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...the Bible tells me so:
Powerful Tales: Abraham
For the “Rodney Daingerfield” nation of the ancient world, that is, they
“don’t get any respect,”
The answer is simple: It is the power of the story.
The story of Abraham encompasses fifteen chapters in Genesis. By comparison, creation is described in two. Had I been Moses, I would have said much, much more about the beginning of the heavens and the earth. However, as I considered Genesis again, I learned that the first two chapters describe God’s creation of the perfect world. The next nine chapters describe how people ruined it. Chapter 12 starts the tale of redemption, beginning with Abraham and ending in the New Testament with Jesus our Redeemer.
Over the next fifteen chapters, God promised to make Abraham’s name great,
to bless him with a countless number of descendants, to give his descendants
the
When God revealed Himself to Moses, He identified Himself as “the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6 NIV; see verse
15; 6:3). After
God gave Abraham descendants as countless as the stars of heaven and as the
grains of sand on the seashore. He gave his descendants Canaan-land, just as He
promised. The
After the Babylonian (and Assyrian) Exile, many Jews returned to the
Promised Land. Even though the Persian rulers permitted them to rebuild the
city of
The Greek conquest, the Syrians and the Egyptians vying for Israel, the temple defiled, Jewish religion outlawed, independence under the Maccabees, Roman rule and the corrupt Herod, King of the Jews, all these events and more forced Israel to look harder for the fulfillment of the story of Abraham. How would it end?
Many Jews living since the first century A.D. wondered how the story of
Abraham would end. Some thought that God would vindicate His faithful followers
and restore their land to them by miraculously driving out the Romans. Others
thought that God would use Jewish revolutionaries to end Roman rule. Still
others thought that, regardless of the Romans’ presence, God was content simply
with
The most pressing question of that day remained unanswered: “Had God failed to keep His promises?”
Through Jesus Christ, the Christians responded, “God keeps His promises to Abraham. Jesus is the fulfillment.” Thus, the story of Jesus is how the story of Abraham ends. Extensive retelling of Abraham’s story is found in Romans 4, Galatians 3 and 4, and Hebrews 11:8-19, all with a correct application, a Christian application.
John the immerser chided the Jews who claim relationship with God solely based on being a offspring of Abraham. Changed attitudes toward sin resulting in changed lives for God was what made someone acceptable to God (see Luke 3:7-14). Jesus challenged His fellow Jews, “If you were Abraham’s children,…then you would do the things Abraham did” (John 8:39).
Since God fulfills His promises, write the true end of Abraham’s story in your life. Follow the pattern that Paul revealed. He wrote,
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)
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