This is the second week of our message series, “Liars, Cheaters, Cowards & Other Bible Heroes,” which is taking a look at some of the more famous people in the Bible, and seeing how God worked mighty deeds through them despite their very human faults and failures.

    Today we are going to take a look at Abraham, the Father of Our Faith, for both Jews and Christians alike, and in some ways for Muslims as well.  The story of Abraham can be found in Chapters 12 to 25 in the Book of Genesis; just in case you want to do some extra reading.

    One of the main themes for Abraham is that he wanted to become a father.  You might remember that his name was originally Abram, which means “father.”  It was the sad irony of his life that he, whose name means “father,” did not have any children.  He and his wife, Sarai (later her name is changed to Sarah), have been married for many years, but they have not had any children.

    Then God shows up.  He reveals Himself to Abram and promises him a son, and much more.  Abram is living in Ur, which was in present day Iran. God says to him, “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.  I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you” (Gen 12:1–2).  So God promised Abram a new land, a son, and blessings. So the story of Abram is one of a journey of faith and movement.  As disciples, we are called to be like Abram, nomads not clinging too tightly to this world, not clinging too tightly to what we see around us and our possessions, but moving where God is leading us and where He is blessing us, because our ultimate home is not here, but heaven.

    God promises Abram that He will protect and provide for him, so Abram and Sarai, and Abram’s nephew Lot (more about him later), leave Ur and go to the land that God leads them to.  Right away Abram runs into a problem. There is a famine in this new “promise” land. Abram has a choice; he can either believe, put his faith, in God who has promised to protect and provide for him, or he can continue down to Egypt where there is food.  What do you think our Father of Faith does? He disobeys God and takes matters into his own hands, and goes to Egypt. He fails his first test of faith.

    When he is about to enter into Egypt, another problem arises.  Sarai his wife was astonishingly beautiful. Abram is afraid that if the Egyptians find out she is his wife, they will kill him so that they can have her.  So what does our Father of Faith do? He has already doubted that God would provide for him, so now he doubts that God will protect him. He tells Sarai to say that she is his sister.  Technically this was not a total lie. As was the custom at that time, Abram would have married a woman who was in his extended family, his clan, so in a way, Sarai was his sister.

    However, God does not want a technical faith; He wants a total faith.  Don’t we do things like this all the time. We convince ourselves that “technically” something isn’t a sin.  Like Abram, God calls us not to live a technical faith, just doing the minimum. God wants a total, complete faith.

    Now let’s get back to Lot, Abram’s nephew.  God told Abram to leave everything behind in Ur, including all his relatives, but Abram wanted to hedge his bet by bringing his nephew Lot, his surrogate son.  Some troubles arise with Abram and Lot. Basically they had too much stuff. They had too many sheep and goats for the land to support all of them, so they have to separate.  Lot goes one way and Abram the other.

Everything seemed to be going OK until Lot and all his stuff are captured by some kings.  Abram has to gather some of his servants and rescue Lot and his stuff. We can learn something from this.  Abram wanted a son, but didn’t have one. But he had a nephew, and he took care of what he did have. Sometimes we really want something from God, and in our desire for that thing, we neglect the other blessings that God has given us.  God wants us to show Him that we are ready to receive His blessing, by taking care of and appreciating what He has already given us.

After leaving his homeland and living in the new land to which God had brought him for about 10 years, Abram was still without any children.  God had promised him off-spring, specifically a son, but it still had not happened. Abram, our Father of Faith, doubted God again and His promise to give him a son.  So following the “technical” custom of the time, Sarai told Abram to have a child with her maid, Hagar. So, let’s review: God promised to provide for Abram, but our Father of Faith doubted and took matters into his own hands and went to Egypt.  God promised to protect him, but our Father of Faith told his wife to lie, well technically it wasn’t a total lie, and say she was his sister. Now, God promised to provide Abram with a son, but our Father of Faith is impatient and has a son with his wife’s maid, so “technically” this is OK.

Now, I don’t have time to talk about Ishmael, Abram’s son with Hagar, who is the patriarch of all the Arab nations, and the forefather of Mohammed.  Let’s just say it leads to the very different views of God between Muslims, and Jews and Christians. The children of the slave woman’s son, Ishmael, view God as the master and they are His servants or slaves, whereas Jews and Christians, the children of the free-born son, Isaac, view God as a loving Father.

God makes it very clear to Abram that Ishmael is not the promised son.  In fact, God goes so far as to enter into a covenant with Abram, showing that even when we are faithless, God always remains faithful.  The Lord tells Abram, “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1). Basically God wants Abram to stop straddling the fence and hedging his bets.  To be “blameless” means “I literally want all of you. I want all your trust and all your faith.” After entering into the covenant, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham; going from being called “father” to now being called “father of the multitudes.”

We know what happens.  Abraham and Sarah (she got a new name too) have a son, Isaac.  Abraham finally gets what he has wanted for so long, the deepest desire of his heart, a son.  A happy ending. Well, not so fast.

“Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test and said to him: Abraham! “Here I am!” he replied.  Then God said: Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you” (Gen. 22:1–2).  Hold the horses! After all this, when Abraham finally has the son he was promised, God is asking him to sacrifice him?

This time Abraham, our Father of Faith, does not fail the test.  He takes Isaac his beloved and only son, to Mount Moriah. Isaac even carries the wood for the fire.  He asks his father “where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” and Abraham tells him, “God will provide the sacrifice.”  Abraham builds the altar, arranges the wood for the fire, ties Isaac up, and is just about ready to kill him with a knife when the Lord’s angel calls out to him and tells him to stop, “Do not do the least thing to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you did not withhold from me your son, your only one” (Gen. 22:12).  Abraham has finally earned his title, our Father of Faith.

God provided Abraham with a ram for the sacrifice then, and nearly 2000 years later God provides the true substitute when He sends His beloved, only-begotten son, Jesus, the Lamb of God announced by St. John the Baptist.  Jesus carried the wood of the Cross on which He was sacrificed for our salvation.

Abraham completes the journey of faith that God called him to undertake.  He exercised a total faith in God. That’s the same faith that God wants from each and every one of us.  Will we take up the journey?