In his final address to his people, Joshua sketched Israel’s history, start-mg with the forefathers beyond the Euphrates Joshua said to Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods Then I took your father from beyond the river, and led him through all the land of Canaan” (Josh 24:3).
From this statement, some have concluded that originally Abraham was an idol worshiper in Ur He then responded to God’s call and, becoming a believer, left his idolatrous country, going where the Lord directed.
The verse only mentions Terah, and we wonder if the term “fathers” includes Abraham and Nahor However, other scriptural references lead us to a different conclusion It seems likely that Abraham had faith m God even before his call More so, we have indirect evidence that Abraham actively preached the faith in Ur When he met no favorable reception God removed him, leaving Ur to perish m its unbelief He formed from Abraham a new nation founded on the principle of faith in the living God Thus, God’s call to Abraham (Gen 12 1-3) was not a call of repentance to an unbeliever God called his faithful servant to depart from an unhearing audience and move away to start a new people of God Abraham was a prophet of God even when in Ur.
A prophet in Ur
Let’s look at some scriptural evidence for this reconstruction of Abraham’s “silent” years We have a handful of passages to examine, each with a piece of the answer Some are direct Old Testament references to Abraham, others represent inferences from Incidents in the lives of Moses and Jesus
- Isaiah 51:2 “Look to your father Abraham, and to Sarah who bore you, for he was but one when I called him, and I blessed him and made him many” If Abraham was “but one” when God called, then he already stood out from his peers.
Isaiah asks “those who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord” (v 1) to consider their roots and look back to their origins God started with one man who pursued righteousness and made him many.
- Psalm 105:14-15. This historical psalm refers to the patriarchs when they were “few in number” The psalm speaks of the covenants God made with them, and refers to Abraham as his “servant” and “prophet” It tells how God protected Abraham in his sojourning The phrase, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm” refers to the incident when Abimelech discovered Sarah was Abraham’s wife, not his sister God told Abimelech that Abraham was a prophet (Gen 20:7).
When did Abraham become a prophet? It seems to imply that Abraham was a prophet throughout his wanderings He may have prophesied in Ur, as nothing in Genesis records any formal prophetic activity Jesus’ statement (discussed below) places Abraham as a prophet rejected by the Chaldeans in Ur.
- Mark 6:4. Perhaps the most compelling testimony to Abraham’s ministry in Ur comes from an extended allusion spoken by the Lord Jesus It was in “his own country,” notes Mark, when Jesus went into a synagogue to teach on the Sabbath (Mk 6:1)
Although the people could not dispute the wisdom of his teaching or the power of his miracles, their personal knowledge of him precluded their belief “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him” (6:3)
Though Jesus impressed them with his teaching and miracles so that they were “astonished,” they still couldn’t believe that this local boy, an unimposing carpenter, could possibly be Messiah They knew too much about his circumstances and his humble family As usual, who someone is takes precedence over what he does They had already made up their minds about him.
Jesus responded, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house” Familiarity does breed contempt, and we tend to honor those most about whom we know the least However, Jesus was not teaching the locals a lesson in social psychology The three-part phrase, “in his own country, his own home, and his own house” corresponds precisely to the Lord God’s command to Abraham “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you And I will make of you a great nation” (Gen 12:1,2)
It seems evident Jesus used this scriptural reference to liken his own rejection to the Chaldeans’ rejection of Abraham Abraham found no audience among his idolatrous countrymen, so God removed him to another place where he would make of him a great nation Jesus found no audience among his own people, therefore the Gospel went to the Gentiles.
A paraphrase of Jesus’ words might be “I am a prophet, chosen by God to found a great nation If you reject me, I will go to another people to make a great nation” Thus Jesus rejected Nazareth, stating that, like the patriarch Abraham, he would have honor, but not from his own nation, his own people, or his own house.
- Exodus 32:10; Numbers 14:12 The possibility of God start-mg His plan anew also arose during the leadership of Moses The Lord God on at least two occasions threatened to punish Israel’s unfaithful ways by terminating them as His people
One incident occurred after they heard the reports of the twelve spies They fearfully and faithlessly followed the ten negative spies, opting to return to Egypt rather than go up into Canaan They were about to stone Joshua and Caleb when the Lord appeared to Moses saying, “I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they” (Num 14:12)
This threat to Israel paralleled the one m the incident of the golden calf At that time, the Lord God also stated He would do away with the Israelites and start over with Moses, making of him a “great nation” In both instances Moses pleaded for God’s mercy and entreated God to consider the implications of destroying His people, and God relented.
What could God mean by declaring He would cut off this people and start afresh with Moses? A suggested answer lies m the phrase “I will make of you a great nation” The references to a “great nation” take us back to the Lord’s promise to Abraham as recorded in Gen 12 2 “I will make of you a great nation” If Abraham was in fact a spiritual man and prophet in Ur, and Moses would know of it, we can see why Moses took God’s threat so seriously He would then have understood God’s statement as saying “I am about to cancel my covenant with Abraham and start over with you I promised to make Abraham a great and mighty nation when the Chaldeans did not listen to him Now his people have rejected me, so I will start again, just as I did when I sent Abraham from Ur and condemned it to become a wasteland of history I will start with just you, as I started with just one faithful man, Abraham.”
Yet Moses knew the Abrahamic covenant must stand, as a testimony to God’s purpose So Moses “reminded” God of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exo 32:13), quoting the Lord’s own promises concerning the seed of Abraham.
Now note how “faith” continues the covenant When God called Abraham to leave, he did so “by faith” (Heb 11 8) He accepted God’s promise of a new people to be established through him and his seed With the promises already given to Abraham, Moses rejected God’s “proposal” to start over Moses’ faith sustained the covenant which Abraham’s faith had started Abraham, a prophet rejected m Ur, became the cornerstone of faith to all those who would hear and do.
A man of faith
While none of the passages cited explicitly states Abraham’s position m Ur, it seems consistent to view Abraham as already having faith when God called him We appreciate better the patriarch’s dedication m the midst of an “idolatrous generation” He remained faithful m Ur until the time God would appoint him anew service We see m Abraham a model of consistency and fidelity to God’s word It is up to God to decide how and when and where He will use our faith m His service.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One