Why was Abram’s name changed to Abraham? Why is he called father Abraham? Let’s look at Genesis 12-25 and the life of a patriarch of our faith.
God’s Will for Abram
In Genesis 12 God said to Abram six times “I will.”
“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you.’ ” (Genesis 12:1-3 CEB).
At age 75, Abram left a comfortable life in Harran because he believed God’s promise.
“I will give this land to your family forever.” (Genesis 12:7b CEV)
The whole point is Abram’s faith, not any kind of sinless perfection, because he was far from perfect.
“When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, ‘I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife.” Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 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.’ ” (Genesis 12:11-13 ESV)
Abram & Lot
Abram had large herds of animals. The land could not hold both his and Lot’s herds so they separated. Revealing his character, Abram let Lot choose the best land.
“Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.” (Genesis 13:9 KJV)
Lot chose the greener, sin-filled plains, but eventually needed rescue. Eastern kings attacked, captured Lot and his family. With hundreds of fighting men Abram saved them. Then he met Melchizedek king of Salem [Jerusalem], a priest of God.
“And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has handed over your enemies to you.’ And he gave him a tenth of everything.” (Genesis 14:19-20 NASB)
Covenant of Promise
God blessed Abram, and despite his human faults, he is counted as righteous because he believed the Lord.
“He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5-6 NIV)
His belief was not perfect though. Sarai used her handmaid as a surrogate and Abram complied. Ishmael was the result. As you can imagine, Abram’s family life became pretty messed up because of that. Yet, God changed Abram’s name from High Father (Abram) to Father of a Multitude (Abraham), and Sarai’s name from Princess (Sarai) to THE Princess (Sarah).
God instituted circumcision as a sign of the covenant and promised a son via Sarah. Both laughed in mockery that God would give two old people a son. So God gave them a constant reminder of that laughter. Yitzhak or Isaac in Hebrew means he laughs.
“But God said, “No, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac [he laughs]; and I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.” (Genesis 17:19 NASB)
Sodom & Gomorrah
A heavenly trio visited Abraham, promised a son and shared God’s plans for Sodom. Abraham asked what if there were fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, or twenty righteous people there.
“Finally, Abraham said, ‘Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?’ And the Lord replied, ‘Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.’ ” (Genesis 18:32 NLT).
Lesser known sins of Sodom included pride, idleness and neglect of the poor and needy.
“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49 NKJV).
Their more well-known sin was sexual.
“But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. They called to Lot, and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.’ ” (Genesis 19:4-5 WEB)
Lot is a sad case. He chose to live in a perverted, self-indulgent town. Perhaps he thought he could be a force for good, unaffected by his environment. Perhaps he was just naïve. No matter where we live, we need to be in the world but not of the world (John 15:19; 17:14-16).
We can see how low Lot had sunk by the offer of his daughters to the mob.
“See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” (Genesis 19:8 NKJV)
Perhaps this cowardly and repulsive character failure was in part to blame on the town’s wickedness that tormented his soul day and night. Lot is still called righteous, had God’s favor, and was mercifully given a way of escape.
“But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.” (2 Peter 2:7-8 NLT)
Rather than glad to be rid of such an abominable town, Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Abraham & Hagar
Abraham’s family situation became very tense, after Abraham had a child with the household servant Hagar, even though it was at Sarah’s insistence. Sarah was exasperated by the whole sordid affair and wanted Abraham to send Hagar and her son Ishmael away.
“God said to Abraham, ‘Don’t be upset about the boy and your servant. Do everything Sarah tells you to do because your descendants will be traced through Isaac. But I will make of your servant’s son a great nation too, because he is also your descendant.’ ” (Genesis 21:12-13 CEB)
In this, God shows His great mercy, even upon this very messed up family situation and the sins of His faithful people. We must learn not to judge, because even the most faithful of God’s servants will have glaring faults.
Abraham & Abimelech
Though Abraham was faithful to God, like us he was faulty. He repeated his sin of deception in Egypt with Abimelech. So, God warned Abimelech in a dream.
“Now return the man’s wife. He’s a prophet; he will pray for you so you may live. But if you don’t return her, know that you and everyone with you will die!” (Genesis 20:7 CEB)
Abraham was flawed, but he obeyed God.
“Abraham had faith and obeyed God. He was told to go to the land that God had said would be his, and he left for a country he had never seen.” (Hebrews 11:8 CEV)
He was tested for his willingness to sacrifice his son in a way that reminds us of the cross.
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ ” (Hebrews 11:17 ESV)
Though far from perfect, Abraham had a kind of righteousness credited by faith.
“And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” (James 2:23 KJV)
Though perhaps born in a different nation that does not have God’s law as its heritage, all who have the faith of Abraham are his successors, because he is a father to all believers.
“So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, ‘I have made you the father of many nations.’ This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.” (Romans 4:16-17 NKJV)
Will you have a change of heart and mind and like Abraham, believe the good news of God’s reign? You decide!
