"If I shut up the heavens and there is no rain; if I command the locusts to ravage the land; or if I let loose pestilence against My people, when My people, who bear My name, humble themselves, pray, and seek My favor and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear in My heavenly abode and forgive their sins and heal their land." II Chronicles 7:13-14 |
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by Ken Graydon
The faith of Abraham is not simply a collection of beliefs--it is also a lifestyle. This article will discuss much of the lifestyle requirements for those of us who wish to live in Abraham's camp by the Abrahamic Hebrew faith.
It is not about receiving gift-wrapped packages of blessings-it is about possibilities! There is work to be done. ETERNAL will give you water but you have to dig the well. ETERNAL will give you the land but you have to fight for it. Thus, this article will not give you the answers. It will help you to find the questions. Your prayers, your study, your relationship with ETERNAL will bring you, your answers.
"Living in Abraham's camp" is an expression I have coined to try to describe a lifestyle that is new to many of us. We have come out of something--some form of organization or association--and if we are not very aware we will make the mistake of trying to impose the styles or systems of the past in this new life--and it does not fit.
If we look at the life of Abraham we may draw from it some pointers that you may like to study or seek answers about. 1Genesis 12:1-4 2 "ETERNAL said to Abraham, 'Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.' So Abraham went as ETERNAL had spoken to him, and Lot went with him." This is a series of wonderful promises that will/did 3 come to pass because Abraham later proved totally obedient. However, in the beginning Abraham is disobedient. He had been told to leave his relatives, but he takes along Lot. This caused trouble then as we shall see, and it is still causing trouble now because Lot's descendants, the Moabites and Ammonites, are part of the peoples who oppose the land called Israel today.
The people who were in Abraham's travelling party were aware of the promises. They would have been anxious to bless Abraham by their work and their attitude. They all knew they would participate in the blessing from ETERNAL. This is a pointer for us, as a group (no matter how scattered) we inherit these promises. We are blessed and ETERNAL opening our mind to find this truth proves that. People who bless us will find that they are blessed. This has certainly been true in the company I work for, where the directors, who are not called spiritually so far, keep saying, "It's a miracle the way things work out." It is too.
Abraham built altars and called on ETERNAL by name as he traveled South across the land.
Gen 12:10 There was a famine in the land, and Abraham descended to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
The land, which Abraham had been promised and which he had traveled a long way to find, was in the midst of a famine. This did not make any less of a promised land because ETERNAL was bringing about a plan to bless Abraham with very great wealth. Sarah, Abraham's wife, was also his half-sister. She is in her seventies now and still absolutely gorgeous because Pharaoh wanted her. (Later, when she is in her nineties Abimalech wanted her for the same reason.). ETERNAL intervenes and Pharaoh pays Abraham in many goods and possessions.
There are times when challenges face us--no matter how obedient we think we have been. You need to press on, because that is often the way ETERNAL chooses to pour blessings into your life. He often uses the most unlikely people to do this.
Trouble develops between Lot's people and Abraham's. The land cannot support all these flocks and the locals are not happy.
You see Abraham's attitude. He was the one called to the land but he allowed Lot to choose what appeared to be the best land. Now the contrasts appear, Lot takes the watered land--he wants the easier life and he wants the city life in Sodom. These are not wise choices. On the other hand Abraham takes the open plains of Canaan. The very next thing that happens is really great, because of what it teaches us:
Lot had to leave so Abraham could be blessed. ETERNAL is concerned about our associates. You cannot hold onto the past associations or to people whose life choices are not ETERNAL's choices for you. Then ETERNAL wants to give Abraham the land but first Abraham has to see it and then he was to walk over it-to claim it.
These are deep and meaningful lessons. When ETERNAL speaks into your life-do you 'see' it? Do you catch the vision-the possibilities? Then will you walk over it and around it? Will you claim it? Will you now live as if you already have it? Will you thank ETERNAL for it even before you receive it?
How do you think Abraham felt about the dust? ETERNAL has given him this picture in his mind eye about the number of descendants he will have. We now call this 'creative visualization'--ETERNAL calls this talking to his friend Abraham.
The War and the Wine
A local war developed and as a result all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah was taken and Lot and all his possessions were taken by the victors.Gen 14:13-16 "Then there came a fugitive and told Abraham the 'Ivri' (this word means Hebrew), who dwelt in the plains of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner, these being Abraham's allies. And when Abraham heard that his kinsman was taken captive, he armed his disciples who had been born in his house--three hundred and eighteen--and he pursued them as far as Dan. And he with his servants deployed against them at night and struck them; he pursued them as far as Hobah which is to the north of Damascus. He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his kinsman, Lot, with his possessions, as well as the women and the people."
This is the first time the expression Hebrew is used in the Tanach. It means from the other side. This could have two meanings--the word comes from the name of Abraham's grandfather Eber and the language he and Abraham spoke. He lived on the other side of the Euphrates River. It may also mean that Abraham is 'different', which is certainly true. Thus, the expression 'the Abrahamic Hebrew faith' by which we walk means we are totally different than all presently known religions thought and associations.
Abraham had been preparing for such a time as this. That is why his disciples/servants were trained, equipped, and motivated to act immediately. These people lived in the confidence that they were chosen. Not that they were better than anyone else, but that they had accepted more responsibility. They did not simply pray that ETERNAL would 'look after' Lot, although prayer was in their program, they knew they had to act decisively. We need to be ready to act to support, defend or rescue our extended family in "Abraham's Camp."
This is a foundational teaching on tithing a tenth of your increase. Malchizedek, who probally was Shem, passes on the blessings of ETERNAL and also gives thanks to ETERNAL for this successful outcome.
The king of Sodom then tried to get the people for himself and to let Abraham keep all the possessions.
Abraham wants no dealing with the Sodomite king. He will not allow any opportunity for him to be able to claim that he helped make Abraham rich--that is his loyalty to ETERNAL. The expression 'Far from me!' is an emphatic 'Get outta here!' Abraham will only take the food the young men used during the expedition and will allow his allies to take their share, which was customary.
The Covenant and the Children
Abraham, apparently forgetting that ETERNAL had promised that his descendants would be as the dust on the ground gets into a conversation with ETERNAL about this. ETERNAL then gives Abraham a more dramatic picture. His descendants will be as numerous as the stars. Every night after this Abraham will see this sign in the sky to remind him of the words of ETERNAL. Read all of Genesis chapter 15, about the establishment of the Covenant. 4 ETERNAL took time out from being the SOVEREIGN of the Universe, to establish this Covenant--which is still in place. ETERNAL does this for us now, taking time out to bless us and apply all the promises of the Tanach to our lives.Abraham and Sarah decide they will help ETERNAL out with the problem of getting a child. (I do not imagine I am the only other one who has falsely reasoned "If I just do 'thus and so' then, ETERNAL will be able to 'do this and that'"). They take Hagar, Sarah's servant, as another wife for Abraham and she becomes pregnant. As you may expect, this causes some trouble around the tent. Hagar runs away but is sent back by an angel and gives birth to Ishmael. The Tanach is not against multiple marriage, particularly in the matter of preserving the family line, but counsels against having to many wives.
Fourteen years later ETERNAL speaks to Abraham to remind him of the Covenant and to expand on it. This makes it clear that both the benefits and the obligations apply to us now as they did to Abraham then.
This is very specific and non-negotiable. Verse 14 goes on to say "an uncircumcised man has invalidated the Covenant" and should be cut off from the people.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised himself and all the males in his camp. It was after this obedience that ETERNAL announced that Sarah--who was in her nineties--would bear a child. Do you see the pattern here? Obedience to the will of the ETERNAL allows Him to bless you with the things He wants you to have.
Although the Covenant that The Mighty One established with Abraham is to be continued through the, as yet, unborn Isaac; ETERNAL says He will bless Ishmael because Abraham asked Him to. When you become a friend of our SOVEREIGN, He wants to bless you-and through you, others.
Hospitality and Destruction
Gen 18:1-8 "ETERNAL appeared to him in the plains of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day. He lifted his eyes and saw: And behold! Three men were standing over him. He perceived, so he ran toward them from the entrance to the tent, and bowed toward the ground. And he said 'My SOVEREIGN, if I find favour in Your eyes, please pass not away from Your servant. Let some water be brought and wash Your feet, and recline beneath the tree. I will fetch a morsel of bread that You may sustain yourselves, then go on-inasmuch as You have passed Your servant's way.' They said, 'Do so, just as you have said.' So Abraham hastened to the tent to Sarah and said, 'Hurry! Three se'ahs of meal, fine flour! Knead and make cakes!' Then Abraham ran to the cattle, took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the youth who hurried to prepare it. He took cream and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed these before them; he stood over them beneath the tree and they ate."Abraham shows us true hospitality. It is the hottest part of the day but when three strangers appear he runs to greet them and offer a meal. As the story develops, we see what mission The Mighty One and the two angels on.
The meal Abraham offers, meat with milk and cream, served with hot bread, dispenses with any man made rules about not serving dairy food with meat. 5
Now the promise that Abraham and Sarah will have a son is repeated. Sarah laughs at the idea but is quickly silenced with the question "Is anything beyond ETERNAL?" (This is a question that confronts us all!) We then come to the key verses of this whole story:
ETERNAL honours Abraham with His confidence because Abraham lives, and teaches his household to live, by ETERNAL's ways of doing things. They practice charity and justice and ETERNAL loves them for it. These characteristics plus the blessings of ETERNAL will cause them to be blessed, so much, that other nations will want to adopt their lifestyle so that, they too, may be blessed.
Sodom and Gomorrah
ETERNAL reveals that the evil of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great that they and their cities must be destroyed. Abraham bargains with ETERNAL to have the cities spared if there are ten righteous people in them. Abraham does not mention Lot and his family who live in Sodom.The two angels arrive in Sodom and find Lot sitting at the gate of the town. Lot offers them hospitality and then tries to persuade the Sodomites to leave them alone--even offering his daughters to the crowd rather than his guests.
Lot is a contradictory character. He has chosen the Sodomite lifestyle but acts bravely to defend the travelers, who are actually angels. But, when the angels urge him and his family to leave for their own safety they do not want to go. Finally, they agree to leave--but not for the open plains and the natural life. They do not want to give up everything--they just want to go to a smaller town. Lot's wife so misses the city life she looks back regretfully--and dies.
The people of today who are 'in Abraham's camp' are often asked by ETERNAL to give up something. A job, a lifestyle, a habit, a hobby, a personality trait, anything. We cannot 'do a Lot' and just give up part of something--it has to be total. ETERNAL never asks you to forego something good out of nastiness. He wants the best for you. Better things, a better life than you would choose for yourself, a better future than your deeds deserve. Abraham made sacrifices and was blessed.
After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah--Lot, who is now a widower is hiding in the mountains out of fear. He has lost everything except two daughters. Abraham is the one standing on the mountain looking at this distant destruction saying, "I am glad I didn't choose the city life!" This life is about choices. Four hundred and forty years later Joshua would put it well to Israel "Choose this day whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15). These choices confront you every day-serve ETERNAL and His ways or serve something else and pay the price!
A Sister and a Sacrifice
Once again, Sarah--the gorgeous ninety year old--is taken away by someone who wants her for a wife. This time it is Abimelech. Abraham, who uses the slogan 'if you're on a good thing--stick to it' has once again told people that Sarah is his sister so he will not be killed to get him out of the way. ETERNAL tells Abimelech in a dream he will die for taking Abraham's wife. Not only that but ETERNAL punishes everyone in Abimalech's household. 6 Once again Abraham is given more flocks, cattle, servants and stuff as compensation. When you are being blessed and you keep on being obedient--the blessings increase!Gen 21:1-5 "ETERNAL remembered Sarah as He had said; and ETERNAL did for Sarah as He had spoken. Sarah conceived and bore a son unto Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time which ETERNAL had spoken. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him--whom Sarah had borne him-Isaac. Abraham circumcised his son Isaac at the age of eight days as ETERNAL had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him."
Although we are aware of the blessing of Sarah, which was honoured by the birth of Isaac, we also need to see that at one hundred years old Abraham had been blessed too. In fact, Abraham's blessing was so effective he fathered four more children after the death of Sarah some thirty-seven years later to another wife.
Other people were aware that Abraham was in the flow of blessings from ETERNAL and that because of that he is a powerful man. Do people see that in your life?
Abraham's Big Test
Now we come to that other well known incident where ETERNAL 'tested' Abraham over Isaac:Gen 22:1-2 "And it happened after these things that ETERNAL tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham,' and he replied, 'Here I am.' And He said, 'Please take your son, your only one, whom you love-Isaac-and go to the land of Moriah; bring him up there as an offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you.'
Notice the wording here. Isaac is to be taken as an offering, NOT as a sacrifice. Isaac is not the first-born so he was not being offered to ETERNAL. The Mighty One--who actually despises human sacrifice and punishes people who practice it--provided a ram which, is sacrificed. Abraham's willingness to offer his son was the gesture ETERNAL was looking for.
We know that the offspring have increased as described, but the number now who listen to The Mighty One's voice is very small--a remnant. We have seen the descendants of Abraham including the British Commonwealth and America holding the gates of their enemies. Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, the Cape of Good Hope and so on. Lately there has been a suicidal rush to give up these 'gates' as the descendants of Abraham have forgotten, or been lead away from, the truth of ETERNAL.
If you have read this far--you may be sure ETERNAL is calling you to be in Abraham's camp. The response must be yours and it must be voluntary. Those of us who have put in some service time will have heard the expressions "If you volunteer you obviously did not understand the question!" I want you to be sure you really do understand the question being asked of you now. Will you serve ETERNAL? Will your lifestyle, public and private, lead other people to see your blessings so that they want what you have?
Some people will be called to a lifestyle in community, some will join large groups who have these truths, some will be the Lone Rangers of ETERNAL. There are as many right ways as there are people being called by The Mighty One.
Please read the entire story of Abraham in Genesis, study it, and pray about it. This article was to raise some questions. ETERNAL provides the answers. You are welcome to contact us.
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Footnotes
1.
Even though Abraham was originally Abram and his name was changed by ETERNAL I have used the name Abraham throughout to try to avoid confusion.
2.
All Scripture quoted if from the Artscroll/Stone Edition Tanach 1996, unless noted.
3.
See our article "The Promises to Abraham, Judah's Scepter and Joseph's Birthright."
4.
The custom of the time was to walk between the halves of a sacrifice animal, to make an unbreakable covenant. This was called 'cutting a covenant.' This is where we get our saying today of 'cutting a deal,' because a 'deal' and a 'covenant' are 'a binding agreement, a compact.'
5.
The Tanach says in Ex 23:19 "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk." However, a few verses before (Ex 22:30) states that a young kid must be allowed to nurse seven full days before it can be sacrificed. This shows that killing a kid it "while it is in its mother's milk" means do not kill it while it is still nursing. To do so would be hurtful to the mother. Therefore, our SOVEREIGN states it is fine to have dairy products and meat at the same meal.
6.
My Stone's Tanach says Gen 20:18 that ETERNAL had restrained every orifice in the household of Abimelech--yours may say womb. The Hebrew word is womb, but used not in a specific medical descriptive sense but in the sense of sexual organs. In any case they were being punished and they knew about it immediately
