Abraham and Sarah originally lived in Ur, the capital city of Mesopotamia, presently Iraq. Ur was known for its top-notch civilization during those primeval times. Abraham and his family were worshiping other Gods (Joshua 24:2). It was then, Abraham received a call (Genesis 12:1) from an unknown God to go to an unknown country. Abraham later had a personal encounter and experience with this unknown God, whom he found as Yahweh (Genesis 12). Believe me, both Abraham and Sarah obeyed this command and moved out off their comfort zone to Canaan, a primitive place of their day. It is fitting that God honoured both Abraham and Sarah as “Father of Nations” (Genesis 17:5) and “ Mother of Nations” (Genesis 17:16) respectively. This nomadic missionary couple throw a challenge to all of us who neglect the call of God. He wants us to move out of our comfort zones, to carry out His mission. God’s primary method and the model even today is that He operates through families and individuals (like Apostle Paul!) to carry his glory to different places.
Blessing is 100 Fold
In obeying God’s words, we see the commitment of Abraham and Sarah to be 100 percent which is not seen in many missionary models in the history of mission. Jesus said to his disciples many years later: "I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life (Mark 10:29-30). No doubt, through their obedience, Abraham and Sarah were both spiritually and physically blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).
The blessing and prosperity of people in knowing God and in being physically blessed is to keep sharing their blessings with others, which is what we see in the blessing given to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). We are also called to be channels of blessings to the whole world (Psalm 67). Abraham confronted so many people groups in his sojourn. He built relationships with people groups like the Hittites (Genesis 23:3-6) and kings and rulers he encountered (six kings are mentioned in chapter 14 alone) during his nomadic journey.
Added to the blessing was one phenomenal thing as to whoever curses this couple would be cursed. This truly happened when Sarah was about to be touched and hampered by Pharaoh, the King of Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20) and Abimelech, King of Gerar (Genesis 20). In both these situations, those kings and their officials learnt the truth of the word of God as found in Zechariah 2:8, “whoever touches you touches the apple of God’s eye”. These kings and rulers found a God who was greater than their gods in their encounter with these mobile carriers of the gospel, Abraham and Sarah. Abraham paid tithe to the priestly king named Melchizedek of Salem (Genesis 14:20). Both mutually blessed each other! Abraham’s intercession for Sodom, a sexually pervert city is a model for intercessors for generations to stand in the gap and plead for dying souls. Truly Abraham and Sarah shared both their spiritual gift, Yahweh to others and their physical possessions.The couple's hospitality is praised centuries later in Hebrews 13:2.
Covenant is Central
However Abraham and Sarah were not perfect humans like anybody else! Abraham lied on both occasions with Pharaoh and Abimelech (Genesis 12 & 20). In their waiting for the blessing of their promised child for many years, they went wrong by bringing Hagar, an Egyptian maid into their personal lives (Genesis 16). Everything went haywire from then on. The birth of Ishmael, Abraham’s offspring through Hagar led to the birth of Islam in history, tracing back to Abraham and Sarah’s straying away from God’s words. But true to His words in Genesis 12:1-3, Yahweh blesses the generations of Abraham. Christ, the Saviour of the world came from the seed of Abraham (Matthew 1). Through Christ, the whole world is blessed with eternal life (John 3:16), only when they accept Him as their Saviour.
Material blessings are not an end in itself. The author of Hebrews projects this truth rightly when he said that Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10). Abraham proved himself again when he offered his promised son Isaac on the altar, posing a model to us, for implicitly obeying God, at any cost. Even today God is true to His covenant. Doing missions is not by our merits. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. In any case, God fulfills His word. Truly God’s covenants are central in our everyday lives. Though we face the consequences of our wrong doings, God uses even the negatives in our lives and develops His beautiful blueprint of mission. As children of our missionary parents, Abraham and Sarah, let us continue the legacy of the same mission, as being torch bearers of our Christian faith to the nations of the world.
Read the earlier articles on this series here:
1. http://graceidarajan.blogspot.in/2017/03/adam-eve-thru-missionary-spectacles.html
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