By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves
This was the first promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12:3. Throughout history we have seen that sometimes God calls holy people, sometimes He calls great sinners, but most of the time He calls the ordinary people. I have deeply pondered what Abraham was really like, and, as most of us, I have asked “why did God choose this man?” What we should be asking is, “how can we learn to see as God sees?”
In the first encounter, God gives Abram a command to leave his country and his relatives and go to the land God will show him. Abram is obedient to God and from the fruit of obedience, Abram receives the gift of trust. Once Abram passes through Canaan and reaches Shechem, he receives the second promise: “To your descendants I will give this land.” (Gn 12:7) It does not happen right away, but waiting causes Abram to grow in patience as he continues to trust.
Abram is a humble man, not putting himself first before others. When conflicts arise because he and Lot have prospered so much that the land cannot support all their flocks and herds, Abram chooses to be the peacemaker and lets Lot choose the portion of land he wants and Abram takes the other portion.
Living in a land that is at war, with many kings battling for control, Abram finds out Lot and his people have been caught in the crossfire and have been taken captive and all they had has been stolen from them. Abram, a man of action, summoning both his courage and his trust in the Lord, roundes up his men and goes into battle, defeating the four kings and rescuing Lot and his people.
In Abram’s third encounter with the Lord, God makes a covenant with him and tells Abram that his own son will be his heir. (Gn 15:7) By this time, Abram and Sarai have waited many years for a child and Sarai is now past childbearing. In all these years Abram has not cast her aside or taken other wives; he has been faithful to Sarai and loves her just as Christ loves his bride the Church. In spite of Abram’s love, Sarai has her sorrows. In a world in which a woman’s worth was determined by her beauty and her fecundity, Sarai is missing half the equation and what she perceives to be her failure weighs heavily on her. She is consumed with longing for a child — a longing that comes from maternal instinct, a longing that comes from wanting to give her beloved husband what he desires most, and a longing to see herself as a whole woman. In her desperation, she pushes Abram into conceiving a child with her maid, but, in the end, choosing her own solution instead of waiting for God’s solution only makes her more miserable.
Yet God does not abandon Abram and Sarai. He reaffirms His covenant and His promise (Gn 17), changing Abram’s name to Abraham. He has compassion on Sarai in her wretchedness and gives Abraham a special message for her: He promises to make her a “mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” (Gn 17:16) He makes clear His intent that Sarai was always meant to be included in the covenant, thus demonstrating the unity and dignity of marriage that He established in the Garden of Eden (Gn 2:24); He changes her name to Sarah.
In the ancient world, it was the father who named the children. God renaming Abraham and Sarah is a foreshadowing of what Jesus will fully reveal – that God is Our Father. The renaming is also a rebirth, drawing us into the life of God as sons and daughters. It is a sign that something new is happening and the trajectory of our path has been changed. We see it when Simon becomes Peter and when Saul becomes Paul. As Catholics, we also take on new names at the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Abraham’s character continues to be revealed when God proclaims His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. Abraham acts as a protective father. His first concern is for any righteous people who may be living there, and as an advocate for their lives he dares to say to God, “Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!” (Gn 18:25) God sees the heart of Abraham and his true motivation for speaking so boldly and assures him that if ten righteous people are found, He will spare the cities for their sake. Indeed His love for Abraham is so great that when ten righteous people cannot be found, He sends angels to the household of Lot who take them by the hand and get them out of Sodom.
Time and again Abraham is tested. God uses these trials to strengthen Abraham and to bless him. Abraham must have had an incredible prayer life because after a lifetime of waiting for Sarah to give him a son, he is willing to sacrifice this son for God. He has so much faith that he believes God will raise up Isaac again. The sacrifice and restoration of Isaac and the promise that God will provide the lamb for the sacrifice, foreshadows what God will do for us in the sacrifice of His Beloved Son and in His resurrection. Because Abraham put God first in his life, he is told “By your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves.” (Gn 22:17).
Throughout Abraham’s life we see a consistency of character. He is a man of trust, compassion, love, humility, integrity, courage, fidelity, piety, obedience, patience, and justice. He is a man of action willing to go where God leads him, willing to fight for the righteous, and willing to be molded by God into the best version of himself. He is the father of the Jewish and Arab nations, and through Jesus, he is the adopted father of all the Christians. All of us who love God have been blessed by Abraham and we are also part of the fulfillment of God’s promise to make his descendants as numerous as the stars.
