Abraham the father of nations

Genesis 12:1-20. Abram was called by God to live in a new land. Later God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and he became the father of Israel.

Abraham lived for 175 years from around 2165BC-1990BC.

His first wife was Sarah, who lived 127 years and died around 2028BC.

They had a son in their old age and called him Isaac, which means laughter.

Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born.

This son was a fulfillment of God’s promise to them.

Abraham, the father of the faith and also the friend of God, struggled between the spirit and the flesh, as seen in his two sons Ishmael and Isaac and his wives Sarah and Hagar and later Keturah.

Background Reading:

God Calls Abram later called Abraham

12:1 The LORD told Abram, “You are to leave your land, your relatives, and your father’s house and go to the land that I’m going to show you. 2 I’ll make a great nation of your descendants, I’ll bless you, and I’ll make your reputation great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I’ll bless those who bless you, but I’ll curse the one who curses you, and through you all the people of the earth will be blessed.”

4 So Abram left there, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot accompanied him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the servants he had acquired while living in Haran. Then they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they arrived in the land of Canaan, 6 Abram traveled through the land to the place called Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I’ll give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there Abram traveled on to the hill country east of Bethel and set up his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 9 Then Abram traveled on, continuing into the Negev.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live because the famine was so severe. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he told his wife Sarai, “Look, I’m aware that you’re a beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘She is his wife.’ Then they’ll kill me, but allow you to live. 13 Please say that you are my sister, so things will go well for me for your sake. That way, you’ll be saving my life.”

14 As Abram was entering Egypt, the Egyptians noticed how beautiful Sarai was. 15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they brought her to the attention of Pharaoh and took the woman to Pharaoh’s palace. 16 He treated Abram well because of her, so Abram acquired sheep, oxen, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. 17 But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me! Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as a wife for myself? Now, here is your wife! Take her and get out!”

20 So Pharaoh assigned men to Abram,i and they escorted him, his wife, and all that he had out of the country.
Genesis 12:1-20
Look up the life of Abraham in any Bible, Genesis chapters 11:29-25:11.

More Information:

Isaac may have been at least 15 years old when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son.

Abram, a high father, had his name changed by God to Abraham, which in Hebrew means father of a multitude. God said that he would be the father of many nations.

Abraham was an Assyrian. He was born in Assyria, in a part called Sumeria.

Sumer, site of the earliest known civilization, was located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in the area that later became Babylonia and is now southern Iraq, from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.
He lived in Ur of the Chaldees before moving to Haran and then to the land of Canaan and the Negev.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah occurred about a year before the birth of Abraham’s son Isaac.

Abraham was a very rich man and had 318 trained soldiers in his own household.


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