Liam Hungate
Tonight moved the Redemption Series from the Tower of Babel into the story of Abraham, the next of Genesis' major figures. After Babel, God scattered a rebellious humanity and began looking for a new remnant, a faithful man to start a new covenant with. That man was Abram.
Passages: Genesis 12-22
Abram, whose name means "high father," was married to Sarai, "my princess," and the two were childless, an irony given his name. God called Abram to leave his land, his relatives, and his father's house for a land God would show him, promising to make him into a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great, to bless those who blessed him and curse those who treated him with contempt, and that all the peoples on earth would be blessed through him, ultimately through the Savior who would come from his line.
This wasn't actually the first time Abram heard this promise. He'd received it earlier, before moving to Haran, but hadn't fully obeyed. Only after his father died did Abram move toward fuller obedience, prompting God to repeat the promise. Abram isn't presented as a finished example of faith from the start. He's presented as someone growing into it, much like us.
Even in obeying, Abram brought along his nephew Lot, despite being told to leave his relatives behind. When he arrived in the promised land, the Canaanites were already living there and had no intention of leaving. Then a famine hit, and instead of trusting God to provide where he was, Abram went down to Egypt. It's often easier to trust God for far-off promises than for today's actual needs.
In Egypt, fearing for his life, Abram told everyone Sarai was his sister rather than his wife. Pharaoh took her into his household, and God struck Pharaoh's house with plagues to protect Sarai, since the Messiah's line would come through her. Even in the middle of Abram's failure, God protected His own promise. Abram and Lot eventually returned to Canaan, but the land couldn't support both of their growing households, so they separated, and Lot unknowingly settled near a deeply sinful population, a decision that would matter later.
In Genesis 15, God came to Abram in a vision telling him not to be afraid, that God Himself was his shield and reward. Abram, still childless, pushed back, wondering if his servant would end up his heir by default. God clarified that a biological son was coming, and that Abram's descendants would be as numerous as the stars, one of whom would ultimately be the Messiah Himself. Genesis 15:6 records Abram's response: he believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness, the first mention of both belief and righteousness in the Bible, and essentially the gospel in miniature this early in the Old Testament. God then formally established His covenant with Abram, laying out the specific boundaries of the land his descendants would inherit, what Scripture would come to call the Promised Land.
Still waiting on the promised son, Sarai grew impatient and gave her servant Hagar to Abram to build a family through her instead. Once Hagar became pregnant, tension between the two women grew so severe that Hagar fled. An angel met her and told her to return and submit to Sarai, promising that her offspring would also be greatly multiplied. She named her son Ishmael, meaning "God hears," though the angel's accompanying prophecy, that his hand would be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, wasn't an easy one to carry.
In Genesis 17, God renewed His covenant further, renaming Abram to Abraham, "father of many nations," and Sarai to Sarah, and instituting circumcision as the sign of the covenant. God promised that Sarah herself would bear a son, to be named Isaac, meaning "he laughs," a direct reference to Abraham's doubtful laughter at the news, given his and Sarah's ages. Abraham even suggested Ishmael could be the one to carry the promise instead, but God was clear: Isaac would be the son through whom the covenant continued, though Ishmael would be blessed as well.
God explained His purpose in choosing Abraham: so that he would lead his household to keep the way of the Lord through righteousness and justice. He then revealed His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, and Abraham pleaded with God on the cities' behalf, eventually landing on an agreement that God would spare them for the sake of just ten righteous people. When angels investigated, they found only four, Lot, his wife, and their two daughters. The angels' urgent instructions, get up, run, don't look back, don't stop, were framed as the same urgency we should feel toward sin in our own lives: get out of it, leave it behind, don't linger. The cities were destroyed, and as the family fled, Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt, a moment Jesus later referenced as a warning against longing for a world that's passing away instead of looking forward to what God has for us. None of this would have happened if Abraham had fully obeyed from the start and not brought Lot along in the first place. Abraham's imperfection showed up again later too, when he repeated the same lie about Sarah being his sister, nearly causing trouble with another king. What set him apart wasn't a lack of failure, but a consistent willingness to repent and return to obedience.
Sarah finally gave birth to Isaac when Abraham was 100 years old, just as promised. Later, once Isaac had grown, God tested Abraham in the hardest way possible, asking him to offer his son, his only son, the one he loved, as a sacrifice. This is the first mention of love in the entire Bible, tied to a father about to give up his son. Abraham didn't argue or complain. He obeyed, trusting that God would provide, even telling his son as much on the way up the mountain. The story carries an unmistakable echo of what God the Father would one day do with His own Son, carrying the wood for His own sacrifice, in full trust and obedience. Some Jewish historians place Isaac's age at the time around 33, the same age many believe Jesus was at the crucifixion.
At the last moment, an angel stopped Abraham, telling him not to harm the boy, now knowing Abraham truly feared God since he hadn't withheld his only son. God's mercy prevailed, and because of Abraham's faithfulness, God reaffirmed His promise once more.
Across the whole story, a pattern repeats: God calls and promises, Abraham is tested, and sometimes he fails, bringing Lot along, doubting through Ishmael, lying about Sarah, and sometimes he grows, interceding for Sodom, and ultimately offering Isaac in full surrender. God was patiently moving Abraham toward complete trust and obedience, and He succeeded. God's promises were never dependent on Abraham's perfection, only on God's own faithfulness, and that's exactly what makes Abraham's story an encouragement rather than an impossible standard.
These are the same questions the group wrestled with tonight. They are a good way to keep the conversation going at the dinner table.
A few easier openers if you want to start smaller: