Abraham eBook: Faithful Patriarch

By Roger H Knepprath

Who was Abraham in the Bible?Abraham towers over many of the other personalities in Scripture. Even today, as “ the father of many nations,” he is revered in the world over as the patriarch of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Abraham' s model of trust in God' s promises has no equal. His uncompromising obedience to his Lord' s will is without parallel. Yet it would be easy for us to make of Abraham more than he actually was, for he was a human— flesh and blood— like us. His remarkable journey was actually the work of God' s gracious hand, which shaped and tested Abraham' s faith to make him worthy of the important role God had chosen to give him.If you' re wondering who Abraham was, or want to know how Abraham' s faith journey impacts your own, this book is for you!Abraham: Faithful Patriarch is part of the God' s People series by Northwestern Publishing House. It' s a wonderful collection about the lives and times of some of God' s chosen people. Plots and settings have been taken directly from the Bible, and each book features beautifully detailed, full-color illustrations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Northwestern Publishing House
• Release date: Jul 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780810027619

Book preview

CALLED TO FAITH 1

At first he was known as Abram. And Abram was for a time cursed—a foreigner to the kingdom of God, at home in the kingdoms of this world. But this was something Abram didn’t grasp until he was nearly 60 years old.

Abram was a member of Terah’s family. The family lived in Ur. Ur was a thriving city along the Euphrates River, one of several bustling urban centers in Mesopotamia. This vast civilization, built on a network of cities and settlements, was the handiwork of Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, the youngest of Noah’s three sons. Nimrod expanded his empire in defiance of Noah’s God. Noah’s God had cursed the descendants of Ham by making them slaves to the children of Noah’s other sons, Shem and Japheth. But Nimrod would be no one’s servant. To make sure of that, he drove the Semites and Japhethites out of their lands and deprived God of his people by introducing false gods into the culture.

Ur was hardly the place one would expect to find followers of the one true God. Nimrod had made Ur an unsafe place for anyone who claimed allegiance to the God of Noah. Still, there were a few, like Terah and his family, who secretly clung to their worship of the almighty Lord who had delivered Noah and his family from the great flood.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about Terah or his family’s circumstance. It’s possible to imagine the family living in fear. If unbelieving neighbors would find out that Terah’s famly did not hold their gods in high esteem, things would get ugly. So Terah may have taught his sons—Haran, Nahor, and Abram—that their relationship with the one true God was an intensely private affair, not to be shared with anyone outside of the family. Perhaps, to complete the ruse, Terah may have sold his cattle for sacrifice to the idols of Ur and frequented their temples, telling his sons that he had no other choice. God would understand.

Terah may have strayed from his own lesson. But Abram would have discovered the agony his father had been trying to spare him and his