The Four Separations of Abraham (1): Terah and Lot
HOR Book 1 Studies • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Scripture passage: John 8:39
Scripture passage: John 8:39
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,
Today, we are going to spend some time learning about Abraham. He’s perhaps the most important figure in the Bible apart from Jesus.
So who was Abraham? Why does he matter so much?
Abraham was the 20th generation from Adam. And he matters because God made seven covenants with Abraham. And in these covenants, God promised three things over and over. Can anyone name them? The promise of descendants, of land, and of sovereignty.
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.”
So who are the people? The descendants of Abraham. What is the land? The land of Canaan. And God will be their God. The descendants of Abraham are those who have entered into the covenant between God and Abraham. How can we enter in? By faith. Faith in who? Faith in the true seed and offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ.
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
This means that there is no salvation by DNA. The Jews thought that if your DNA can be traced back to Abraham, you automatically go to heaven. But that’s not the case. Let’s look at what Jesus says to them.
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,
What’s He saying? “Like father, like son.” If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham. So the question for us is this: are we doing the works of Abraham?
So what are the works of Abraham? The work of separation. In Hebrew, the word for holy is qodesh, and it means to set something apart. If I have two phones. One phone is only for calling my wife, and the other phone is for everything else, then the first phone is considered holy. Abraham’s life is a life of being set apart for God. It’s not just cutting people off and ghosting them because you feel like it. It’s all for the purpose of being obedient to God’s Word.
Abraham goes through four separations as part of his life journey.
Separation from his father and his homeland
Separation from his nephew Lot
Separation from Ishmael
Separation from Isaac
The first separation: Terah
The first separation: Terah
Can anyone tell me where Abraham was born? He was born in modern day Iraq, in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans. And the Bible tells us that this was a place of idolatry.
And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.
And so God, according to His salvation plan, He calls Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and to go to the land of Canaan. And so Abraham leaves for the land of Canaan, and with three people accompany him. His father Terah, his nephew Lot, and his wife Sarah.
But what happens when you need to take a long journey? Back then they didn’t have cars or planes. They needed to make a stopover to rest and restock their supplies. And so the four of them stopped at the city of Haran.
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
So their destination is the land of Canaan, but they’re now stopping over at Haran. Haran wasn’t some ulu place. It was located at a very strategic location, and many trading caravans and business people and travellers would stop by as part of their journies. This means that Haran was wealthy and comfortable. And Abraham probably had some relatives living there.
So what happens is that now Abraham’s dad won’t leave. Abraham goes to his dad, “Dad, we’re supposed to to go Canaan.” Terah says, “Ok, just give me one more week.” And then a week turns into two weeks, turns into a month, and before you know it, Terah has settled down there. And Terah dies in Haran. And so God calls Abraham for a second time to leave for the land of Canaan.
The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
But there’s something wrong here. If Terah already died when Abraham left Haran, why did God tell Abraham to leave his father’s house?
In order to understand this issue, we need to dig deeper into the Bible. Rev. Abraham Park found the answer by looking closely at the timeline of events.
Gen. 11:26 tells us that Terah was 70 years old when Abraham was born.
When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Gen. 12:4 tells us that Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran. That means that Terah was 145 years old when Abraham left.
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
So if we add 70 with 75, we get Terah’s age when Abraham left Haran. This means that Terah was 145 years old when Abraham left Haran. And this fits with the timeline because Terah died when he was 205 years old.
The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
That’s why God told Abraham to leave his father’s house when God called Abraham for the second time.
*See table*
This proves that Terah was still alive when his son Abraham left for the land of Canaan. That’s why when God called Abraham for the second time, He tells Abraham to leave his father’s house.
Terah was still alive when Abraham left Haran.
But now we have another problem. Because the Bible says in Acts 7 that Abraham left after Terah died.
So why does the Bible say that Abraham left after Terah died?
Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
So the question then is, why would the Bible say that Abraham left after Terah died?
There are two words used for “death” in Acts 7.
The first word is apothnesko, and the second is teleutao. And both of them mean ‘die’.
Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,
This shows us that the death of Terah was a spiritual death, rather than a physical death. Terah chose to settle down in the comfortable city of Haran rather than obey God’s command to go to the land of Canaan. In fact, Terah’s name means ‘to stay’ or ‘to delay.’ He delayed in obeying God’s Word. That’s why God called Abraham to leave his father’s house.
and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
So how can we do the works of Abraham? We need to identify what are the Terahs in our lives, and we need to leave them behind. What is a Terah?
A Terah something that delays us from obeying God’s Word.
A Terah is whatever is gets in the way between us and the promised land.
So we need to reflect on this.
What are some of the Terahs in our lives today?
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
So to summarize, leave behind whatever makes you stay behind.
The second separation: Lot
The second separation: Lot
The second separation is with his nephew Lot. Lot followed him loyally from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, and then even to Canaan.
But something unexpected happens. They’ve just entered Canaan, but now there’s a famine. The promised land fails to provide enough food for them. And so they leave Canaan and go south into Egypt.
Abraham tells his beautiful wife Sarah to say she’s his sister. Pharaoh takes Abraham’s wife for himself and gives Abraham lots of wealth and livestock and servants. God intervenes, and Pharaoh returns Sarah back to Abraham and tells them to leave. Let’s take turns to read together.
Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”
And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
And so Abraham and Lot return to the land of Canaan, and they’ve become wealthy nomads with many herds from Pharaoh.
But now the promised land fails to support them once again. It cannot sustain both Abraham and Lot’s livestock.
Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,
so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together,
and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.
Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.
Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
So Abraham, as the older uncle, goes to Lot and gives him first choice. But Lot makes a decision that takes him to a place called the Jordan Valley. This tells us the truth about Lot, and it has to do with where is this Jordan Valley.
If you go on Google Maps and look at the shape of Israel, you’ll see that it’s a very tall and thin land. It stretches from north to south, but it’s not very long from east to west.
The Jordan Valley is all the way at the eastern border of Canaan. So it’s still within the promised land, but right at the edge. And it is near the city of Sodom, which was full of wicked people.
And Lot’s decision to move to the Jordan Valley reveals that he had a lot of greed in his heart. He was greedy for the things of this world, and he let that greed bring him right to the border of the promised land.
Here’s what’s going on. Imagine two Christians, both of them go to church. One of them is focused only on doing God’s will. The other is focused on their own ambition and hopes for the world, but still makes sure to come to church at least once a week. And the second person only does the bare minimum in order to be saved.
It’s like climbing two ladders at the same time. You can only go so high on both, but at some point you’re just going to be stuck in the middle. You can't climb both. You can't climb the ladder of faith with one foot in the world.
Abraham’s separation from Lot teaches us to separate and leave behind this mindset, this attitude. What mindset? The mindset of the bare minimum.
If my wife said to me, “Nick, can you wash the dishes, I’m tired.” And I say “Honey, is this a divorce issue?” She says “Have you lost your mind? What kind of question is that? Of course it’s not.” And I say “If it’s not a divorce issue, I don’t wanna do it.”
She says, “Honey, can you do the laundry? I’m really tired.” And I say, “Honey, is this a divorce issue?” And she says “Of course not.” “Well then, I don’t wanna do it.”
Every single thing that my wife asks, “Woah, divorce? No? I don’t wanna do it.” How long is that marriage going to last? We treat God worse than that. “Lord, is this a salvational issue? If not, I don’t wanna do it. What’s the least I can do?”
We must not treat God this way. We must not take advantage of His kindness and mercy like this. We have to separate from Lot, from the mindset of the bare minimum.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Lot’s greed caused him to stop looking forward to the promises of God. Instead, he looked behind to the things of this world. So for us, we need to separate from the greed within us that causes us to look away from the promises of God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The first two separations in Abraham’s life teaches us two things.
Leave behind whatever makes you stay behind.
Leave behind whatever makes you look behind.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
So the question is, why should we leave behind the things of this world? First, it’s what our forefather of faith did. But secondly, it’s because of the surpassing value of having God on your side.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Let me end with this quote from C.S. Lewis.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”