Life with God: Abraham & Dating
Abraham & Dating
-- July 1, 2012 -My starting point for this sermon is the conviction that when Abraham was called by God, Abraham was a polytheistic
pagan. He probably believed in multiple gods and thought it was a god calling him, not The God. My evidence for
this is as follows:
1.
All of the cultures of the ancient Near East (Egypt, Babylon, Israel, Mesopotamia, etc.) were polytheistic.
The believed in multiple gods because the operations of the universe were understood to take place
because of the gods. The gods were not distant and removed, but were actively involved in every aspect of
the world.
Monotheism was unique to the nation of Israel in the ancient world. To speak of their One True God Israel
had a couple of names for him: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and Yahweh. Neither of these
names could have been known to Abraham because he is a historic part of the former and the latter was
revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. The text of Genesis 12-25 uses the name Yahweh the
most, but it was traditionally written by Moses, who would have been able to see that it was Yahweh who
called Abraham, even if Abraham didn’t know it.
Terah (Abraham’s father) was from Ur: a town in what is now Southern Iraq. Ur was also a religious center
with a huge temple (ziggurat) devoted to the god Nanna, the Mesopotamian moon god. In Genesis 11:31 it
is says that Terah left Ur to go into the land of Canaan, but stopped at Haran (Southern Turkey) and settled
there. What is interesting is that Haran was the other town that worshipped this god Nanna. So Terah set
out from Ur to go to the land of Canaan, but stops short when he reaches a city that worships the same god
as his previous city. It seems that this god, Nanna, played a lar ge part in Terah’s life and thus probably
Abraham’s too.
2.
3.
For these reasons I believe that Abraham didn’t really know the God that called him to leave his family and his
country and his inheritance. But God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him for the purpose of revealing
Himself. God came to Abraham in order to show Abraham who he was. That is was life with God is: God revealing
Himself to us, and thus revealing who we are to be in relation to Him.
Sermon Notes
·
The purpose of God calling Abraham is to ______________________
__________________________ to ________.
·
God’s relationship with his people is characterized by ________________________.
·
God stayed true to __________ _____________________________, even when
Abraham had _____________________________ __________.
·
God _____________________ Abraham, in order to further reveal ______________
_________ _______.
·
God’s _____________________remains even when we think he has
____________________________his promises.
Life with God: Abraham & Dating
Questions for Reflection
1. How has God revealed Himself to me during my life with him?
2. How has God revealed who he wants me to be during my life with him?
3. How would I communicate my relationship with God to a non-believer?