Abraham

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No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. - Genesis 17:5

The third time the Lord appears to him to establish His covenant, He changes his name from Abram. This article only covers his time as Abraham.

Story

Early life

The first 99 years of his life are told on Abram's article.

Abram becomes Abraham as the Lord appears a third time to establish His covenant with him

When Abram was 99, God Almighty appeared to him to make His covenant with him.

"I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

He established circumcision in the flesh of the foreskin as the sign of the covenant.

“As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

He blessed Ishmael to father 12 princes and a great nation, but God shall establish his covenant with Sarah's son Isaac and his offspring after him.

"As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

Then God went up from Abraham.

(Genesis 17:1-22)

Abraham's house is circumcised

Abraham circumcised every male in his house that day, including those born in the house and those bought with his money. Abraham was 99, and Ishmael was 13.

(Genesis 17:23-27)

The Lord prophesies Isaac's birth

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre. Three men stood before him, and he ran to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” He went quickly to have Sarah prepare cakes from 3 seahs of fine flour, a young man prepare a calf, and brought them to them with curds and milk. He stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They asked, "Where is Sarah your wife?" He said, "She is in the tent." The Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." Sarah was listening at the door and laughed, as the way of women had ceased with her. The Lord asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

(Genesis 18)

Cosmology

Abraham acted in his role of mediator between heaven and earth when the Lord appeared to him by the Oaks of Mamre. Abraham and Sarah hosted and fed messengers (angels) from God. The tree represents the spatial axis.

In a transaction between heaven and earth, Abraham receives heavenly information from angels in exchange for earthly food from animals. The message is a simple promise, the birth of a son next year. This “seed” contains great implications with very little basis in material reality – a future offspring. He asks a youth to prepare flesh through refinement to offer up and Sarah to make bread through materialization.

Trading flesh for seed can also be found in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, when Jack trades his cow for magic beans.

Humans raise livestock to lower the spiritual and choose a calf as a process of refinement and of separating the “cream” from the common. The flesh must be cooked as another process of refinement to become the body of these heavenly messengers.

The image of making bread is a process of vulgarization. Something too fine (flour) has been materialized into something more tangible (bread). Sarah’s bread is not even eaten by the angels – a seeming odd omission but a typical pattern in biblical cosmology. The ascending side of the transaction (flesh) must be consumed by the angels, while the descending side (bread) remains intact. One side feeds and the other side hosts.

Humans refine matter into food to be integrated by the head into the body. The body is then able to host and support the human spirit, which is thereby able to manifest itself concretely in the world.

(The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis - A Commentary by Matthieu Pageau, 2018. Pages 63-66)

The Lord on His way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah

The men set out from there, looking down toward Sodom, as Abraham set them on their way. The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

The men went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood before the Lord and drew near to ask, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

(Genesis 18)

Abraham sojourns in Gerar, and Abimelech takes his wife

Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. Abraham said Sarah was his sister, so Abimelech sent and took Sarah. After God told him in a dream to return the prophet's wife so that he may pray for him that he shall live, Abimelech then called Abraham and asked, "What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done." and “What did you see, that you did this thing?”

Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Abimelech gave sheep, oxen, and male and female servants to Abraham, and he told Sarah, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated." Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and He healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children after having had their wombs closed because of Sarah.

(Genesis 20)

Isaac is born to Abraham at 100 years old

The LORD returned to Sarah as He had said and did as He promised. Sarah conceived and bore Isaac to Abraham. Abraham was 100 years old. Isaac was circumcised at 8 days old.

Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned, and Sarah saw that Hagar was laughing. She told Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." It displeased Abraham, but God said, "Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring." He rose early in the morning and sent Hagar and her son away with bread and a skin of water.

(Genesis 21)

Abraham and Abimelech's covenant

When his son Ishmael was grown, Abimelech and Phicol acknowledged that God was with Abraham and asked him to return their kindness to him and his descendants, and he swore to it. When Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well his servants seized, Abimelech claimed ignorance. Abraham gave him sheep and oxen and made a covenant, setting 7 ewe lambs apart as witness that he dug this well. The place was called Beersheba. Abimelech and Phicol returned to Philistia, and Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

(Genesis 21)

Abraham wouldn't even withhold his own son from God

God tested Abraham. He called, "Abraham!" And Abraham said, "Here I am." God said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, cut the wood for the burnt offering, and departed with two young men and Isaac. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar, so he told his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." Abraham laid the wood of the burnt offering on his son, and he took the fire and the knife. Isaac said, "My father!" And Abraham said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham told Isaac, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” They went up together.

At the place, Abraham built the altar, laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac on top of the wood, taking the knife to slaughter him. Then the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw a ram behind him, caught in a thicket by his horns. He offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son and called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Abraham rejoined his young men and they went together to Beersheba to live there.

(Genesis 22:1-19)

Abraham learns about his new nephews

Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” (Bethuel fathered Rebekah.) These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

(Genesis 22:20-24)

Abraham buys a burial place for Sarah from Ephron for a fair price

Sarah lived 127 years and died at Kiriath-arba (Hebron) in Canaan. Abraham went in to mourn her, then he asked the Hittites, "I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." They replied, "Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead." Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites and said, "If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place."

Ephron answered before the Hittites who went in at the gate of his city, saying, "No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead." Abraham bowed down and insisted, "But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there." Ephron asked, "My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead." Then Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, according to the weights current among the merchants.

The field of Ephron in Machpelah, east of Mamre, with the cave and all the trees throughout its whole area was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah in the cave.

(Genesis 23)

Abraham finds a wife for Isaac

Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed him in all things.

He told his servant, the oldest of his household who had charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

The servant said, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?”

Abraham said, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.”

The servant swore to him concerning this matter and found a wife for Isaac.

(Genesis 24)

Abraham marries Keturah

Abraham took Keturah as his wife who bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. Dedan fathered Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. Midian fathered Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah.

Abraham's Death

He gave all he had to Isaac. He gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from Isaac, to the east country.

Abraham lived 175 years to a good old age and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah with Sarah. After Abraham's death, God blessed Isaac.

(Genesis 25)

Literary Form

The story of Abraham (Genesis 12-25) resembles a hero story. He is a domestic hero, seen in his quest for a son, his typical roles (husband, uncle, father, head of household, and owner of possessions), and a spiritual hero of faith in God, seen in his obedience to God's call to leave his homeland, his faith that God would give him a son, and his willingness to sacrifice Isaac.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Bible as Literature by Leland Ryken, Page 131-132)