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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781496400437 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tyndale House Publishers |
| Publication date: | 07/16/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Sales rank: | 871,346 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Charles R. Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word and His grace. A pastor at heart, Chuck has served as a senior pastor to congregations in Texas, Massachusetts, and California. Since 1998, he has served as the founder and senior pastor–teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, but Chuck’s listening audience extends far beyond a local church body. A leading program in Christian broadcasting since 1979, Insight for Living airs in major Christian radio markets around the world, reaching people groups in languages they can understand. Chuck’s extensive writing ministry has also served the body of Christ worldwide, and his leadership as president and now chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary has helped prepare and equip a new generation of men and women for ministry. Chuck and his wife, Cynthia, his partner in life and ministry, have four grown children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Read an Excerpt
Abraham
One Nomad's Amazing Journey Of Faith
By Charles R. Swindoll, Stephanie Rische
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2014 Charles SwindollAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4143-8063-6
CHAPTER 1
GOING ... NOT KNOWING
In the beginning, God created everything—the universe, our sun, this planet—and He populated the earth with plants, fish, birds, animals, and finally humans. And it was good ... in fact, very good. Everything in creation existed in symbiotic collaboration with everything else. That is, until Adam and his wife, Eve, the first humans, violated their Creator's one and only rule: of all the millions of fruit trees on the earth, do not eat the fruit of one specific tree (see Genesis 2:15-17). When they chose to eat of that tree anyway, despite the Creator's grave warning, everything changed. Everything.
Their choice to disobey God was an act of rebellion. They chose to follow their own desires instead of trusting in God's leadership. And their act of rebellion changed how the world operates. Before the Fall, everything had worked according to God's grace, but after that moment, the world quickly became a place characterized by suffering, disease, pain, selfishness, violence, and death. People were born with Adam's rebellious nature, and within just a few generations, the entire human race became so incorrigibly corrupt that God wiped out all but a handful of lives—Noah and his family (see Genesis 6–9).
Several generations after this new beginning, the human population rebounded, but its moral condition was hardly any better. In fact, by the time of Abraham, humanity was well on its way to becoming incorrigible again. People lived according to their own rules, which according to archaeological data included all kinds of vice and perversion. Instead of seeking to know God, their Creator, they exchanged truth for superstition. They entertained themselves with campfire stories of mythical spirit beings whose activities affected the physical world, they carved idols to represent these imaginary gods, and they then did appalling things to appease them.
God could have turned His back on creation. He could have abandoned humanity to its own self-destructive ignorance. He was not morally compelled to rescue humanity from the evil it created and perpetuated. Even so, God established a plan to redeem the world, beginning with one man. He would make this man a model recipient of saving grace and establish him as the founding father of a new and unique nation. In time, as the plan unfolded, this nation would become the means by which all the world might hear of the one true Creator God and return to Him.
God's redemptive plan began with His choice of a man named Abram.
God's Chosen Man
We know this man by the name Abraham, but he was born Abram. God changed his name at a critical point in the narrative, but for the first 99 of his 175 years, he answered to Abram.
He lived around the end of the Early Bronze Age (circa 2000 BC) in a thriving, bustling, cultured city known as "Ur of the Chaldeans" (Genesis 11:28). The land of the Chaldeans—also known as Mesopotamia—was located in present-day Iraq, which archaeologists and historians call the cradle of civilization because this is where ancient people first gathered into cities and established societies. "Few periods from ancient history are as well documented by artifacts and inscriptions as is the time of Abraham." Consequently, we know a lot about this man's culture, religion, beliefs, and everyday life. Abram was an ordinary member of his society, no different from his neighbors. Upon his birth, he received a name that means "the father is exalted"—most likely a reference to the deity worshiped by his family. People in ancient Mesopotamia worshiped a pantheon of mythical gods, ruled by the moon god, Sin, whom they regarded as "the lord of heaven" and "the divine creator." Like his relatives and neighbors, Abram worshiped idols and accepted mythology as truth (see Joshua 24:2). Even so, God appeared specifically to Abram and gave him personalized instructions: "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).
It is important to note that God didn't appear to a group of people and then offer a general invitation to follow. We should also observe that Abram didn't seek out God for a relationship; God approached him. It's doubtful Abram had even heard of the one true Creator God before that point. By an act of pure grace, God dipped His hand into that idolatrous hole to select Abram out of all people.
Why this particular man? Did Abram turn from the idols of his ancestors and seek God? Did he make himself worthy of divine mercy? Far from it! The Lord chose Abram for reasons known only in heaven. We can say for certain that Abram did nothing to earn or deserve God's favor. Nevertheless, the Lord appeared to this ignorant, sinful, superstitious idol worshiper and said, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:1-3).
God's call of Abram began with an imperative—a clear command. God told him to leave his country for a land that He would show him ... sometime later. To receive the promised blessings, Abram had to leave behind everything he relied on for safety and provision—homeland and relatives—and trust that God would honor His commitment. A New Testament writer reflected on his ancestor, stating, "It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8).
Stop and think about that for a moment. Put yourself in Abram's place. You're roughly seventy-five years old, with a wife in her mid-sixties. You've lived in one place your whole life. You have an established homestead in a familiar city with family and a community you've known since birth. Suddenly, the Lord appears to you in a physical manifestation—whether visual or auditory—you cannot deny as authentically supernatural, and He tells you to pack up and hit the road for an undisclosed destination. Can you imagine Abram's conversations with friends and neighbors?
"Oh, I see you're packing up, Abram."
"Yeah."
"Really? You're leaving town?"
"Yes, we leave in a few days."
"You know, you're not getting any younger. Are you ready to start all over somewhere?"
"Yep, Sarai and I are moving."
"Really? So, where are you going?"
"I don't know."
"You're packing up everything you have, leaving everything familiar, and you have no idea where you're headed? Have you lost your mind?"
Everything within us recoils from making big changes without thorough planning. Most of us need to see where we're jumping before committing to a leap. But God called Abram to obey this call without complete information. Abram didn't know where he was going, so he couldn't trust in a well-thought-out, long-range plan. Nevertheless, the Lord gave Abram sufficient information to make a reasonable decision.
When Abram encountered the Lord, he knew that God was real. The awesome splendor of God's presence left him no room for doubt. Moreover, the Lord gave him three specific promises that made obedience worth his trouble. While his neighbors thought he had lost his mind, Abram had good reason to trust in God, even without knowing every detail of the plan.
God's Unconditional Covenant
Different kinds of covenants appear throughout the Old Testament—some between individuals, others between nations. There are also several divine covenants, which are contracts or agreements between God and people. In the Garden of Eden, the Creator established a covenant with Adam and Eve: "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:16-17). Note the promise: "If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die" (verse 17).
A little further in the Scriptures we come to Noah's time, when God said, "I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth! Build a large boat" (Genesis 6:13-14). When the floodwaters receded, the Lord promised, "I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.... I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth" (Genesis 9:11-13).
Some covenants are conditional, meaning that fulfillment by one party depends upon fulfillment by the other. These agreements usually include if/then statements: "If you do your part, then I will do my part." When God settled the Israelites in the Promised Land, He established a conditional covenant with them: "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). Conversely, He said, "But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you.... The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me" (Deuteronomy 28:15, 20).
An unconditional covenant is a straightforward promise that contains no stipulations. In the Lord's first encounter with Abram, He established an unconditional covenant. He did give the patriarch a command, and Abram had to obey to claim the Lord's blessings. Still, the promises did not contain if/then statements. They were simple declarations:
• "I will make you into a great nation" (Genesis 12:2).
• "I will bless you and make you famous" (verse 2).
• "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt" (verse 3).
• "All the families on earth will be blessed through you" (verse 3).
Note also that the covenant includes three major areas of blessing:
• a national blessing
• a personal blessing
• an international blessing
God promised anational unconditional blessing. Abram's descendants would be numerous enough to form a large nation. Let us not overlook the fact that God made this pledge to a man in his midseventies! Abram's wife, by then in her midsixties, had not given birth to any children. As a barren couple well past their prime, they had given up hope of having a single child, to say nothing of a whole nation of descendants. Yet the Lord promised, "I will make you into a great nation."
Today we know that God had in mind the nation of Israel, as history tells us that Abraham is the father of the Hebrew people. God made this promise to bless a nation without conditions; He guaranteed its fulfillment without fail. Of course, Abram and Sarai had to wait. They were not yet ready to receive this particular blessing. A twenty-five-year, faith-building journey lay before them. And when Abram's confidence wavered during those years between the promise and the fulfillment, the Lord reaffirmed His unconditional covenant at least two more times.
When Abram arrived in Canaan, the territory was overrun by the kind of evil that had precipitated the great Flood (see Genesis 6–9). To make matters worse, Abram relinquished part of his land claim to settle a family dispute (see Genesis 13:1-12).The Lord said to Abram, "Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!" ( verses 14-16).
Years later—still with no child of his own—Abram wondered if perhaps his chief servant, Eliezer, would become his official heir. The Lord soothed the patriarch's fear.
The Lord said to him, "No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir." Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, "Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That's how many descendants you will have!" ...
So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, "I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites."
GENESIS 15:4-6; 18-21
We don't like waiting, but that's when God does some of His best work on our souls. When I'm forced to wait on God's timing, I change. Sometimes I discover that my request was selfish—not part of God's agenda at all. Other times I find that my level of maturity could not yet bear the blessing God wanted me to enjoy; I had to grow up so I could handle it well. Very often, my circumstances needed to change, or the blessing would have become a burden.
As we see Abram's faith journey unfold, we'll see why he had to wait so long to receive God's promised blessings.
God promised a personalunconditional blessing. This included great wealth as well as personal protection. Later in the story, we're told that "Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold" (Genesis 13:2). He was known for receiving many blessings from God, including "flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, a fortune in silver and gold, and many male and female servants and camels and donkeys" (Genesis 24:35). The people of Canaan referred to him as "an honored prince among us" (Genesis 23:6).
This is a good place to pause and say God does not condemn the wealthy. God reserves the right to bless some with an abundance of money and material possessions, and not bless others in that way. That's His sovereign right. In our materialistic culture, we might accuse God of cruelty for withholding material blessing from some, but God's economy doesn't trade in our currency. Some of His most honored servants haven't had two shekels to rub together, including His own Son. He does promise, however, that temporal poverty for His sake will be richly rewarded in eternity (see Matthew 6:33; Mark 10:29-31).
Abram never apologized for being rich. In fact, God used his riches in wonderful ways, as we will see later.
God promised aninternationalunconditional blessing. On top of the national and the personal blessings, God heaped a blessing upon all of humanity: "All the families on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:3). This refers to all races and nationalities—the whole world. God would bring a blessing to all people through the descendants of Abram, the Hebrew nation.
In His grand plan to redeem the world from sin and evil, God built a nation founded upon one man's faith. This nation would be a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6, ESV), responsible for leading the ignorant, superstitious, idol-worshiping nations into a relationship with the one true Creator God. The Lord established the Hebrew people as "a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind" (Isaiah 42:6-7, ESV). He said, "I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6). And to help them accomplish this great task, He situated Israel on a little land-bridge nestled between the expansive Arabian Desert and the vast Mediterranean Sea.
Anyone traveling between the great empires of the ancient world—Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon—had to pass through the land promised to Abram's descendants. If Israel remained faithful to their calling, merchants, armies, and vagabonds would see a blessed nation and ask, "Who is this incredible king who makes you so prosperous and secure?" And the Hebrew people could answer, "Our King is the God of Abram! Would you like to know Him?"
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Abraham by Charles R. Swindoll, Stephanie Rische. Copyright © 2014 Charles Swindoll. Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction vii
Chapter 1 Going... Not Knowing 1
Chapter 2 When the Faithful Fail 15
Chapter 3 A Decision That Led to a Disaster 27
Chapter 4 Abram, the Greathearted 41
Chapter 5 Can We Talk? 53
Chapter 6 Running ahead of God 67
Chapter 7 Deepening Our Roots with God 79
Chapter 8 One of Those Upper-Downer Days 93
Chapter 9 What Happens When We Pray? 107
Chapter 10 When the Cesspool Overflows 119
Chapter 11 A Wail of two Cities 133
Chapter 12 Overcoming Depravity's Dangerous Undertow 147
Chapter 13 Disobedience Déjà Vu 159
Chapter 14 It's a Boy! 171
Chapter 15 Forgiven Sin... Lingering Consequences 185
Chapter 16 When God Says, "Let Go!" 197
Chapter 17 A Healthy Household of Faith 211
Chapter 18 On Finding Your Lifelong Companion 223
Chapter 19 What a Way to Go! 235
Chapter 20 Portait of a Hero... Warts and Everything 247
Acknowledgments 261
Appendix 263
Notes 269
About the Author 273