The Faith of Abraham (Part 1 of 0)

Introduction – Part One

“But the words, ‘it was reckoned to him,’ were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also” (Rom 4 23-24)

This Quotation from Romans tells us explicitly that the same principle by which God accounted Abraham righteous applies to us as well This is a remarkably refreshing teaching Often we rely on types, allusions, examples, and analogies to draw out lessons from Bible characters and events For m-stance, we might look at an incident m the life of David and wonder just how we might apply it to ourselves Here, however, we have Paul telling us, by divine authority, to apply Abraham’s experience directly to ourselves.

Apart from the Lord, is there any­one else m all of scripture whose life is so sanctioned as a model for our own? Paul also wrote to the Galatians, “So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith” (Gal 3 9) Therefore, we have directive to closely investigate the faith of Abraham, for it was this faith that was “reckoned to him as righteousness”

The land and the descendant

What, then, is the faith of Abraham? We usually answer this question by following it with another, “What did he believe?” We know Abraham believed God would per­form His promises, and these promises consistently included two items a land and a descendant.

The land and the seed (offspring) comprise the substance of each of the Almighty’s declarations to Abraham (or Abram) as we have them recorded in Genesis chapters 12, 13, 15, 17, & 22 The simplest message comes in Genesis 12:7 “To thy seed will I give this land”

This dual promise became the basis of New Testament preaching, as evidenced in Acts 8 12 “They be­lieved Philip when he preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ” The two elements originally declared to Abraham are now identified The land is the Kingdom of Israel re­stored The seed is the King, the Lord Jesus Christ Thus the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant, or the Gospel, are the same.

This simple paradigm, the land and the seed, helps us understand the heart of Paul’s message to the Galatians when he stated, “the gos­pel was preached beforehand unto Abraham” Paul had immediate reference to justification by faith being valid for both Jew and Gentile All are blessed in Abraham, who had faith in the promise of the land and the seed, the same gospel and the same means of justification applied m Abraham’s time, Paul’s time, and our own The land and the seed are the “what” of Abraham’s faith.

The “how” of faith

However, when we ask the ques­tion, “What did Abraham believe?” we are asking only one of the two questions we need to ask to deter­mine the faith of Abraham The other question to ask is “How did he be­lieve?” (We know adequately when and where and whom he believed)

How did Abraham construct his belief in God? How did his belief affect his life? The how of faith is as important as the what of faith, one cannot exist without the other, just as faith cannot exist without works.

The two principal incidents of Abraham’s faith are the reckoning of his faith as righteousness (Gen 15 6) and the offering of Isaac (Gen 22) Both of these have substantial New Testament commentary As we shall note, they both refer to the “what” and the “how” alike.

Aspects of Abraham’s faith

In this series of articles on “The Faith of Abraham,” we intend to take a detailed look at various aspects of Abraham’s faith We will, of course, look carefully at Abraham’s belief in God’s promises concerning the land and the seed, Lord willing, these sub­jects will occupy the second and third articles of the series We will start with a not-too-speculative recon­struction of Abraham’s early faith m Ur, before he embarked on his so­journ We will devote one installment to Abraham’s belief in resurrection An article on Abraham’s belief in the forgiveness of sins will cover a first principle we seldom associate with the Abrahamic promises We will conclude the series with some reflec­tions on Abraham’s belief in provi­dence Each installment will address both the what and the how of Abraham’s belief.

We will not lack material for this study Divine commentary on the patriarch’s life abounds, the New Testament writers mention him more often than any other person of the Old Testament We have the account of his life in Genesis to draw from, and many other Old Testament refer­ences In all, we have abundant ma­terial to learn from as we analyze that faith which God set forth to all as the one faith approved unto salvation We hope and pray that a closer look at Abraham’s faith will enable all of us to have a closer walk with his God and ours.

The promises of God provide the basic framework of our faith They remind us of our obligation to our Heavenly Father, and give the assurance needed to continue serving our Lord m this dark and evil world We call them the Covenants of Promise.

To understand the scriptural concept of a covenant we need to consider the Hebrew word for “covenant” and some of the terms associated with it.

Covenant (OT)

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated “covenant, league, confederacy” 279 times, is berith, which means “covenant, league” (Young’s) or having “the sense of cut­ting, a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh” (Strong ‘s) To understand the scrip­tural connotation, it is useful to ex­amine the uses of the word Follow-mg are some examples.

“league” or “treaty” Joshua 9:6, II Samuel 3:12, 5:3, I Kings 5:12
“confederacy” or “confederate” Obadiah 1 7, Psalm 83 5
“to rule with” Genesis 14 13

In the Joshua record it is the Gibeonites who trick Israel into a “treaty” berith so they would be spared In II Samuel, Abner seeks a “league” with David for the sake of the nation In I Kings, Solomon arranges a “treaty” with Hiram, the noble of Tyre, through the wisdom given him by God In the prophecy of Obadiah, God speaks against Edom and of the falling apart of the “confederacy” that they contrived In Psalm 83, the Psalmist speaks to Yahweh of the conspiracy of nations against Him They have “cut” a treaty against the king of heaven It is not that they are merely against God, but that they have made a covenant between themselves to fight Him

The sense we get from berith, as it is used, is that of a treaty between individuals or nations for a common purpose This purpose might be for good or evil

To cut

In almost every instance the word karath, which means “to cut,” is the descriptive verb associated with “covenant” Hence we are told they “made a covenant” which literally translated would be “to cut” a covenant This may have been derived from the custom of officially sealing a treaty with a common meal A death of an animal was involved, perhaps even sacrifices to each party’s particular god (We might keep this in mind when we explore the covenant God established with Abram).

This phrase “to cut a covenant” is significant because the verb used has the meaning of putting something to death or out of memory This sense of karath is readily seen m glancing at some places it is used.

In Genesis 9 11 God speaks of the death of all flesh through the flood when He promises, “neither shall all flesh be cut off [karath] any more by the waters of a flood”

In Leviticus 20 2-3 the man who gives his seed to Molech will be stoned to death and “cut off from among his people”

In Isaiah 48 9 Yahweh tells Israel that it is only for His name’s sake that He does not “cut” them off

This verb is used 248 times in the Hebrew and m each case it is refer­ring to not just death, but elimination from memory.

Proverbs 2 21 reads, “For the up­right will abide m the land, and the innocent will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it” (NRSV)

If we take the meaning of the two words used together, we understand that to “make a covenant” was to put to death the old rivalry, the old hate, anger and war and, instead, bring m their place a new arrangement of peace When two people or nations “made a treaty” they were to put away from their memory the hatred and the previous relationship and embark on a new one of peace.

When we connect this with the activity of the God of Israel, it takes on an additional meaning We are not speaking of a mere arrangement be­tween the heads of nations, but the death of past sins and reconciliation with Yahweh, the God of Israel.

To establish

Another verb associated with “covenant” is the Hebrew qum which has the basic meaning of “to cause to rise up, confirm” (Strong :s) It is used widely and when associated with covenant-making is translated “establish, perform, fulfill” Again the best way to understand its intimations is to see its use in scripture.

In Genesis 26 3 God tells Isaac that “I will perform qum the oath” (KJV) or as the NRSV puts it, “I will fulfill the oath” Thus it is the continual and progressive action of God that is meant.

In Exodus 26 30 God tells Moses that he is to “erect the tabernacle” (NRSV) What is meant is a process of building according to the pattern shown in the mountain.

In Jeremiah 23 5 Yahweh tells us that He will “raise” unto David a righteous branch This is a progres­sion of events that God set in motion with Him m control until He brings it to the conclusion He desires.

The implications of the phrase – establish my covenant – is thus seen to be God is setting into motion His plan of salvation.

A work to completion

Paul echoes this concept in his letter to Ephesus.

“He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1 10 NRSV)

As the Lord said m another place “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it” Isaiah 55 11 (NRSV)

Once God sets in motion His plan it cannot be thwarted, He will keep His promises Since this is the case, we sometimes find the past tense be-mg used of His covenants, their ful­fillment is so sure they can be spo­ken of as if they have already come to pass Such is the God whom we worship and whose promises we look forward to considering in future articles, if He so wills.