“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; when he was but one I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him.” Isaiah 51:1-2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Have you ever wondered about why Abraham is so great to Me? Why Jesus died to give you the Blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit through faith? Have you ever really thought about Abraham? You should, for he has blessed your life and the life of every person on earth. And I entrusted paradise to him until My Son opened the gates of Heaven and brought all into the glory I planned for those who love Me since the foundation of the world.
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. Luke 16:22-23.
If you want to walk out My plan for your life, you should look at Abraham.
First, Abraham was always looking to the future and never back at the past. When I called him to leave his native place and follow Me, he packed up and followed. No questions asked. And he never tried to return. And he had not been unhappy or enslaved there either. He was a content man wherever he was. He liked being alive.
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Hebrews 11:8-10.
Contrast that to the Israelites I redeemed out of Egypt. They were enslaved and unhappy, crying out to Me for deliverance. I answered and delivered them. But all they kept doing was talking about going back to Egypt into slavery. No matter where they were or what they had they were never content.
Abraham loved talking with Me. He did it constantly and when I came to visit him, he dropped everything and ran to minister to Me.
Now the LORD (Yahavah) appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My Lord (Adonai), if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.” Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. Genesis 18:1-8.
And from when I first introduced Myself to him until he departed this life, when I called to him, “Abraham!” He would say, “Here I am.” And he was ready to go wherever I wanted him to be at that time.
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Genesis 22:1.
Think of the Israelites, they did not want fellowship with Me but told Moses to talk with Me and tell them what I said. They did not want to cross the Red Sea when I parted it but they really had no choice so they did so while complaining and crying out, bemoaning they had left Egypt. And finally they refused to go into the land I had promised Abraham to give them. But Abraham had gone there without being given immediate possession of it, knowing it was for his descendants.
When I told Abraham that though Sarah was barren and he was elderly they would have a son and descendants as many as the stars of the sky, he believed Me and was willing to live that out.
And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:5-6.
And that is why I call him your father in the faith. He believed putting aside what the temporal told him, he looked to the eternal rock. He was saved by faith in My promises alone. No works, just faith. But it was that faith and complete trust in Me that fueled what he did with his life. No one else but Abraham followed Me at that time. He was the only one.
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 4:13-25.
I taught Abraham the gospel of Jesus ahead of time and that is righteousness by faith.
Abraham was generous. He regarded other’s interests more important than his own and was a very cheerful giver. Lot received all he had from Abraham and as it increased his herdsmen were fighting with those of Abraham over grazing ground. Abraham graciously told Lot to take whatever land he wanted as first choice and he would take whatever Lot did not want. Lot should not have accepted this but he did, showing no respect or gratitude where honor was due, and he took what looked the very best. But he made the mistake of going and associating with sinners and not rebuking their perverted ways. He lived among them and even offered his daughters to them for purposes of immorality and lusts. There is a way that seems right in the eyes of a man that ends in death. But still Abraham rescued Lot twice and seriously interceded with Me to save him from the wrath to come, even though it was hard to make him go out from among the sinners, for Abraham I saved him but it still did not turn out well. Lot’s heart was not right like Abraham. I love a cheerful giver. I can freely bless them and they will turn around and be a blessing.
He knew I was his source and that was more than enough for him. He knew that the Blessing on his life came from Me and he was not about to condescend to taking what he saw as another person’s goods. He had a chance to take all the booty from the battle he won just to save Lot and his family and their goods but he would not take riches from the evil king of Sodom.
Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’” Genesis 14:21-23.
And he tithed to Me and both Isaac and Jacob learned to do so from Abraham as well. And I revealed to him the Holy Spirit as My forever priest, Melchizedek. Who gave him the covenant meal ahead of time, for He alone hovers to change the bread and the wine to the Body and Blood of Jesus. Yes, in more ways than one, I taught Abraham the Gospel ahead of time, Galatians 3:8, and it is the Holy Spirit that testifies to Jesus.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all. Genesis 14:18-20.
You will never see Abraham mean, jealous or despising anyone. He was very diplomatic in his dealings with others. He never took anything he did not pay for among those whom he lived.
Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, “No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.” And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.” Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, “My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.” Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard. Genesis 23:10-16.
But the ultimate act of love for Me was when I asked Abraham to sacrifice the son he loved as a burnt offering. He undertook the journey to the mountain of Moriah where I told him to go without hesitation. He knew Me and he knew whatever I told him to do it would turn out well and that he would have his son alive for his line to increase even if I had to raise him from the dead. He told Isaac that I Myself would supply the lamb for the burnt offering. And I did, Jesus. And it was on that day, when he had the heart to do what I would do Myself in offering My beloved Son as your sin offering that I gave him the gift that the Messiah would be born of his line and take down the gate of the enemy. Genesis 22:15-18. And on that rock I built My church.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” John 8:56-58.
I love you. Consider Abraham. Not many would say he had done anything that changed the whole world and blessed every family on earth, but he had and that was the result of his life. He, like you, was blessed to be a blessing.