A lonely guy, not a King, or even a wealthy landowner. You can’t even call Abraham your neighbor, he moves around too much. However, God called him, “A father of a great nation.” So, for a time, I guess you can call him a neighbor. He lived in Ur of the land of the Chaldeans. He had no children because his wife Sarai was barren. He later moved to Haran.

Abraham was important because God chose him. After the great flood of Noah, Abraham was chosen by God to begin a new humanity promising to make his family great. The promises were hard to believe. He was getting too old to have children, he owned no land, but God still chose him. Abraham always listened to God, much like Noah did. He visited many countries and peoples, and everywhere he went he was given lands, silver, and gold.

The Lord said to Abraham in Haran, “Leave your country, your people, and your fathers household and go to the land I will show you.” Now, I ask you, would you go? Would you take your family and head off to a country you never heard of? Well, Abraham did. He was told by God that he would be richly blessed. When he arrived at Egypt he noticed the King was looking at his wife who was very beautiful. So he said “She is my sister.” He said this so that the two of them wouldn’t be killed if the King thought they were married. What would you do in this case? The Bible calls it sin.

One day, God told them they would have a son born a year from today. Both Sarii and Abraham laughed because they were getting too old to have a child. Maybe you would laugh too, huh? Anyway they decided he would go to bed with Hagar, a servant of Sarii. They were going to help God out. The two had a baby and so did Abraham and Sarii. This caused lots of jealousy and sorrow. Sarii’s baby was named Isaac and Hagar’s baby was named Ishmael. Later, Abraham would send both Hagar and Ishmael away from them.

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Abraham placed the wood they would need on Isaac’s back and he carried the fire and the knife. I can’t imagine doing such a thing. When all was ready and Isaac was lying in the rock God called to stop it. He said, ”Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” God offered his only son that he loved only He went through with it!

So, we all know Abraham was probably dwelling on his sins, but God wasn’t. I am sure He didn’t like them, but he wanted Abraham to obey Him and this he did. Probably a good lesson for you and I. Abraham’s wonderings caused the religion of Jewish faith to be spread in many countries, and from that seed came Christianity.