Introduction to Abraham, Part 2

Abraham . . . what has he to do with me? Everything. But in order to understand that and in order to understand Abraham himself we must put him in his historical/biblical context. There are eleven chapters in Genesis which precede Abraham and it is important that we understand them and what is taking place. In fact, by starting with Abraham we've started all wrong anyway. Let's start at the beginning . . .

In the beginning God . . .

The story of Scripture is the story of God. In fact, the very purpose of Scripture is to reveal God to us. God did not create and then run. God is, and always has been, very active in his creation. Someone might ask the question, "What does God do?" Good question. For the answer, just look around you. This is what God does. Creation and history are His story. And God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in history through His Word. He began that revelation at the call of Abraham.

I recently ran across an interesting gift to the Church (Ephesians 4:11,12) by the name of Witness Lee. If you want to know more about Witness Lee, just click on his name and you will be taken to his Wikipedia page. Or you can go to this page. (But be sure to come back!) Witness Lee was a Chinese Christian and missionary who took the gospel from China to Indonesia to Japan and Russia and later to the United States. He had a long and fruitful ministry and he left behind a few books, one of which I have. It is entitled Abraham: Called By God. Lee divided the book of Genesis into three parts and I liked his division, so I borrowed it. Here it is:

I. Chapters 1 & 2 -- In the beginning, Elohim . . .
II. Chapters 3-11 -- Now the serpent . . .
III. Chapters 12-50 -- Now YHWH said . . .

Before we go much further let me take a minute to explain the whole YHWH thing.

When you first read it your mind might have filled in the vowels. You might have said "Yahweh" in your mind, and if you did then you were mostly right. Those four consonants are known as the "tetragrammaton" and are the only thing left to us from antiquity of the covenant name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush. For a full explanation go here. For now, suffice it to say that we no longer know for certain what the correct pronunciation of God's covenant name was, for it was lost to antiquity. But we do know the consonants without the vowels: YHWH. Again, if you're curious as to why, go here. [In our English translations, the tetragrammaton (YHWH) is usually rendered as "LORD" with all caps.]

I love Witness Lee's division of Genesis because it seems so natural. The first two chapters describe the wonderful creation of God (Elohim) and how it is good. Everything is pronounced good. We are left in awe of God's wisdom, power, and goodness.

But then something happens. In chapter 3 another character enters the story and everything begins to unravel.

Now the serpent . . .

Eve is tempted and succumbs. Adam falls. They are removed from the garden. Cain kills his brother Abel. Cain is marked and flees. Cain's offspring spiral further and further into sin and rebellion against God. Eve conceives again and gives birth to Seth. Things look good again. But soon all humankind is in rebellion to God. We read this:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
(Genesis 6:5 ESV)

But . . .

Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. . . .

So God destroys the world in a flood. But he spares Noah and his family. Then we see God setting his bow in the cloud promising mercy instead of justice. Nevertheless, humankind continues to rebel. By the time we get to Abraham are there any worshippers of God left on the whole earth?

It's a good question.

I contend there were none. I could be wrong, but I will defend my contention in the next post. But before we get to that post I have to ask.

What was God doing? How could God allow this?

Have you ever asked yourself the same question? Why would a good God allow evil into the world? Or, as some have put it, if there is evil in the world (and there certainly is) then what does that say about God? Is God evil? Is he incompetent? What is he doing?

It is not wrong to ask those questions because doubters and scoffers certainly have and the responsibility of having an answer has been put upon us.

So is there an answer? Of course, there is. Several. Some, in fact, better than others. we are going to look at those answers in the next post as well, for now we are getting to the crux of why Abraham was so important and why he is so relevant to you and me today.