Who Was Abraham?

Who was Abraham? You really know. Who was Sarah? And how did they meet? I think sometimes we believe or think we know about a character in the Bible, and we don't really understand exactly who they were. We believe that Abraham, because he's called the father of the faithful, will probably be directly under Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. But who was he? How did God choose him? Why did he pick him out? God called Abram, and then he was renamed Abraham. His name Abram has two Hebrew elements connected with it that gives a little inkling of who he was and what he had been up to. One is father, the other is exalted one. So he was an individual who was exalted, as we will see. He actually was a royalty. I think this explains and will explain how or who Abraham was. Much of Abraham's life, that few people realize, we basically come on the scene when he's 70, 75 years old, and yet what did he do? What did he accomplish prior to that? We want to take a look at his life and see what can we learn? What should we learn from his life? Let's go back to Genesis 11 and verse 10. Genesis 11. We'll begin to read here in verse 10. It says, this is the lineage of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and begot our facts said two years after the flood. Now what we find is that Noah had three sons. One of those sons was Shem. Here we have the lineage that comes through Shem. Shem had a son named Arphaxad. Arphaxad had a son named Selah. And Selah, in verse 14, lived 30 years and begot Eber. It is through Eber that we get the term Hebrew. This is where the Hebrews come from. Anyone from Eber would be classified as Hebrew. Abram was the tenth generation from the flood. He was born in 2017 BC. Interesting fact about this is that Nimrod, when Nimrod fled to Italy, was slain in 2167 BC. He died 150 years before Abraham. Shem lived 502 years after the flood. And 427 years from the flood until Abraham, or Abram, entered into the land of Canaan. So Shem was still alive when Abram migrated to Palestine or Canaan. Shem lived 75 years after Abram entered into Canaan. Question comes up, did they know one another? Would they have known one another? And the answer is the Bible doesn't say. But probably, because at this time, these were probably the only two individuals on the earth who were truly seeking, striving to obey God. You find that Shem was the one who, after the flood, carried on the lineage of righteousness, trying to do what was right. Noah, the Scriptures very clearly say, was a preacher of righteousness. So he taught what was right. He taught the law of God. And you find that he did what was right. He passed that on. Shem, apparently, from history or historical sources, continued to preach righteousness. He was the one who had to confront the evil and dealt with Nimrod after the flood. So Shem, through Shem, there was a direct connection back to creation. And it's amazing how direct. Adam overlapped Methuselah by 243 years. First Man, Adam. Methuselah, who we know is or was the longest living man, according to Scripture, or let's put it this way, that's recorded. They overlapped each other by 243 years. Methuselah overlapped Shem by 98 years.

Adam Methuselah Shem. Shem Noah could talk to Methuselah, who knew Adam. And then Shem overlapped Abram by 150 years. So it is very possible that Shem could have talked to Abraham, talked to him about Adam, and just being a couple of generations, two or three, removed from him. I mean, just interesting. I know all of that is supposition. But when you realize that after the flood, there weren't that many people. We didn't have billions of people living on the earth, or even millions of people at this time. It took a while for the human race to begin to propagate, for children to be born, and families for them to multiply.

Now in chapter 11, again, verse 24, says Nahor lived 29 years and begat Terah. After he begot Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and begot sons and daughters. Now Terah lived 70 years and begot Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. Now even though Abraham is listed first, I think most historical sources, as well as commentaries, will bring out, he was probably the second born, not the first born at this time.

He was the middle son. And he was probably born when Terah was 130 years old. Verse 27, it says this is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abraham, Nahor, Haran, and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father, Terah, in his native land in Ur of the Chaldeans. Now why did Haran die? Doesn't state here, does it?

So therefore, you don't know clearly from the Bible, but I think as we will see, he was actually killed in a war that took place. I'd like to quote from a book. Many of you are very familiar with this. When Norma and I attended Ambassador College, and Jim Lichtenstein was there at the time, we had to take Dr. Hayes' class, third-year Bible, world history class, and at that time he was doing extensive research on ancient history.

He wrote two compendiums. He wrote all of his research down in a couple of books titled The Compendium of World History, Volume 1 and 2. I remember him coming into class, had a little, one of these little notebooks sticking your pocket. He'd flip it open, and all he had written, and there were dates and names. From that, he could talk for hours, because he had the rest of it up here.

And I remember the day he discovered the Austrian chronicles. He came in, he was so excited. He'd been up all night, somewhere down to the third sub-basement, I think it was USC or UCLA's library. And he had discovered the Austrian chronicles that gives the history of Europe, beginning with Abraham. And he came in, he put all this up on the board, came in the next day, changed several things.

And from that, we find that he began to put together some of the ancient histories. Let me quote to you out of chapter 3, page 23 of the Compendium, and we'll also be quoting from the Austrian chronicle here, some of the early history dealing with Abraham, Europe, the Danube Valley area. It says for centuries, students have been taught that Europe was one of the late areas of the world to become civilized. Educational tradition would have us believe that the Egyptians erected mighty temples of stone, had wide astronomical knowledge, knew how to write thousands of years before Western Europe came to the threshold of civilization.

While Egyptians and Babylonians were raiding gorgeous robes painted with cosmetics, historians would have us believe that Europe's forests were sparsely populated with naked white savages. Now, you had the pix running around. You had all of these wild savages. Europe's dominant place in world affairs is, we are told, a relatively new phenomenon. Europe's civilization and its history is as old as Egypt, but it has been suppressed. And one would ask why, why was it suppressed? Not since the close of the 17th century has been allowed to be taught publicly.

It did not happen in a day. It took centuries of calculated plotting, ridiculed, wiped from the pages of history. The record of early Europe, historians and theologians have conspired together to label Europe's early histories a myth. Now, I've studied a number of books that talk about, well, we can't know anything about what went on. It's a myth, and here we have actually historical documents and records that talk about the ten tribes coming into Europe, and yet it's all classified as myths.

It says their motive is plain. If theologians and historians had allowed the early history of Europe to be taught in schools and universities, they would have to admit the authenticity and the authority of the Bible. They did not want to do that.

It says, had they not expunged the early events of Europe, everyone today would be reading of the journeys of Noah, of Shem, Heber, Asher, other biblical heroes. And to Europe, children would be reading in school today of the early settlement of the Assyrians and Chaldeans in Western Europe. They would know where the ten lost tribes of the House of Israel had migrated. All this has been purposely hidden, but it has not been lost. Scattered throughout the writings of scholars of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries are frequent records that unveil vast or unveil what really happened in Europe. Museums and libraries and state archives are still to be found documents of Horyang antiquity, collaborating the biblical record. This chapter contains the account of one of those documents. It's a book that gives a history of the Danube Valley, which covers Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria, neighboring regions. It's called the Austrian Chronicle, and it had never before been translated into English. Dr. Hay translated a lot of it into English. A number of copies of the chronicles are scattered throughout Europe. The last entry into this book is 1404. So, 1404, some six centuries ago. The last entry was put into this book, and yet this book has existed. I dare say that the majority of you have never heard of the Austrian chronicles, unless you sat in a class with Dr. Hay. It says, Abraham and the Austrian Chronicle, the Austrian chronicles, begins its consecutive history with a man of princely birth, none other than the patriarch Abraham. But what has Abraham to do with the history of the Danube Valley? Very much, the most ancient Greek name for the Danube River was the river Noa.

Noa was a Greek form of the Hebrew Noah. So, the Danube River originally was called the River Noah.

So, they understood about Noah. Noah was the patriarch of the whole human family following the flood. His patriarchal authority passed on to Shem, who superseded his older brother, Japheth. Each succeeding generation, the hereditary rites of the firstborn, were passed on from the father to the son. Teira was eighth in descending from Shem and the heir to Noah and Shem. Teira had, according to the biblical record, three sons. The oldest, Haran, was born when Teira was 70. He died before his father, Teira, and we've already read that. Why Haran died will be made plain shortly in the Austrian Chronicle. So, what we find is that the history of Europe has been suppressed. If you and I have been taught the true history of Europe, we would have known that the characters in the Bible were truly real. And historians, those who do not want to accept the authority of the Bible, could not allow that to happen. We'd also know that the ten tribes had migrated to that area, and we would know where they are today. Now, that was something that did not become knowledge or ready knowledge. So, Abraham, you find, was of royal blood. He was considered a prince. He is the first ruler listed in the list of rulers in that area of the world, according to the Austrian Chronicle. Now, I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but back here in Genesis 23, verses 4 through 6, you'll find that Abraham is referred to as a prince. Abraham said, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for burial place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Sarah had died, and the sons of Heath answered Abraham, saying to him, Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choices of our burial places.

So, they referred to him as a mighty prince. Now, that could simply be because he was a mighty one among them, or could refer to his past. But what you see in the Scripture is that Abraham gave up his hereditary privileges. He willingly forsook what he would have inherited and followed God. Now, why would he do that? What made him unique? What made him different?

We're going on here from the Compendium, replacing Haran as Er, was Tara's second son.

It says, in the year 1941, God called Abraham to forsake his kindred, his country, everything. Let's notice that in chapter 12. Chapter 12 of the book of Genesis, verse 1, The Lord had said to Abraham, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I'll make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So, he gave up. He was willing to turn his back on where he lived, on his family, on his nation, his country, and to go where God said to go, even though he had no idea what that was like. Verse 4, we find this simple statement about Abram. Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him. God said it, he did it, and Lot went with him, and Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Harag. Now, let me ask you a question. If God says it, do we do it?

See, God told him, leave, he left. And when God tells us to do something, do we do it?

If God says, don't work on the Sabbath, do we not work on the Sabbath? If God says, to tithe, do we tithe? If God says, you can put whatever you want in there. God says, well, that's what we should be willing to do.

Now, consider the Austrian Chronicle going on quoting here. It begins with the birth of Abram. He's called Abraham throughout the Chronicle. Under the Assyrian count Satan, S-A-T-T-A-N, several of the earlier geographic names in the Chronicle. Nobody knows today. Abram took a wife, Susanna, from the land of Sammoram and his wife, Sanyet.

Now, of this union we read in the Scriptures, turn over to Genesis, chapter 25, verses 5 through 6. I'm not sure that this exactly refers to that, but very possibly could.

In Genesis 25, verses 5 through 6, and Abraham gave all that he had into Isaac. So Isaac inherited what his father had. But under the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts. He sent them away from Isaac, his son, while he yet lived eastward into the east country. So we know that Abraham had some concubines, and according to this record, one of them was named Susanna. From the Austrian Chronicle, we learn that Abraham and Susanna had a son named Aecham. A-C-H-A-I-M. Aecham.

Then Abraham and Count Satan had war with each other till Abraham was driven from the land in poverty. So he fought with this count, who was driven out, had nothing. It was in that war that Haeran, Abraham's older brother, was slain. So he was killed at that time. Abraham was driven out of Count Satan's realm, fled to the Danube River Valley in 1944, according to the Chronicle. There he built a house, settled, until the death of Count Satan. It was now 1941, three years after Abraham had fled, according to the Chronicle, that he took Aecham, Susanna, and went into the land of Judah, Zapata, which means the Jews' land, Palestine, according to the Bible.

Now, some of the scribes later on thought that that was the Danube area, because later on, the Jews came to that area. But let's remember that there weren't any Jews. At this time, he had gone into Palestine. From Palestine, Abraham sent away eastward to Assyria, Susanna, and Aechan.

From there, they journeyed to the Danube settlement Abraham had made years before.

The previous chapter reveals that the Danube Valley was then under Assyrian control. So the Assyrians were in charge of that area. Now, you find that Abraham was willing to give up everything.

When you have power, you're a royalty. You have money. You have prestige. You have everything, and you're willing to turn your back on it and follow God. It shows to God your willingness.

Now, what do you and I have to give up?

We all were faced with the decision at one time when you were baptized, and you were supposed to have made that decision. And it's not a decision that you have to keep just making. You should have made it. And maybe you reconfirm it and you hold on to it. Let's go over to Luke 14.26.

We cover this with everyone we talk about baptism with. Luke 14.26 shows what we have had to give up to come into the church. Christ said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate, the word their hate means to love less in comparison.

If you don't love less, your father and your mother, your wife and your children, your brothers and sisters, your own life also, you cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Now, you and I bearing our cross today doesn't mean much. But if you live back in the first century and you saw somebody bearing his cross, guess what that meant?

He was about to die. He had carried his cross out to where they were going to crucify him. They'd stick it in the ground. They'd nail him to it and he would die. So when you saw somebody carrying his cross, that means literally his death warrant had been signed. You and I, when we are baptized, we have signed our death warrant. We are to die the old man, the old way of life, the old way of thinking. Romans chapter 6 compares it to the death, burial, and resurrection.

And so we die, we come up, and we live a new life. So we have to forsake everything in verse 33. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. So we have to be willing to do so. Matthew 19 even clarifies this more. Matthew 19 verse 27.

The disciples asked Christ a very pointed question. Peter answered and said to him, See, we've left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? What are we going to have?

And Jesus said to them, Surely I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve tribes judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So they knew exactly what their reward for their service was going to be.

And everyone who has left houses—that was Abraham—and brothers and sisters—that was Abraham, our father and mother, our wife, our children, our lands—again, Abraham—for my name's sake shall receive a hundredfold that Mark account, I believe, says in this life and inherit eternal life, the promise that God gives to us. So you and I have to be willing to give up the same thing that Abraham did. So what did he give up? Well, he gave up all. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 11 again. Genesis 11. And we'll begin to read here in verse 27.

This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, Haran, and Haran begot Lot.

And Haran died before his father, Teran, the native land in Uz of the Chaldeans, and Abraham and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milka, and the father of Iskut. But Sarah was barren and had no children. This apparently was somewhere around 1944 B.C. Verse 29. We find that they married. Sarah was barren, as we found out in verse 30.

Sarah refers to a female noble, princess. She was also of royal blood, and she was a Hebrew, just like Abram was a Hebrew. Their lineage could be traced back through Eber.

Now, verses 31 and 32, let's notice.

Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law, Sarah, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur for the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and dwelt there so that the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran.

Now, we find that he was an idolater. Abraham lived in a society and an age when the vast majority, just about everybody, practiced idolatry. And yet, we find Abraham came out of that. Now, why? What happened in his life to transform him? Why was he able to come out of that?

Let's get a little more of the story here in Joshua chapter 24, verses 2 and 3, the book of Joshua.

Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river, or as the margin says, the Euphrates, in old times, and they served other gods. So they were idolaters. They served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, the other side of Euphrates, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. So idolatry was rampant at that time. Terah worshipped false gods.

Acts 7 gives a little more clarification. Acts chapter 7, beginning in verse 1. This is where Stephen defends himself, the truth of God, and his stone, the first martyr.

Then the high priest said, Are these things so? And he said, Brethren and fathers, listen, the God of glory appeared, now notice this carefully, to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. So apparently, while he was in Ur, he appeared to him. Now God appeared to him. Why did God choose him to appear to?

What was it? What quality again about him? And he said to him, Get out of your country from your relatives, come to a land that I will show you.

Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran.

And from there, when his father was dead, he moved him to this land in which you now dwell. So God appeared to him while he was still among the Chaldeans. The true God appeared to him.

Now the Chaldeans had all kinds of false gods that they worship.

Backing up to Genesis 12 again, in Genesis 12, we find, and this we've already touched on, that the Lord had said to Abraham, you'll notice it says, had said, Get out of your country. And so this is something that had occurred in the past. He was willing to do so. He was willing to give it up. He had been reduced to poverty and war with Count Satan. There was also political conflict that took place. There was also religious conflict that had taken place with the Chaldean priesthood. One thing we're going to find out about Abraham is that he was a great mathematician and he was an astronomer. He had proven God's existence. He had proven by the laws of science, by mathematics, by observing the heavens, by observing the heavens, that there was a creator God who sustained, who upheld all of this. Because during that day, there was the God of fire, the God of the wind, the God of the soil, the God of this, the God of that, the God of the sun, the God of the moon. He had all these gods, and each one of them were supposedly powerful. Each one of them had power within themselves. By his observing the universe, he could see that they were not beings. They had no power themselves. They were just inanimate objects. He came to realize that there was a true God.

He began to seek and to learn of that God, and so God revealed himself to him. Many of you are familiar with Josephus, the Jewish historian. Josephus writes about Abraham.

In book one, chapter seven of the Antiquities of the Jews, you'll find that Josephus adds a little more information about him. Talking about Abraham, he says, he was a person of great sagacity, meaning he was a wise, knowledgeable person, both for understanding all things, for persuading his hearers, and he was not mistaken in his opinion. What that means is that Abraham had definite opinions, and you'd have to mistake if he said it and he believed it, for which reason he began to have higher notations of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and to change the opinion of all men to have concerning God. For he was the first that ventured to publish this notion that there was but one God, the creator of the universe. So he was the first one to do this. Now, I want you to notice a couple of things.

All of the idolaters back this time believed in a pantheon of gods, many gods. He came to believe there was one God, and you'll notice here he argued with them about it, and he also published.

Now, what does that tell you? It tells you he was literate. He could write. He could read.

There were books back at that time. He published a book proving the existence of God, because that's what he clearly says here. He was the first dimension or venture to publish this notion, either an article or a book along this line. And it goes on to talk about how he could prove that the bodies in space did not possess power, abilities of themselves, that there had to be a sustainer of those bodies.

And so, you know, he began to teach this. Now, it says he began to teach them the truth, for which doctrine, when the Chaldeans and other people of Mesopotamia raised a tomb oil against him, he thought fit to leave the country. Time to get out of here. So, you know, that's one thing that led to his escaping from the country. Then Josephus goes on to say, Pherosis mentions our father Abraham without naming him when he says this, the tenth generation after the flood there was among the Chaldeans a man righteous and great, skillful in the celestial sciences. But Heraclitus, Heraclitus was a Greek writer, more than barely mentioned him, for he composed and left behind a book concerning him.

And Nicholas of Damascus in the fourth book of his history says that Abraham reigned in Damascus, being a foreigner who came with an army out of the land from Babylon and called the land of the Chaldeans. But after a long time, he got himself up, removed from the country with his people into the land of Canaan, and that there was a city in Damascus named after him called the habitation of Abraham. Now, we're talking about writers who had written books prior to the first century, during the first century, that Josephus had access to. Now, how many of you have ever read these books? What happened to these books? Where did they go? Well, we know that historically some have been passed on. Have you ever heard of the great library Alexandria, the Burn to the Ground, had over a million volumes in it? There have been libraries in the past that because of wars, because of just decay of society, have fallen into the case. In this case, it burnt down. And there had been millions of documents that had been lost over the years, which, if we had access to them, would change the history of the world drastically. We would have tremendous amount of information about it. Abraham was used to living in a great city. God asked him to become a nomad.

Okay, you live in a palace or you live in a fine house. You're wealthy. You've got servants. You're weighted on. You're a merchant. You make money. And all at once, you're told to go out and live in a tent. Now, tents are nice. I don't care how nice they are, though. They're not like a permanent house.

Halley's Bible Handbook, and most members of the church have a Halley's Handbook.

I'm not sure which version I have here, but on page 90, there's an article concerning her, and it describes the city of Ur back at this time. Ur was once a seaport on the Persian Gulf at the mouth of the Euphrates River, 12 miles from Iridu, the traditional site of the Garden of Eden.

It was a pre-flood city that was destroyed in the flood. It was rebuilt, and Abraham lived there. During Abraham's time, it was the most magnificent city in all of the world.

It was a center of manufacturing, farming, shipping. It also was the greatest city until the time that it was eclipsed by Babylon. They had been able to find some of the outer walls of the city, two miles long, northwest, southeast, about a half mile wide. Remnants of a surrounding wall 70 feet thick, 80 feet high, surrounded this city. Been traced for two and a half miles, sacred area inside where the temples were, and the palaces were surrounded by an inner wall 400 yards long, 200 yards wide. It gives a number of the archaeological digs that have gone on here. It says, Ziggurat, or temple tower, was patterned after the tower of Babel. It was the tallest mound, and in Abraham's day, was the most prominent thing around. It was laid out in a square, and I don't know how big it was, it doesn't say, but the same. What if it were a square, what if it were a square, 100 yard square? That was the base. The next base, it went up in increments, maybe 90 yard square, then 80, and it kept going up, and each level was terraced, had trees and plants, and on the top was a temple in which they practiced their religious worship and prostitution.

The tower, as Abraham saw it, was square, terraced, built of solid brick, the successive terraces planted with trees and shrubbery at the top of the sanctuary. It was dedicated to the moon god.

The temple, the two main temples there, one was to the moon god, Nenar, the other to the moon god is Nengol. In the glory in Abraham's day, there was a vast complex of shrines, small rooms, living quarters for the priests, priestess, attendants, deities, and Abraham's fathers worshiped there. Now, they also found the bones of a queen, and they dug up this area, and they found necklaces, beads, ornaments of gold, silver, semi-precious stones, cups, and plates made out of gold, saucers, toilet boxes, paint cups, golden harp, bones of 40 servants that have been sacrificed and buried with the queen.

So, one thing you need to realize about the religion in that area of the world during that time, they believed in human sacrifice. They believed in temple prostitutes, and said many of these things may now be seen at the University Museum in Philadelphia.

And they bear witness to a very high degree of skill, thus earlier, and they also trace the fact that there was human sacrificing taking place. What kind of idolatry was going on? Well, on page 97, Cesar was in Babylonian, and Babylonian had many gods. They had the sun god, they had the moon god, you know, they had all of these different gods. They had Ishtar.

We know that they worshiped Nimrod and Ishtar.

Ishtar was worshipped by the deification of sex passions. The worship required licentious, sacred prostitution. The women, every woman in Babylon, widow, married, single, had to serve in the temple at one time or another as a prostitute.

And as a result, when the men went into the temple to worship, part of their worship was to go into an inner chamber and have sexual relations with prostitutes. And so, you know, this was just common at that time. This was the type of society that Abraham lived in and that Abraham came out of. He was royalty, a cultured man, well-educated, big city dweller. He turned his back on all of that to follow God. Now, in Hebrews 11 and verse 8, hold your place here, but we'll come back. Hebrews 11 verse 8, we read this about Abraham.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place where he would receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. So here you have this permanency. You have family. You've got business connections. And then you're told to go out somewhere. You have no knowledge of it. And he was willing to do that. Well, if you come back to Genesis 12, you'll find in verse 5 that once he had moved up to Haran, apparently God began to bless him again.

His wealth was restored. He was, as many secular sources say, an extremely shrewd, merchant. He made a lot of his money in trading. He made a lot of his money in cattle and in horses.

So Abraham, verse 5, Genesis 12, took Sarai, his wife, and his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered. And the people whom they had acquired in Haran, they departed to go into the land of Canaan. And so they came to the land of Canaan. They passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terbeth tree of Morah. And the Canaanites were there.

Now, notice verse 7. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, "'To your descendants I will give this land.' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him." And verse 8 shows he called on the name of God at that point.

Now, Abraham basically lived in the south of Canaan, generally in the area around Bathsheba. In Genesis 22.19, I'll just refer to that. It refers to Beersheba. Beersheba at that time was the cultural center in Palestine. At Beersheba, we have the remains of the earliest domesticated horses found by archaeologists. So apparently he was involved with horses. Abraham's descendants, ever since, have been famous horse breeders. Even the descendants of Esau, the Arabs, and some of those. Abraham became a rancher, he became a farmer, he grew crops, but he also traded. And one thing about Canaan is the caravans came right through there. And so it was just a natural place for him to trade, set up shop, buy and sell, and do all of that. In Genesis 12.10, we find here, now there was a famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe. He came to pass when he was close to entering into Egypt. He said to Sarah, his wife, indeed, I know you're a woman of beautiful cabinets. Say you're my sister. Verse 13, don't tell them that you're married to me. Just say, you're my sister.

That's true. She was his half sister, but she was also his wife. And you find, sure enough, Pharaoh's servants see her. They say, boy, this is a beautiful girl. She'll make somebody a concubine in the harem. So they bring her. Verse 17, the Lord played Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Pharaoh called Abraham, or Abram, and said, what is this that you've done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Now, we have to remember that at this point, Abraham could have had upwards to 2,000 people in his traveling party. We know at one time that he went out to fight, as we'll see here, coming up in chapter 14. And he took over 300 servants who were trained in fighting.

Well, if they were married, that's over 600. They each had a couple of children.

Now you're looking at 1,200-1,500 people. He very easily could have had 2,000 people in his traveling party. Back at that time, you have 2,000 people sort of migrating into your territory and set up camp.

They don't go unnoticed. And so this is one reason why they noticed him. This was Pharaoh Menutu Hopti II. He had distemper, and you'll find that something unusual happened here.

Prior to this time, the Egyptians did not have very much knowledge about math and the sciences. God brought Abraham into contact with the Egyptians, with the highest level of Egyptian society, Pharaoh, and those who were around him. And the story goes that Abraham taught them math. He taught them astronomy, and they had very little knowledge of this before. It is the Greeks who learned math and science from the Egyptians.

They picked this up from the Egyptians. The question is, who taught the Egyptians?

Well, the indication is that Abraham did. God used Abraham, his lack of faith at this time, to bring him into contact with the political and religious leaders of Egypt.

This led to the growth of Egypt as a great nation, and it prepared Egypt for the coming of the children of Israel, when they later on came down to that area. Now, in chapter 13, we find that God blessed Abraham with great wealth. Verse 2, Abraham was very rich in livestock and silver and gold.

So was Lot. And in verse 4, you find he calls on the name of God again. Verse 6, the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen here of Abram. So Abraham said, okay, Lot, we can't stay together. You pick out where you want to settle. So he picks out the plain of Jordan. He looks up. It's well watered. This is where Sodom and Gomorrah are. And in verse 12, Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plains, pitched his tent, even as far as Sodom. It says the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. And then God again makes a promise to him about his blessings. Now, sometime your choices can lead you into trouble, can they not? God had brought them out of idolatry, brought them out of a wicked society and cities, and Lot moves right back into it. We find that Lot was living in Sodom, you know, later on when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, something else happened here that, if you're not familiar with it, you read right over it. Chapter 14. What happened in chapter 14?

You're going to find out that Abraham, during his day, had a profound effect upon what we call the Mid-East. He had a profound effect. He testified to the pagans, if you want to call them that, the idolaters in Babylon, in Chaldea. He went down into Egypt and he helped them get on their feet.

He later, as we will see here, actually brought the Assyrian power to its knees.

Let's read beginning in verse 1, chapter 14.

Came to pass, this is around 1938 BC, came to pass in the days of Amraphal, king of Shinar, and Eriach, king of El-Lazar, and Chedor, Laomir, king of Elam, entitled king of nations. Who were these kings?

They were the rulers of Assyria, amalgamated together.

Now, we call them kings. They would be more like city-states back at that time, who would get together and fight. These made war with Birah, king of Sodom, and with Bersha, king of Gomorrah, and Shinab, king of Admah, and Shem-Ibor, king of Zebai, or Zebo-Him, and the king of Bila, which is Zohar. All these were joined together in the valley of Sittim, which is the salt sea. In the 12 years, they served Shiddor, Laomir, and in the 13th year, they rebelled.

14th year, there was a war that took place. You might remember the Assyrian kings here conquered them. The problem was Lot was also among them. Abraham then gets his servants together, and they go fight, and they defeat them. This notice in verse 7, well, verse 14, it says, when Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, smote them and pursued them into Hobot, which is on the left side of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods. Also brought again his brother Lot, his goods, the women also, and the people. And the kings of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Shedor, Laomir, and of the kings that were with him in the valley of Sheba, which is in the Kingsdale. Now, I want you to notice, Abraham slaughtered them. They were killed. The leaders, the kings, the mayors, whatever you want to call them, of the leading cities in Assyria were dead. He effectively brought about the decline of the Assyrian empire at this point. That was not a huge nation, but he put it into decline, which actually allowed Egypt to continue to prosper without any interference from the Assyrians.

So we find that Abraham, directly or indirectly, had a profound effect on the nations, the peoples, around him. And God used him in a way that many times we would not even begin to think of.

To allow the Egyptians to grow free from conquest and, again, to become a power. That what was God going to do later on? That God was going to show that he was greater than the Egyptians. He was going to destroy Egypt, which became the greatest power at that time, and bring his people out so that he could show all the other nations that he was God and his power.

Now, what motivated Abraham? We know he proved God. We know he understood that.

But back in Genesis chapter 26, God gives an insight into Abraham. God said, Get up and go. He went. And so we read in Genesis 26, verse 5. God is telling Isaac why he gave these promises to Abraham. It is because Abraham obeyed my voice.

He kept my charge. I said, Do this. He did that. He kept my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

He obeyed. Why? He had proven God's existence. He had proven the power of God. He knew there was a God. He believed God, and he obeyed. Back here in chapter 15 of the book of Genesis, we find after these things, chapter 15, verse 1, The Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceeding great reward. And in verse 6, notice the summary.

He believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. He believed God.

Another lesson that we have to learn is, Do we believe God?

Our belief in God is reflected by our obedience to God. How did God know that Abraham believed him? He obeyed him. Now, in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 7, 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 7, Jehoshaphat here speaking says, Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever?

Abraham was called the friend of God. Now, this is re-confirmed in James 2, 21.

Let's go over to James. James chapter 2 and verse 21, where James summarizes what we've read here so far.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered to Isaac his son on the altar? Do you not see that faith was working together with his works? By works, faith was made perfect, and the Scripture was fulfilled which said Abraham believed God. It was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. He was God's friend.

Brethren, the same thing can be said of every one of us. If we believe God, if we obey God, if we're willing to follow God, when he says go, we go. If he says do, we do. Then we become the friend of God, and even more than the friend of God, the son of God, the daughters of God, we become a part of the family of God. Back up here to Hebrews 11, Hebrews chapter 11. We already read verse 8. In Hebrews 11, he went not knowing where he was going to go.

Why did he do this? What motivated him? What stirred him up? Verse 9, by faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob. He airs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

Who told Abraham about the New Jerusalem? Well, God did.

You see, it's not recorded everything that God told Abraham when he would come and sit and talk to Abraham for hours. What did they talk about?

Well, God explained to him the plan of salvation. He gave him a timetable.

You find that the New Jerusalem comes down, what? After the millennium, after the white throne judgment, after every human being has had an opportunity for salvation, then the New Jerusalem. New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem. You go over here to verse 13. It says, these all died in faith. Verse 13, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were assured of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. What did they look forward to? Well, verse 16. It says, Now they desire better that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Abraham understood about that city. He saw the millennium. He saw the white throne judgment.

He saw what God was going to give in the future. And therefore, for him to give up earth, the Chaldees, Haran, physical wealth at that time, family, to give all of that up, the power, the prestige, and the influence was nothing compared to what God was offering him.

He could see the promise. He could see that nothing compared to it. Remember the sermon last week we read Philippians 3.8 that Paul said the exact same thing. He said, Look, I've given up everything and all of it compared to what God has in store is like a pile of dung, like manure. It doesn't amount to anything. And that has to be our attitude. That was Abraham's attitude compared to what God is offering eternal life to live forever, to be in the New Jerusalem, to have the power, the glorified body, to have everything that God holds out to us. Sometime this week, you need to go back and reread Revelation 21 and 22 about the new heavens and the new earth, the New Jerusalem, and realize that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, they all understood about that. It was something that had been revealed to them.

Did Abraham pass it on to his children? Well, sure he did. And they pass it on to there. Somewhere it got lost. But God had revealed to them this calling. Abraham was willing to give up everything to follow God. Are we?