THE PATRIARCHS OF FAITH

Welcome everybody to week three of the Mustard Seed Diaries blog. I pray you had a productive God-filled week. I’m truly grateful you made time once again to be with us this Sunday. Today, I have a special request, if you are enjoying this blog and you are being blessed by it, please consider subscribing. This would help us a lot plus it doesn’t cost you a thing. All it does is notify you when our blogs are posted and for us, it helps WordPress recommend our blog to other readers. So now that the public service announcement is out of the way, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled program.

To be honest, It’s been an awkward week for me. I was waiting on one of God’s promises and was convinced it was going to be realized this week but God being all-knowing, decided that it was not yet time. It happens to the best of us, doesn’t it? Let me know in the comments section if this has happened to you before. I won’t lie, I was kind of disappointed ☹️ and initially, in my human mind, I thought to myself, “Why did God not come through for me?” but fortunately for me, I was able to shut the devil up, and able to pray for grace to say God is omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent and that, in His infinite wisdom, He knows why He did not make it happen now as opposed to later. The Holy Spirit guided me to a place where I told myself that delay is not denial and I was able to continue hanging on to the promise that He had made to me while awaiting His appointed time.

This brings me to the topic of discussion for the day which is centered on the life of Abraham, the first point of study for the theme we are going to be exploring over the next couple of weeks entitled: “The Patriarchs of Faith”. I was inspired by the Holy Spirit to treat this topic because, on our quests to grow in faith, it is reassuring to know that others have already tread the path even as far back as the Bible can tell. And who better than Father Abraham, sometimes referred to as the father of faith, to commence this series with.

It is worth noting that even before Abraham, there was one who had faith in God and this was Noah, the man who built the ark and saved his family and the remnant of the animals on this earth from the floodwaters which covered the surface of the earth for forty days and forty nights. The Bible says: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6‬:‭8‬ ‭KJV‬‬. Note that grace comes four dispensations after his era which was the dispensation of consciousness. This means Noah tapped into something that wasn’t even from his era thus making him an honorable mention but he is not the focus of today’s blog, Abraham is, and you will soon understand why.

Unfortunately, this medium will not permit me to explore the subject I introduced in the previous paragraph about the eras of the Bible, that would make this blog too long because it is a whole topic on its own but if you want more details on this subject, you can listen to T.D. Jakes’s sermon entitled “The Grace To Make Changes pt. 1”. That being said, just know that the era between when Abraham came along up until Moses is called the dispensation of promise. This is because, above everything else, Abraham had a promise: “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬. This was the first time God made a promise to Abram. 

I recently watched one of those old movies we used to watch at Christmas and Easter on GBC in Ghana about Abraham’s life and though I found its treatment of the life of Abraham somewhat subjective in certain areas, it enlightened me on the fact that Abram’s family probably did not even know God since we don’t read any relevant account of his ancestors in the Bible apart from Noah, Enoch and Methuselah. Actually, in the movie, Abram’s brother Nahor, worshipped a whole bunch of idols, one for every possible reason you can imagine. This was probably the family setting which Abram, was born into. But because he was not satisfied with these non-gods and he sought the face of the one true God, the Lord made himself known to Abram and had to uproot him from this possible family setting of idol worshipping and implant him in a new land and a new setting where he was free to worship God in truth and spirit. So based on this first promise of God, Abram, left his father and his family, whom he had known and surely loved all his life to go and settle in a land in which he had no substantial proof even existed. This was Abram’s first act of faith. 

I currently live with my family and love them to bits. I had to move to Togo some time ago for a couple of years with Diane, my wife, and I vividly remember how difficult it was sometimes for me to be apart from my family. Even though I was only about three hours drive away from my Mum, brother, and Uncles, I missed them terribly and found myself calling home any chance I got. So, can you imagine living in the times of Abram, with no cars 🚗 or phones 📱 and tearing yourself away from all you had ever known to go and live in some distant land based on a promise from a God you probably never knew before, with no guarantees you would ever see your family members again? It must have been gut-wrenching for both Abram and the family he was leaving behind but because of the faith he had in God and His promise, he went ahead and moved away.

In ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12‬:‭7‬ ‭NIV, when Abram arrived in the land of Canaan, the Bible says: “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” This was the second promise God made to Abram. After he had taken all he possessed and left his father’s house and arrived in the land God had shown him, God then told Abram that He would give the land to his offspring. What did Abram do after this promise? He built an altar there to the Lord. This is the second act of faith from Abram.

The Bible goes on in ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV to say “The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.” In this passage, the Lord confirms His promises to Abram, giving the land to him and confirming that He will make his offspring like the dust of the earth 🌍 . What did Abram do after that promise? He settled in the land, and there he built another altar to the Lord. What great faith Abram must have had in the Lord to believe that the land which at that point belonged to the Canaanites and Perrizites in which he was now settling as a foreigner, would one day belong to his descendants. Who does that 🤷🏽‍♂️? I guess only a man with great faith like Father Abram. This was his third act of faith, he believed in the Lord and trusted in His promises and so he settled in the land.

Further in the Bible in ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV after God had helped Abram rescue Lot from the hands of Kedorlaomer and the kings allied to him, after the king of Sodom had come out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh and after Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High had blessed him and praised God for delivering Abram’s enemies into his hands, The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshkol and Mamre. Let them have their share.” Abram demonstrated this fourth act of faith by keeping the oath he had made to the Lord and resisting the temptation to dilute God’s glory by sharing it with the king of Sodom.

At this stage, after Abram had kept his oaths to God, He knew he was a faithful man and because of this faith he had in Him, God decided to escalate his promises into a covenant. Attention, attention ⚠️ , long paragraph alert but by the third blog, you guys know that sometimes it’s necessary, don’t you? Anyway, let’s proceed. In‭‭ Genesis‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV, The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision where the Lord asked Abram not to be afraid. God told him He was his shield, his very great reward. But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him again explaining to him that Eliezer would not be his heir, and that a son who was his own flesh and blood would be his heir. He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” 

Though Abram believed in the Lord, Sarai had bore him no children up until then and so he accepted Sarai’s offer when she proposed for him to sleep with her Egyptian slave Hagar who bore him a son named Ishmael. Before Ishmael was born, the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar while she was in the desert fleeing from her mistress and made this promise to her: “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬. Because God is an unchanging God, He could not come back on His covenant with Abram though it was not Sarai who was pregnant with Ishmael and so He confirmed His promise to Hagar to cover her child as well and though the Bible does not give an account of this, we can only assume that this was the fifth act of faith of Abram because he trusted the account Hagar gave him of what transpired in the dessert upon her return and named the child Ishmael as the angel of the Lord had said.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and once again confirmed His covenant with him. It is interesting to note that at this point in their relationship, God appeared to Abram and was no longer speaking to him in visions. It is safe to assume that at this point Abram had become what we know him to be, a friend of God. Then God asked Abram to keep his covenant with Him as well. He asked for every male among his people to be circumcised in ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭17‬:‭1‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV and changed Abram’s name to Abraham for He had made him a father of nations, and He changed Abraham’s wife Sarai’s name to Sarah. Once again, what did Abram do after this? He did as the Lord had said and went ahead and circumcised every single male amongst his people, keeping his covenant with God… act of faith number six right there.

After this, God appeared to His friend Abraham once again one afternoon near his tent with two other visitors. Abraham offered for them to rest under a tree, for some water to be brought so they could wash their feet and to eat something so they would be refreshed for the rest of their journey. The visitors obliged. It was at this very meeting that God made known to Abraham that his wife Sarah was going to give birth to their son Isaac by His return the same time the next year. Sarah, who thought of herself as too old to give birth to a child laughed to herself at what God had just said. Though Sarah had doubted what the Lord had told her husband, from the account in the Bible, there is no cause to believe that Abraham doubted and this was yet another act of faith from Father Abraham. Yes, Ishmael was Abraham’s son and so he came under the promise of God to Abraham but His covenant was about to be fulfilled through Isaac. 

At the ripe old age of a hundred, God fulfilled His promise to Abraham and gave him the son through whom His covenant with Abraham was to be fulfilled and Abraham named him Isaac as the Lord had told him to. First God had given him the land he had promised when Abraham set out from Haran at seventy-five years old and the covenant was still being fulfilled some twenty-five-odd years later. How many of us today are patient enough to wait upon the Lord for twenty-five years of our lives? I know that in this day of instant gratification, I, Kojo, found it difficult to accept the Lord’s will concerning the promise He had made to me which I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, and if indeed, we are all honest with ourselves, many of us would admit to the same impatience towards waiting on the Lord. And this is why Abraham is called the father of faith because, before him, nobody had greater faith in God.

However, the Lord decided to put Abraham’s faith to the test one last time and this was the ultimate test which I believe many of us would fail woefully if we were in Abraham’s sandals. After promising to give him a son in his old age through whom His covenant would be fulfilled, God decided to ask Abraham to take his son, his only son whom he loved, Isaac, and to go to the region of Moriah where he was to sacrifice the child as a burnt 🥵 offering on a mountain He would show him. I don’t know about you, but if I were to hear God tell me this, I would question if it was God who was making this request. After all the promises He had made to Abraham and after Abraham had walked faithfully with God all those years, God was now asking him to offer the covenant child up as a burnt offering??! Some could argue that Abraham’s faith in the Lord was probably so unshakable at this point that he must have known already that God himself would provide the lamb for the burnt offering, as he had answered his son when the child inquired. I doubt it though, because Abraham followed through with God’s instructions. He built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. He even went to the extent of reaching out his hand to take the knife to slay his son 👦🏽! It is at that crucial moment that an angel of the Lord intervened! This is the account of the events on the mountain of the Lord: “But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭22‬:‭11‬-‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬. Abraham had passed the ultimate test of faith, to the extent that God swore by HIMSELF to bless Abraham and make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and through his offspring, all nations were to be blessed. Imagine the God of all creation swearing such an oath to you by HIMSELF in all his greatness and majesty. This is why Abraham is the father of faith because he lived a righteous life and obeyed the Lord even to the point of willingly sacrificing his only son, this was righteousness before it even became a thing. Ok, ok, I’m sorry, I did it again, but trust me, it’s the last of the long paragraphs in this blog so let’s continue reading, pinkie promise!

Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years and was blessed in every way by the Lord. Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭25‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬. The covenant of the Lord passed down through his son Isaac 👦🏽, through his descendant Jacob, also called Israel, and down to his twelve sons who would go on to become the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel, further down to the Jews of today and extending to all the nations of the world through Jesus Christ the son of God who is a direct descendant of Father Abraham, and so today, in the dispensation of grace, the covenant is fulfilled through Jesus’ perfect obedience to God even to the point of death ☠️ upon the cross and everything comes full circle ⭕️.

I don’t know who today’s blog is for but in the dispensation of grace in which we live, Jesus has already done everything by dying for our sins and rising from the grave. He promised the Holy Spirit would come and guide us in all things and when we are baptized by the spirit, God’s grace is sufficient. We are no longer in the times of the Old Testament where God required great faith like that of Abraham, all we need to do now is believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. Do you have faith in Him? Now is as good a time as any to give your life to Him if you haven’t done so already or rededicate your life to Him if you have already given it. Have a blessed Sunday and see you next week 🙏🏽.