How Come Abraham Became A Model of Faith for Many!

In Genesis 12-50, the ancestral stories tell about the first four generations in the history of Israel from Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the ancient ancestors, called the patriarchs, of the people of Israel as well as Judah. Their female counterparts are Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel respectively, whom we call the matriarchs. The stories begin with Abraham the first patriarch of Israel, then continue with Isaac, Jacob, and end with Joseph (Stanley, 218-219).

We may impressively remember the story of Abram (God later changed his name to Abraham) and Sarai (God later changed her name to Sarah). Abraham is regarded as the father of faith in the Bible (Gen. 12-24). How could it be attributed to him as such? Now let’s look at the first story of this kind in the Hebrew Bible about Abraham and his faith in summary. Abraham migrated with his father Terah from Ur in southern Mesopotamia to Haran. After his father died, he became the head of the household. While there, he was called by God to leave his family to go to the promised land of Canaan in Palestine.  God promised to “make him of a great nation” and would “bless him” (Gen. 12:1-2). This was the moment when he first responded to God by faith. He trusted in God for his future. He just went after God without questioning at all. Here we see faith is the opposite of doubt and it is without questions. 

When coming out of Haran, Abraham (75) and his wife Sarah (65) had no children. They were too old to have children. But God made a covenant with Abraham promising that he would give him a homeland, offspring, and that he would be a blessing to many. It seems to put God at risk with this covenant. It required God to do a lot on his part; it just required Abraham of faith and faithfulness to acquire this promise. Abraham proved this by simply obeying God. However, it did not simply happen automatically right away as we may think. After a long time, they did not have a son yet. Sarah was anxious about the future of the family line, she arranged for Abraham to lay with her servant Hagar. Then, a son was born but he was not recognized as the heir. God reassured Abraham of the covenant through the ritual of circumcision. When Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 years old, God fulfilled his promise of offspring. Finally, Sarah gave birth to a son named Isaac. As we see, twenty five years walking with God by faith, this couple might have been through many ups and downs. At times, they had to struggle to trust in God for his promise.

Another episode of faith issue is that when Abraham was going to offer his only son Isaac as human sacrifice to God as in Genesis 22 we read that God tests Abraham’s faith in the story of the near sacrifice of Isaac. It actually came to the highest point of the test of his faith. This speaks so much about Abraham’s faith. If he listened to God and killed his son, what good would it be for him? He would have nothing left after this: no son, no offspring, no heir, and he was dying of old age. How would he become the father of a great nation? It was impossible. But by faith he did it anyway. As the people of morality and conscience, we would wonder how a virtuous father would be willing to kill his child, and how a good God could demand Abraham to kill his son (Davis, The Binding of Isaac). The answer lies between the issue of faith and faith itself. Abraham had already shown his radical faith to God by obeying him in this matter. He passed God’s test for faith and faithfulness. He now deserved the promise of God and became a great father of nations. 

I could see there are two scenarios in which the faith of Abraham and Sarah was challenged and they showed their lack trust in the Lord their God. One is when Sarah arranged for Abraham to have Ishmael, a surrogate son by Hagar. The other is when this ancestral couple went down to Egypt, they both lied to King Abimelech of Gerar to save their life (Gen. 20-21). In both episodes, we can see that they wanted to help God save his covenant plan with them or they attempted to make it in their own human way but failed. 

As we know there are many stories/tales in the Hebrew Bible were told from tribal memories that were a blend of history, legend, and myth. Hendel states that Abraham might not have actually existed in history (Hendel, Abraham). According to the Documentary Hypothesis lectured by Dr. Lester, Genesis is derived from at least four different sources: J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), D (Deutoronomist) and P (Priestly Writer). They came from different backgrounds and contexts. The Yahwist came from Judah, the Elohist from Israel, the Deutoronomist from Jerusalem, and the Priest Writer from exile in Babylon. I wonder why Abraham had a very good connection with the related places of the sources (J, E, D, P) such as Judah, Assyria, and Babylonia. If we connect what they implied in the text, we will see that Abraham had been present and involved in three places relatively to the three locations mentioned in this ancestral story. The Israelites were deported to Assyria north of Samaria, which is Syria now (Haran in Abraham’s time); then, the people of Judah were exiled in Babylon, which is Iraq now (Ur, southern Mesopotamia in Abraham’s time). Were there any plot elements from the writers that tried to put things all together to make this figure (Abraham) and place (Canaan) of great significance to people in this huge region (Mesopotamia). Or it was just a coincidence, or just happened to be like that.

Many stories of the Elohist deal with faith and faithfulness (Bandstra, 91) as it was written during a time of foreign invasion in which Israel was severely tested. It shows God’s divine faithfulness to the promises of his covenant is repeated in these texts. Through the episodes of Abraham’s faith, I could see that Abraham showed his faith and faithfulness toward God, though he might act in a very human way at times. By faith, Abraham believed in a one true God, and trusted him for his life and for the lives of his descendents (the future generations). That is why he has become the father of a great nation (Israel) and has impacted multitudes of people in history in terms of faith. He is the role model of faith for great many even up to now.

* Bibliography

 Bandstra, Barry. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2008.

Stanley, Christopher. The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009.

Hendel, Ronald. Abraham. http://bibleodyssey.org/people/main-articles/abraham.aspx

Davis,Ellen. The Binding of Isaac. http://bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/main-articles/binding-and-sacrifice-of-isaac.aspx