What can we learn from the fathers of Israel? Is there anything that hasn’t been said about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
Over the next few weeks, I will be publishing a short series on the Patriarchs of Israel and how these three men responded to the grace of God. The short version: These men represent three responses to grace:
- Abraham believed
- Isaac battled with fear and unbelief
- Jacob responded with self-righteousness
When we think of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, certain adjectives come to mind: obedient, blessed, chosen, hopeful, and God-fearing. But let’s not imagine these men led perfect lives. They made mistakes, they fought, they lied. They had dysfunctional families, treated women like property, and owned slaves.
In other words, they were flawed humans. Like the rest of us. Yet each of them was shown grace.
These three men weren’t always faithful, but their stories point to a God who is always faithful. Let’s begin with Abraham and consider three adjectives that define his journey of faith.
Abraham the foreigner
Abraham was the least “Jewish” of the three Patriarchs—in fact, he wasn’t Jewish at all. He was a Mesopotamian from Ur, a pagan city steeped in idolatry (Gen. 11:31, Acts 7:2). God called this foreigner to leave everything behind:
Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s home… (Genesis 12:1a, GNB)
The Passion Translation puts it plainly: “Leave it all behind.” And Abraham did. He turned his back on the world he knew to follow a God he could not see. In doing so, he moved from outsider to insider, from stranger to family.
It’s the same with us. Through the gospel, God calls all of us to himself and either we come or we don’t.
We all face the same decision of Abraham. If we follow Abraham’s example and heed the call, we are changed. We become God’s people. “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God” (1 Pet. 2:10).
Abraham the ungodly
It may shock you to hear this, but for the first 70+ years of his life Abraham was an ungodly Chaldean. He came from a land of idols (Jos. 24:2), which is why God called him to leave. But the good news is that God justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5).
Again, it’s the same with us. At one time, “we were without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Being separate from Christ, we were without hope. But it makes no difference where we were – the moment we responded to God in faith we were justified or declared righteous. We became part of God’s family and joined to the body of Christ.
And this brings us to the best adjective of all.
Abraham the believer
Abraham was an old man with no future. He had no children, no prospects, and death was not far away. But God spoke, Abraham listened, and the ungodly man became the father of many nations and the heir of the world (Rom. 4:13, 17).
You may know that God blessed Abraham but did you know that all God’s promises came when Abraham was a nobody of no reputation? While Abraham was an ungodly foreigner, God promised:
I will make you a great nation… and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. (Genesis 12:2–3)
Abraham was not made right with God because he kept the law of Moses (that was 400 years away) or got circumcised (that came later). Nor did he attend church or tithe or go on mission trips.
Abraham was justified and counted righteous because he trusted in the God who is faithful. He is not remembered as “Abraham the law-keeper” or “Abraham the circumcised” but “Abraham the believer”:
So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. (Galatians 3:9)
Here’s a twofold takeaway for us:
- God calls all of us to himself from wherever we are.
You may feel far from God but Abraham the aging ungodly idol-worshipper was further. No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace.
- God blesses us without regard for the things we have done (or not done)
Your reputation and regrets do no matter when it comes to grace. God loves and and desires to bless you because he is good. “While we were sinners, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:8).
The father of all who believe
Abraham was not blessed on account of his pedigree or performance but on account of God’s promise. It’s the same with us. We are not blessed because we are faithful, but because God is faithful. The only way we can mess this up is to doubt the faithfulness of God.
How do we doubt God’s faithfulness? By laughing (Sarah), by trying to make things happen (e.g., Ishmael), by making rash promises to God (Jacob, as we shall see), or by trying to earn God’s blessings through our good works (the Israelites).
We can try or trust and that’s the difference between disaster and destiny.
When Paul called Abraham “the father of all who believe” in Romans 4, he was saying, “Don’t learn from Moses the Lawgiver but follow the example of Abraham the believer. Don’t substitute old idols for new ones, but put your faith in God.”
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When God speaks, faith stirs. But so do the doubts of the flesh. In the bonus materials that accompany this article, I dive deeper into the faith and doubts of Abraham. Learn more on Patreon.
