rescued wanted to reward him. Then he spoke of the prayer exchange he had with God.

Abraham had obviously wrestled with how to respond to this war on his borders, with the loss of his nephew and his family. In 14:22 - 24 he talks of how he had promised God not to keep any of the spoils of war, lest others should say he got rich thereby. He had prayed about this before going out.

It was no impulse to go and try to rescue Lot. Indeed, we do not read that he or his men killed anyone. They pursued and smote the fleeing robbers. Just as was the case so often when the Children of Israel, Abraham's descendants, did battle, it was really God who gained the victory. How could 318 men, divided into smaller companies yet, overcome five kings and their armies? It can't help but remind one of Gideon and his 300 men against the Midianites. God won that battle too.

As we mentioned earlier, …

3. Abraham was a man of peace. I believe it is noteworthy, and heartening for us Mennonites, who also

profess to be a peace church, to bear in mind that Abraham generally solved his problems peacefully. This is only fitting for an obedient man of prayer.

When the servants of his nephew Lot quarreled with his own servants over land and water, Abraham, who was Lot's senior, didn't throw his weight around to get what one might have thought was his due. He gave Lot a choice, and ended up with what seemed to be the worst land. Even there, one can say God had a hand in it. Lot went to Sodom and Gomorrah, and we know of the wickedness rampant there. Eventually God had enough of them and destroyed those cities. Abraham and his people, still wandering the hillsides, were saved.

Even within that story is an interesting illustration of Abraham's prayer exchanges with God. Messengers from Heaven, one of who is actually seen as being God, told Abraham what they had in mind for these wicked cities. Gen. 18:17 records the leader of this expedition asking the others whether they should tell Abraham what they were really up to. The reason they think they should tell Abraham is because of the agreement, the covenant, already made with him. The relationship was that strong that God didn't think secrets should be kept from Abraham. That speaks volumes for this relationship. Does God disclose his plans to us, even when it doesn't seem to directly concern us?

Perhaps God was again testing Abraham. 'There's that nephew of yours living over there. He took the best land and watering holes. If I tell you what I have in mind for those cities where Lot lives, are you still really going to be that generous? Are you really that caring?' Abraham could have thought, Serves Lot right for making that selfish choice about the land, now he's getting his reward. No, Abraham didn't let his God down.  Abraham, ever the generous and caring patriarch, plead with God to spare the cities, knowing that included Lot and his family. He wasn't entirely successful, but Lot and most of his family were saved as a result of Abraham's prayers. Gen.19: 29 says specifically that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the cities when they were overthrown. 

Another example of this, according to Gen. 21:25, was when the Philistines among whom Abraham and his people were living, violently took away one of the wells Abraham's servants had dug to water themselves and their cattle and flocks. How did Abraham respond? Actually, he didn't. He just went on and got water somewhere else. He essentially turned the other cheek. The matter was not brought up until Abimelech, the local king, no doubt sensing Abraham's growing wealth and power, decided he had better approach Abraham and get on his good side, as recorded in Gen. 21:22 ff.  Only then, when Abimelech wants to make peace with Abraham in the form of a treaty, does Abraham see fit to bring up the issue of the well.

What is really interesting here is how well this lesson in living peaceably with one's neighbours was learned by Abraham's son Isaac. Five chapters later in Genesis, 26:12 - 22 we read of how the Philistines were spitefully plugging up the wells Abraham's servants had dug. They were jealous of the blessings being showered on these new immigrants. Anything familiar there? King Abimelech in fact asked Isaac to move on, because Isaac and his entourage were becoming more powerful than they were. So, Isaac packs up and goes. What happens? The Philistines go and fight again over the wells. Isaac just keeps on moving, three times, before he gets to a spot where he is no longer hassled.    

This brings us to a third interesting point about Abraham.

4. Abraham remained a nomad. This is something we don’t often pay much attention to. There are two

things about this that I want to mention in particular:

1.     Although Abraham became very rich, by earthly standards, he never settled down. He

didn’t build any mansions. He built no fences. He made no land claims. The only land we

have record of him buying was for a burial plot for his clan. He didn’t set up any memorials for himself, nothing to remember him by.

 

2. Abraham remained a pilgrim. He wasn't too attached to any earthly site, in spite of God’s

promise that this was the land for him and his descendants. God was promising him this

land, but he sure didn't act like we think a landowner would have acted. He gave others the best land. He moved when the neighbours complained. Maybe Abraham could do this because of his complete confidence in God. God had promised him the land. He didn't have to fight for it, lay claim to it. In some way, it was, or was going to be his. As we say nowadays, he didn't sweat it. He just believed what God promised. He continued to live in a tent and wander around with his cattle.

Many religions of Abraham's day, and even now, have links to places and cultures. We have just learned about Hinduism in the Youth Sunday School Class. The Hindus traditionally did not concern themselves with trying to convert others. Hinduism was only a religion of India and its residents. Abraham's faith was not tied to any specific place. It was bound up with him and his descendants and what happened to them as they heeded the call of God wherever they were asked to go. The emphasis here already is on the relationship between God and humanity. Such a religion, a faith, is more open, more flexible and adaptable.  

How about us? How attached are we to our places, our homes, our land? Are we going to be ready to move when God calls? Do we still attach our faith to things of place - our origins, with the languages and customs, the foods, picked up along the way, rather than the core elements of faith themselves?   Maybe we are already guilty of not listening to God's calls, and then wondering why our lives are so troubled, why we are so stressed out, as we say. Perhaps, if we listened to God, as Abraham did, and trusted enough to be uprooted and follow God wherever God led, our lives would be more rewarding too.

I lived, one might say, in four different communities during my formative years. As you can imagine, that's not the most conducive to developing lasting friendships. Sometimes one wonders if that's a good thing or not. Then again, I think it does help one be less attached to this world if one hasn't lived most of one's life in one place. There must be some merit in that. We are, after all, as the old song goes, 'just a passin' through, if heaven's not my home, then Lord what will I do?'

Abraham is also one who had faith in a place beyond this sphere that was going to be his reward. At least so we are told in Hebrews 11:10, the passage we read here last Sunday: "He looked for a city which has foundations, the builder and maker of which is God".

Finally, but not least,

5. Abraham was hospitable. We have heard about hospitality when we went through the LIFE program a

couple of years ago. Those of us who attended the “What Makes a Good Church” conference with Bernie and Bob Wiebe in Crystal City a couple of months ago were reminded of the importance of hospitality in a good church. This was the difference between Abraham and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we know what happened to them. When the angels went to see the wickedness of that city, they were abused, not welcomed. That was the last straw for those cities. Fire and brimstone rained down, and all that’s left today is a valley below sea level with the very salty Dead Sea in it.

How did Abraham treat his guests? When these some angels – or was it God in disguise? – came to visit Abraham, he had food prepared and brought to them. While they ate, he stood by, patiently and quietly waiting for them to have their appetites satisfied, their thirst quenched. I can just picture him, perhaps standing in the shade of a tree, or under the awning of his tent. We read of Abraham planting trees at some places where he lived long enough. That was a sign of settling down.

Abraham was a busy landowner and cattle farmer, but when he got company, he hosted. He took time out to serve strangers. What a wonderful example of humble and genuine hospitality.

What better way is there to treat your fellow humans? Are we too busy to practice hospitality? Do we think it’s beneath us? Abraham didn’t hesitate when he got company. What’s more, he gave his best.

We Mennonites have a tradition of being generous, of sharing. When Mennonites traveled, they could count on staying at someone's place for free meals and lodging. We could go and visit one another at any time and be quite sure to be hospitably treated. Now, we travel and stay in hotels. We don't want to bother anyone, and no one wants to be bothered. We don't feel we can go to one another's places unless we are invited. But do we invite? If not, I don't think we should complain about not being invited. We go out to restaurants to eat with our friends instead of inviting them into our homes, even, and sometimes especially, on Sundays, in spite of our supposed opposition to Sunday shopping. I guess that just meant shopping, not other kinds of business, although I don't know how it's different. I'm not saying we shouldn't go out on Sunday. Sometimes it may be the right thing to do. As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for us, not the other way around. With the current workday week most of us have, maybe we don't need a Sabbath.

So, again, what can we learn from Father Abraham, as we sometimes refer to him as?

1.     We need to obey God when he calls, or asks something of us.

2.     We need to keep up our relationship with him, and prayer is a chief way for us to do this.

3.     We need to live at peace with our neighbours. In this, except for one exception, Abraham was a good Mennonite, truly deserving of being called our father.

4.     We need to remember that when God calls us to serve, we ought not to put down roots. We have to keep moving for God.

5.     We must be hospitable.

Conclusion

Abraham was called a man of faith. He has been called the father of the faithful by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. Indeed, in Hebrew, faith means "to make oneself secure in Jahweh or God" (Old Testament Theology, Vol. 1, G. von Rad, pg. 171).

Abraham has been rewarded with this title for being the kind of person we have heard about this morning. He is, in fact, generally known as the first person in the scriptures to be called the Father of our faith. Already in Genesis 15:6 we have the statement that Abram "believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness". It is important to note here too that it is God who determines a person's righteousness. We humans do not attain it by our efforts.

Jesus refers to Abraham as the father of those who do good works (Jn. 8:39) and who love God (Jn. 8:42). He told the Jews who were disputing with him in Jn. 8:56 that Abraham had looked into the future and had seen the day of the coming of the Messiah and rejoiced, so they ought to as well. We know that the Apostle Paul spoke highly of Abraham, weaving his story into his theology in Romans and Galatians. He makes the point that Abraham is the Father of faith for all that have faith and believe in the message of the gospel, the good news of Christianity. Then we have the example of faith in the book of Hebrews ch. 11, also in the New Testament, that was read here in last week's worship service.  We have seen, in fact, that Abraham had some characteristics such as humility and peaceableness that speak especially to us as Anabaptists, as Mennonites.

With that, we have even more reason to follow the example of Abraham. That's why his story is recorded for us. Perhaps then too, our fellow believers, our family members, and even our God can say of us, there goes a person of faith. What better witness can we have than that?

___________________

Lorne Brandt, 02/06/02