9. Abraham's troubled years

Abraham Leaves Home

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8. Many years before this, Abram's father Terah had moved his family from Ur northward to Haran.  The plan had been to move to the land of Canaan, towards the Mediterranean Sea, but for some reason; sickness or the comforts of Haran, or whatever, Haran is where Terah and his family settled down.  

The name Haran (the town) is not to be confused with Haran (Abram's brother), in the Hebrew language they are not spelt the same.

Was it that being nomadic was part of Abram's nature, or did the Lord literally tell him to move Westward to Canaan?  In any case, that is where Abraham settled down.  

Very often when Christians really want to do something, they pray about it, and they pray long enough to convince themselves that the Lord has told them to do that which they wanted to do all along.  Many times this has nothing to do with finding and doing the Lord's will, the praying has to do with feeling good about being selfish.

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:9-10.  Abram was willing to endure living in tents, while other people lived in comfortable houses because he looked towards the future, he was looking to live in the eternal city, so, for him, for the time being, tents were good enough.

Abraham's First Son

Abraham was about 85 years old and he still had no son; his faith was wearing thin, so he and Sarah concocted a plan and consequently, Ishmael was born.

About Isaac's older brother an angel made the following prophecy:

You shall call his name Ishmael, 

... He shall be a wild man; 

His hand shall be against every man, 

And every man’s hand against him. Genesis 16:11-12.

Most of the wars fought in the Near East have been fought because of ideological or theological differences between Christians, Jews and Muslims. The Crusades were military campaigns sanctioned by the Latin Catholic Church during the High Middle Ages through to the end of the Late Middle Ages.   Hordes of people flying the Christian flag attacked and killed Muslims.  The estimated number of deaths, because of the Crusades, ranges from less than ten thousand to one and a half million.  

Muslims invaded and slaughtered where they had no business going.  Thus, the wheels of theology and philosophy keep on turning so that people think they have a right to kill those who do not agree with them. Wikipedia

Abraham's Second Son

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called." Hebrews 11:17-18.  All of Abraham's hopes for future offspring were placed in Isaac.  The other son he had, was not included in the promise Jehovah had made to Abraham, and he was not to be reckoned as an heir; the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir". Genesis 15:3.  

The descendants of Ishmael, the Arabic people, are the offspring of Abraham but they are not part of the promise that Jehovah made to Abraham and his son, Isaac.

In the Bible, it is recorded that the Moabites indulged in the practice of child sacrifice.  We recall that Moab was the son of Lot who was born to Lot's daughter. Genesis 19:36.  Is it possible that, because of their upbringing in Sodom, the daughters of Lot thought that what they were doing with their father in the cave, was acceptable?  

We see a lot of similar thinking in the younger people of Christian parents in today's society.  Other teens are doing drugs, having pre-marital sex, lying, shop-lifting, etc, so they think, its probably not as bad as "my parents say it is", and so they get involved in that kind of lifestyle. 

Was it peer pressure that got Abraham thinking along the line of sacrificing his son? Others are doing it, should I?  He proceeded with the plan.  Everything is in place for the blood sacrifice.  However, Jehovah will never be in alliance with such a wicked course of action.  In Leviticus 18:21, 20:3 and Deuteronomy 12:30-31, 18:10, the Torah contains a number of imprecations against and laws forbidding child sacrifice. 
wikipedia-child sacrifice.  

Earlier I wrote of the gods as being the Anunnaki and that some of the Anunnaki were vicious, temperamental or even mean-spirited, but the Bible repeatedly, and without ceasing, emphasizes that Jehovah is not like the other Gods.  

Jehovah is tolerant, just and loving and it is only when humans prove themselves to be incorrigible that He finally takes action to reprimand, correct or even destroy those whom He has chosen for destruction.

James Kugel argues that the Torah's specifically forbidding child sacrifice indicates that it happened in Israel as well. It was not just among Israel's neighbors that child sacrifice was countenanced, but apparently within Israeli itself. Why else would biblical law specifically forbid such things – and with such vehemence?" 
How to Read the Bible James Kugel, 

concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Hebrews 11:19.  As in all Bible stories, there are divisions as to the real meaning or as to what really happened.  Again, let's not get so caught up in the details that we lose sight of the greater truth.  

Isaac was a type of Christ.  As far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was already dead, but Abraham believed that Jehovah could raise him from the dead if that is what was needed.  Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, also was sacrificed, and Jehovah raised Him from the dead to reign as the King above all kings.

Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” Genesis 15:7-8. "Abraham, I had hoped that you would believe me simply because I said so, but since you don't, look, I will work a miracle for you so that it will be easier for you to believe."  

This story is in Genesis 15:9-16.