Abraham

About 300 years after the flood, a man named Abraham was born. He became one of the most prominent men in the scriptures. Abraham is known as the “Father of the Faithful.” 

Abraham’s wife was named Sarah. They lived in Ur in the country of the Chaldeans. By the time of Abraham’s birth, Ur had become a large and important city. It’s possible that Abraham and Sarah enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in that very big and busy city. 

God had a great plan which included Abraham and Sarah. He said to Abraham, “I want you to leave your hometown of Ur and your kin people. I want you to go to a land which I will show you.” 

God made three promises to Abraham. He said: He would make Abraham’s family so great that it would become a nation; He would give them a great land in which to live; He said that Jesus Christ would be one of Abraham‘s descendants, and through Jesus all families would be blessed. Jesus would come to the earth and offer salvation to every man and woman.

Abraham and Sarah did what God commanded. They traveled, living in tents, as they made their way to their new home in the land of Canaan. The Bible says they were strangers there. 

Abraham’s and Sarah’s lives included kings, angels, talking with God, a nephew name Lot and a son named Isaac.

God tested Abraham’s faith one day to confirm that Abraham truly feared Him. Abraham passed the test, a very difficult one. That is recorded in Genesis 22. 

The rest of the Old Testament is about Abraham’s family, which grew larger and larger. Readers of these lessons are probably acquainted with names that are associated with Abraham’s family: Israel; Israelites; Hebrews and Jews.

The New Testament opens with the birth of Jesus, born to a Jewish woman who was Abrahams descendent.