Hope in the Bible starts with Abraham
There was a poor woman who was born in Gloucestershire, England. She attended school and found her love was for writing fantasy stories. She would often write stories and tell them to her sister. She moved from village to village many times and traveled often. In December 1990, her mother died, and she moved to Portugal in order to teach English as a foreign language. Before her mother’s death, she had already begun writing what later became a novel. In Portugal, she married, but the couple separated in 1993. However, she did have a daughter and the two moved to Scotland. During this time, she was diagnosed with clinical depression and often contemplated suicide. She was unemployed and living on welfare. She was able to write and complete her first novel by going to different public cafés with her daughter. Who is this poor woman, and what book did she write? Perhaps you’ve heard of the young man Harry Potter? Today, J.K. Rowling is worth over $1 billion, has sold hundreds of millions of books and is famous throughout the world. In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named ‘Most Influential Woman in Britain’ by one set of magazine editors, thus completing her very unlikely road from extreme rags to extreme riches and power.
Abraham was one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in the Bible. He wasn’t known to be homeless or very poor, but God called Abraham to leave the country of Ur (modern Iraq) and go to an unknown land (Gen 12:2). He had been well off, living among many friends and family, and was already 75 years old at the time. Ur was known to be a large, metropolitan, wealthy, progressive and idolatrous city. It was basically like God telling a professional in New York City to move to Greenbow, Alabama! Not exactly a great career move, and not attractive to anyone who enjoys the fine food, entertainment and business opportunities of a major population center. But Abraham obeyed, in faith, and began his journey away from the negative spiritual influences of his own father. “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac” (Josh 24:2-3). He went from a spiritual life of rags to a faith filled with eternal riches.
The first Gospel message
If you read your Bible, where would you say is the first place we read about the Gospel (good news) message? Some might look to Jesus’ first preaching campaign after being tempted in the wilderness. Others might question if John the Baptist was the one to first preach the gospel, since he proclaimed the “way of the Lord” and “the kingdom of heaven at hand” (Matt 3:2). Still others might point to one of the Old Testament prophets who predicted the coming of Messiah. Surprisingly, we find the answer an unexpected quote by Paul: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you’ ” (Gal 3:8). To learn more about Abraham and the original gospel message, we must look 2,000 years before Christ to the man who became the Father of both Jews and Arabs.
Because of Abraham’s incredible faith and actions, God blessed him above all peoples of his day. In fact, God repeated His messages to Abraham so that we can count these blessings as God’s unwavering promises. Here are God’s amazing promises of hope, first delivered to Abraham:
Abraham would be the father of a son: “And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” (Gen 15:4). Not only would he be the father of one son, he would also become the father of a chosen son named Isaac when Abraham was 100 years old: “And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him” (Gen 21:5)! God promised to establish all of his blessings through Isaac, the chosen child: “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise” (Gal 4:28). It was through Isaac, that people began to recognize that he was, indeed, the one ‘blessed of the Lord’.
Abraham would be the father of many peoples. God said he would multiply Abraham’s descendants to be as numerous as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand that is on the seashore. This promise has been fulfilled, as Abraham became the father of hundreds of millions of Jews and Arabs.
Abraham would be the father of a promised descendant. Though Isaac became Abraham’s child of promise, God said that kings and nations would come from Abraham. The Bible clearly points out that Jesus became the ultimate child of Abraham, fulfilling God’s promise: “And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Gen 22: 16-18; see Gal 3: 14-16; John 8: 53-56). Jesus would be the one chosen seed, who would live to make all nations blessed.
Abraham was promised a special land to inherit. God repeated this promise several times: “And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him” (Gen 12:7; see Gen 13:15; Gen 15:18). This was to confirm how secure and eternal this promise is. Yet, the Bible provides historical details about where Abraham lived, and how he did not inherit the land. So what happened? Hebrews clarifies for us that Abraham looked forward to the ultimate land reward.
“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Heb 11:8-16).
So God has prepared a country for Abraham and his physical descendants. And not only to Abraham, but to all who have been baptized into Christ and are accounted as “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:27-29). The modern land of Israel is part of the special property God promised to Abraham, but which is yet to be completely fulfilled.
Abraham was promised eternal blessings. Once again, God made promises to Abraham that last forever. God gave Abraham an everlasting covenant as a witness to fulfill his promise. God asked Abraham to accept His offer by being circumcised, and Abraham was the first Jew ever circumcised. In the New Testament book of Romans, it is said that baptism and faith in Jesus Christ make a person a spiritual Jew. This supersedes the covenant of circumcision so that baptism now leads to the same eternal blessings promised to Abraham: “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise” (Gen 17:7; see Rom 4:9-12; Rom 6:4).
The promises to Abraham would not be important to anyone today if they are obsolete, or were meant only for Abraham. But the Bible gives ample evidence that the promises to Abraham are actually the same as the New Testament gospel. In fact, the word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’, and includes the promises given to Abraham and repeated by Jesus: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10; see Luke 13:28). One of the best definitions of the gospel is found in Acts 8:12 where it says they were “preaching the good news (gospel) about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.”
Capital of the world
There’s a saying in retail business that the most important differentiation is location, location, location. In the world today, there is one place on earth that is the most valuable piece of real estate: and it’s not for sale. It’s a very small area, outside the tropics and wouldn’t be in such demand without its incredible history. It is an area within a medium-sized city and much of that area looks more backward than forward. It’s a holy site for Jews, Christians and Muslims and has been the location of many, many wars. The location is called Mount Moriah, or better known as the Temple site in Jerusalem.
The Bible introduces us to Moriah in Gen 22:2 when Abraham is told by God to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering on that mountain. Of course God spares Isaac at the last moment and Abraham receives more blessings for having obeyed God. Later, King David offered a sacrifice at the same location in order to appease God and end a pestilence on the land: “And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite” (2Sam 24:18). David bought that piece of property especially for that emergency sacrifice, and it has remained the most precious place on earth. A few years later, King Solomon began building a glorious temple to the LORD God of Israel and he picked the very same location to build: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chron 3:1). Solomon’s temple wasn’t particularly large, but it was world-renowned and in keeping with what his father, David, had intended.
In the future, there may well be a temple built by Jesus and his servants on that same site (Ezek 40-48). Or it may be that Jesus will rule from that site without a temple, as we know temples today: “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Rev 21:22; see 1Pet 2:5; Psa 40:6-8). Either way, the faithful who inherit Abraham’s promises will follow in Abraham’s footsteps. Like Abraham, we will leave the hopelessness of this world and join the kingdom of God on earth, New Jerusalem. Like Abraham, we will go out in faith to a place which God promises will be perfect for us. Like Abraham, we will realize that we are only strangers and pilgrims on earth, and our eternal hope lies in being connected to Abraham and his ultimate seed Jesus. Like Abraham, we must have faith in God and His promises, to inherit the blessings of the gospel first preached to Abraham (Gal 3:8). What a wonderful hope Abraham had, and we have too.
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen.”
“Lack of faith in God is the source of most of society’s troubles.”
Albert E. Ribourg
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1)
The Bible says:
- God chose Abraham because of his great faith. Heb 11:8; Rom 4:9-16
- God gave Abraham amazing promises. Gen 12:1-3; 13:4-7; 17:1-8; 22:15-18
- Those who are faithful can inherit the same promises as Abraham. Gal 3:27 29, 4:28 Chicago, Ill Ecclesia
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One