Abbey

I think that God's blessings are individualized. He knit us together in the womb, he knows our going out and our coming in, he knows our names, and he looks on our hearts. His blessings are customized to the individual. He was creating a nation through Abraham, and he had promised to bless him. Material wealth was part of that blessing, as was Sarah's protection from the Pharaoh and Abimelech, and the birth of Issac. God's blessings meet the need of the current circumstance and go beyond the immediate need if God chooses. Since all belongs to God in the first place, he knows how to distribute His blessings to his children. God uses us in unique ways and equips us with what we need. He knows our hearts and what our intentions are. He knows what He can trust us with at any given time. Mainly, He wants his children to depend on Him for all things they have need of. After all, he knows their needs even before they ask. I find it interesting that when Abraham generously offered Lot the first choice of which land to take, he chose the region that looked the most properous and valuable, which in his mind equated to material wealth but led him straight towards Sodom where "the men were wicked and sinning greatly against the Lord." Sometimes what appears to be the best choice, the blessing we would choose for ourself as being the most desirable, can lead straight into a region of sin. Maybe one of our biggest blessings is being given the wisdom to let God do the bestowing of his provision according to his full understanding of how best to meet our need, and it isn't always material gain that is needed.

It is clear that God keeps his promises even when we work against his plans by acting on our own impulses, which are from the flesh. He was showing this principle in his dealing with Abraham who received God's grace (unmerited favor) over and over again despite his rather questionable actions. God doesn't take back his promises because of our foolishness, a fact for which I am certainly grateful We drop the ball and he runs interference, causing "all things to work together for the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." The secret is in the last part of that promise:"according to His purpose" God's purpose doesn't change just because we mess up or act independently of God's perfect will. God had called Abraham to be the Father of many nations. That was his purpose for Abraham and Sarah and the reason He would keep his promises by doing whatever it took to do so. He delivered Sarah from the bondage of her abductor(s) as part of turning all things to the good.

I didn't get a chance to come into the forum and post an answer to yesterday's question concerning adultery, but my initial response was that God takes a very dim view of adultery, and yes it is possible to be forgiven for having commited adultery. I pondered the scriptures to be read and thought to myself, well here we go again - Abraham is up to his old tricks again, and God is bailing him out. It seemed as if Abraham was lining poor Sarah up for adultery. If God did take a dim view of it, why wasn't Abraham also threatened with punishment for his deception which caused Abimelech to take Sarah in the first place? Then I realized that I was looking at the situation with full knowledge of the ten commandments, so I know the law. Abraham had not been given the law. He had a fear of God, he had a belief that God would do as he promised, but he had no concept of sin as we do, or as the jews did once Moses received the law from God. The purpose of the law was to define sin as God sees it. Because it has so clearly been defined for us, we know adultery is wrong. Abraham had no such clear definition, so we see God working with Abraham right where Abraham is at. God's relationship with Abraham is a new work on God's part. It is showing us how God will be a man's friend, his guide, his refuge, his rescuer even when his actions are outside God's perfect will- even when that man(or woman) is operating in the flesh, God can redeem the circumstances and bring blessing. It doesn't make carnal actions less wrong or less sinful in God's sight, it just shows that inspite of them God is willing to act on behalf of those he calls his own and redeem them out of the circumstance. That there will be consequences to sin is plain to us as believers because we have experienced the consequences of having broken the law God has given us through the ten commandments, but if we had never known the law then we would not know sin or understand how God sees it. Abraham and Sarah are acting without knowledge of the law. So no, I don't think their actions are unethical for them. Their actions can be compared to Abimelech's taking Sarah, which he did with a clear conscience. God speaks to him in a dream, informing him that Sarah is a married woman. As soon as God does this, he has established the basis for sin and death as a consequence should Abimelech continue to keep Sarah and actually have relations with her. That's when Abimelech asks God if he will destroy an innocent nation because an action had been done without the awareness that it was a wrong action. God said to him" yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That's why I did not let you touch her." He continues on and tells Abimelech "Now (as in now that you know what wrong has been done?) return the man's wife..." Abimelech does (repents of his wrong action once he knows it is wrong?) and God does not punish him. What would have happened if Abimeleich had not returned Sarah? God said he would die as a result of his sin, but note that God educated Abimelech as to what sin was and gave him a chance to turn from it before he executed judgement upon him. Until God established what sin was, he even protected Abimelech from its consequences by not letting him touch Sarah, which would have brought death to Abimelech. God understood that Abimelech was acting out of good conscience even if it was in his own understanding of right and wrong and actually kept him from sinning by showing him grace, taking time to educate and warn him, and give him opportunity to turn from sin once it had been established as such. Abraham makes wrong decisions based on his own understanding of right and wrong because he has no law to guide him. God allows his grace to cover all of Abraham's fleshly blunders. Don't we see this happening with non-believers Didn't it happen for some of us? Before we knew Jesus as savior, we sinned without consciousness of the law. We might have had our own ideas about right or wrong, but we were not operating according to God's definition of those principles. It is God's grace that considered our ignorance so that " while we were yet sinners, he died for us." While Abraham was without the law, God intervened for him. While Abimelech was without knowledge of wrong, he protected him. Ethical behavoir only occurs in relationship to knowing God's laws. Who else established ethics if not God? So acting without knowledge of what sin is, without knowledge of the law, may be acting in ignorance but not unethically. Once the law is established and sin is made known, then choosing to act agaist the law and according to the flesh is unethical, which would make Abraham and Sarah ignorant and us unethical. And that is why we have Jesus, because we are consciously unethical (since we have the law) and choose to disobey. The consequence of willfully disobeying is death. That is what God told Abimelech. God has made us aware of sin so that we can never claim that we do what is wrong in good conscience. We call adultery, adultery because we know God's law. We call cheating, cheating because we know God's law. There is no vague comprhension of wrongdoing, but full awareness of it-which leads us right to the understanding of how precious Jesus' redepmtion is. He is God's intervention on our behalf, which was made while we were yet sinners (still in ignorance) because he loved us, and is completely available to us as believers who understand what sin is and still make wrong choicesaccording to the flesh; but also know God's wonderful grace and forgivenes the moment we repent and confess. I don't thonk Abraham and Sarah were not unethical since they did not have the full revelation of God's laws, which are the basis for ethics. They acted in terms of their own understanding, which lacks wisdom, but they acted out of ignorance. I think it would be easy for me as a New Testament believer who has full access to God's laws and his plan for my salvation to judge Abraham and Sarah. Only yesterday I didn't see that concept of my attitude towards Abraham's actions. This makes me wonder how often I judge other's who I assume should know better than to do what I see them doing. I might ask myself, what in the world are they doing? The answer is whatever it is, it is according to the world's concept of right and wrong. At this moment I am awfully glad for God's grace. I need it. I have been made aware of being judgemental all too often as well as unethical in my own actions. Now I understand how he can take things into his own hands and blatantly move forward without

Pharaoh and his household got sick because the Pharaoh had taken for his own what was God's. God wanted Sara to be released, so He got Pharaoh's attention in a very specific manner. Pharaoh feared for his household, and surmising that his troubles begin when Sara came into his household, he returned her to Abraham. I'm not certain how he figured out the true relationship Sara and Abraham had, but he certainly understood that he was to leave Abraham and his household alone. I thinke God was showing his power to the Egyptians and His provision to Abraham. I find it interesting that Abraham, right from the beginning of the trip into Egypt, expected trouble. Yet he did not seek God's help to avoid it. Instead he made his own master plan to follow, which involved deception, which is why I think it was Abrahm's plan and not God's. He even profited from his deception. Does this show Abraham's human tendency to want to take matters into his own hands? Did he rely on his own wisdom a bit too much? Maybe God redeemed his (Abraham's) actions and returned Sara to show Abraham his power too and that it was working to create good for Abraham even when he move in his own flesh. God probably also took pity on poor Sara. She had obeyed her husband in what seemed like a scheme to save his own neck "They will kill me {the Egyptians} but will let you live. Say you are my sister so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you." There doesn't seem to be much concern for about what Sara's life as one of the Pharaoh's concubines would be like. And Abraham was treated well for Sara's sake. He "acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels". Certainly God had made great promises to Abraham, but wouldn't he have provided the same and more without Abraham's deception? The Pharaoh acted as an honest man according to his culture's mores. He took a woman who he had been told was a sister and, therefore, in his mind available. Abraham let her go and gained material wealth in return. Why didn't he trust God to keep him and Sara safe from the Egyptians? Why didn't he say "Lord, Sara and I are going into Egypt, Sara is a beautiful woman, and I fear what may happen to us because of her beauty. Please protect us." He didn't. He acted out of his own ideas in the matter and schemed his own scheme, and lied about who Sara was. God sent affliction and turned Sara's predicament around. The Pharaoh let loose of that which he had taken and God had not allowed him to touch Sara. The Pharaoh certainly saw signs of God's power, but it doesn't say he recognized it as God's power. Abraham must have. How many times do God's people try to take on the Pharaoh in their own strength and wisdom, only to find that God has to bail them out, and others get hurt along the way. I think God was teaching many lessons, and I think he had mercy on Sara as an obedient wife and mercy on Abraham despite his lack of trust. God's grace in action.

Abraham's calling on the name of Yahweh signifies the recognition of God's supremecy over all things. It indicates submission and trust, and an understanding of who God is-Lord of all the earth, Lord of all the heavens. Abraham trusted God, and in that respect he may have called on him much as a child will call on a parent whom they trust. But beyond the trust there was most likely the awarenes of the incredible power of Yahweh, the true and living God. Psalm 124:8 says, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." His name holds power over all creation, and all beings of lesser power, physical or spiritual, must bow down to the authority in the name of the Lord. Abraham knew that. For me to call on the name of the Lord also means recognition of and submission to the holiness and authority of the Lord. It is also a privilege and blessing that as his child I have access to using his name. I have a three year old grandaughter who is the apple of her father's eye (as we are of our Father's eye), and when she yells "daddy. daddy" her dad's eyes light up with pleasure and love. Daddy is her title, her name for him, and at the sound of it he immediatlely responds to her need. We have been told to cry out "Abba, Father" to our father in heaven, and I believe it is a blessing to his heart when we call on his name in trust with all our needs, both big and small, or in love because when we say his name, it brings us close to Him.

I think the faith that Abraham exhibits is rooted in trust, and trust is rooted in relationship. God gives all of his children a measure of faith, and I think any increase in that faith is also a gift from God. We can't conjure up faith. If God asks us to do something, He also provides the means to do it, even the faith that we must have to make a move towards what God is asking of us. If we are willing to move towards what God has asked of us he will increase our faith to believe he will finish what he has set in motion. He tells us what he promises to do before he asks us to move forward. He told Abraham "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great... " God was very definite about what Abraham must do and what He would do once Abraham had obeyed. There was constant communication on God's part to encourage and guide Abraham into the land that He had prepared for him. God does the same for us today. He speaks through his word, tells us of his promises to his children, encourages us until we are willing to trust him, and when we do we move right into the next measure of faith that he wants to give us. I don't recall ever moving forward in the Lord without him prparing me to do so. I don't think he expects us to go forward blindly. He leads us, guides us, prepares us, calls to us to follow. His sheep know his voice. And yes, I am in the middle of moving forward according to the Lord's desires for me, and I don't yet know what he is peparing for me, but I trust him and every day he keeps adding to my faith. He certainly led me to this Bible study. Isn't it amazing how he loves us all?

Abraham was blessed by receiving revelation from God that he, Abraham, would become the father of many nations. He was blessed in the respect that God also provided faith for him to believe His promises. God must have done so, because faith is a gift. He was blessed in that he had an active relationship with God. He heard his voice. He was blessed through acting on God's directions to him, thus seeing the love of God demonstrated and the plans of God unfold, as with obeying God's command to sacrifice his only son Issac- a foreshadowing of Jesus and his position as a sacrifice for atonement of sin for all of mankind. Abraham was blessed to be used as an instrument of God. Because Abraham believed God, his lineage established God's people, the Jews, who carried the truth of the One True God, the Living God. Ultimately, Jesus came through these people, and his coming ushered in the promise of salvation for all of mankind throughout the ends of the earth. Just as God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, so he promised every nation that He would send His Son to be the savior to all nations. We learn through Abraham that God will perform his promises. God first shows us through Abraham that he keeps his promises often against, what are in the natural, impossible odds. Since he kept his promises to Abraham, he will most certainly keep his promises to us,and as we allow God to demonstrate his love and faithfulnes to us, we serve as living proof of his mercy and grace. We can tell of his blessings to us from day to day, and we can point others to the best kept promise of all -God's only son Jesus Christ who did come as promised, who became the atonement for mankind's sin, and has provided salvation for all who will accept his sacrifice.

From the time I first accepted the Lord, He has been patiently teaching me to trust Him in all areas of my life. It has often not been easy for me to do so for many reasons that I won't share. I have recently come to realize that each time he has asked me to release something to him, I would think I had done so, only to take it back and worry it to death. I know now I have blocked his working in my life, and, sadly, other people's lives as well. I never would have thought of myself as controlling, but God has shown me that I am. What God has called me to do is to surrender all of my life to Him in every area and to willingly give Him all I hold dear. I have been praying for my children and grandchildren for a long time and God had given me so many promises that he would save them. It has taken a lot of patients on God's part to make me realize that I was "giving" them to him with one hand and grabbing them back with the other, and that I was doing this in many areas of my life with many issues. God would say " give it up" and I would say "Yes Lord, but maybe I should just do this one thing..." It has been in the last year that God took me on a walk through all that he had told me he would do in my life, and for the past several months he has been speaking to me about Abraham and how he simply believed God would fullfil all He had promised. I begin to understand that God wanted me for his own completely, and that means trusting him and accepting his great love for me. The first thing he asked me to do was to give him my family and to quite carrying them as a burden. He knows I love them; He loves them more, and if I would truly give them to him without reservation,as Abraham did with Issac, he would be faithful in all his promises. I know that God has truly called me on a great adventure. I know he loves me and has called me according to his purpose. I have already seen such wonderful changes in my family. But most of all, I am in love all over again with the Lord. This morning the scripture in my church's service was Genisis 12:1-9 The Lord said to Abraham " leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." Coincidence? Not very likely. God has had a call on my life for many years to put all my trust in him and to truly allow him to be husband to me. I have, like Abraham, had many starts and stops. But God is faithful, strong, and loving. Be of good courage, all of you. He will fullfill every promise he has made concerning you. Trust him.

Hi, greetings from California. This is my first involvement with an online Bible study, and I am looking forward to it. For about a month now I have been running into teachings on Abraham and how the Lord counted his faith as righteousness. I had been wanting to get involved with a Bible study, but as I work a split shift I have difficulty finding one to fit my schedule. When I ran across this one on Abraham I said to myself, " there is the study for you!" It will be great to have so many other people to be involved with in the study. Blessings to you all. Abbey