>>Many today consider the Old Testament Scriptures as an ancient biography at best--or many consider it as no more than an allegory.

>>This is not only very insulting to our God Who's Word it is, but it reveals that they miss the lessons contained therein that were written for our learning and comfort.

1CO 10:10-12 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

>>It is obvious that when we look at all those ensamples as a mere allegory we learn nothing from Abraham, the life of Jacob, or from David that would be applicable for our lives today.

>>Such a theory renders the Scriptures but a dead Book rather than a living Book which directs our path according to God's will.

PHI 2:14-16 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

>>The truths revealed in the Old Testament teach the same Character revealed in the same God as the New Testament.

HEB 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

>>These teachings of our God today are upon the same principles as they were in the former days. Therefore God's dealings with Abraham are a foreshadow of how He leads us.

>>All Abimelech saw in Abraham was a bold faced deceiver.

GEN 20:5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

>>Yet as God looked upon Abraham in Christ, Abimelech became a debtor to Abraham's prayers.

GEN 20:7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

>>Every portion of the "the word of life" has a message which is appropriate for our times.

MAL 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

>>The life of Abraham therefore is as a portrayal of God's dealings with all those who believe.

ROM 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; [i.e., by the Divine influence of the Spirit which is seen by all mankind.] to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

>>So in what sense is Abraham "...the father of us all?"

>>That is not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

GAL 3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

>>Just as Adam, "...begat a son in his own likeness," GEN 5:3, so there is that same resemblance between Abraham and those who are, "...Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

>>The life of Abraham is a sample of the lives of all believers!

>>In light of this principle we do not read the life history of Abraham as a mere biography of Abraham, but as a portrait of the spiritual warfare of God's people as "...the father of all them that believe," ROM 4:11.

>>What do we find then as the children of Abraham? What was Abraham at his beginning where God called him? A lost sinner, an idol worshiper.

EPH 2:11-12 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

>>While Abraham was in this state of spiritual death what happened?

ACT 7:2-3 The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

>>God's call to Abraham was to separate himself from everything which pertained to his old life; God's call to us is to separate ourselves from this present evil world.

>>Did Abraham obey? At first it was with much human reasoning. Instead of leaving his kindred as commanded, his father Terah, and his nephew Lot accompanied him.

>>Does this speak to us of bearing his likeness as sons of Abraham?

>>Has not our response to God's call to separation been partial and some what difficult? Are there no lingering memories of family ties that rend the heart?

>>Next we see Abraham's trials of faith. Soon after he arrived in Canaan what happened?

GEN 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

>>Soon after this blessed spiritual refreshment what do we read? Abraham strayed away from the place of God's fellowship, and God sent a famine.

GEN 12:9-10 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

10 And there was a famine in the land: [Did that cause Abraham to return unto his God to seek His help? Can we not all to often supply the answer from our own experience? Is it not the first natural reaction to turn to the world for help? So did our father Abraham!] and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

>>Do we not also see our own fallen nature in Abraham's human reasoning's to help God perform His purpose?

GEN 16:2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

>>Did God lose patience? Did He cast of His erring child? Has He done so with us?

2TI 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

>>Do we need to review Abraham's life any further to understand why it is written, "...that he might be the father of all them that believe?" ROM 4:11.

>>Do we not see the truth of the old saying, "Like father, like son" to be true here?

>>Before we leave the parallel that Scripture teaches between the Lord's leadings with Abraham as "...the father of all them that believe," and ours lets take a look at

GEN 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

>>Does this apply to us? Can we put our all on the alter?

>>This climax in Abraham's trials did not come in his spiritual infancy, but near the close of his pilgrimage.

>>The Lord's life long discipline had not been in vain! The fire had done its work--the silver was refined, and the Gold was in the finning pot so the great Refiner could now see His own image in the molten metal.

MAL 3:2-3 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

>>Now Abraham had reached the place that he is not only able to give up his Tarah and his Lot at God's call, but now he is willing to put his Isaac upon the alter.

>>Now Abraham is resigned to lay the idol dearest to his heart at his Saviour's feet.

>>Now grace, i.e., the Divine influence of the Holy Spirit upon the heart which is revealed to every human being, has triumphed, for Grace, and Grace alone can bring the human heart into total submission.

>>Is not Abraham's ups and downs, his trials, his failures, a true pattern of ours? Don't we see God's patient dealing with Abraham a portrait of His dealings with us?

>>Even as we see the final triumph of grace in Abraham's life, so we shall see it in ours.

>>Doesn't this make Genesis as much a living Book as any other part of the gospel?

>>The trials of our faith so often can be understood by reading Genesis. Abraham's faith was tried repeatedly, and severally so that one could hardly have a trial wherein you could not find some resemblance in Abraham's trials of faith.

>>When Abraham entered the land of which the Lord said, "unto thy seed will I give this land," GEN 12:7, he never entered an occupation, all he ever owned therein was a burying place.

>>His faith was tried to an extreme as we read in ROM 4:17-21 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

>>Putting his Isaac on the alter not only involved parting with his nearest of natural affections, but it included putting his very salvation on the alter to obey.

HEB 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

>>But did Abraham's faith never waiver? Oh yes, it did.

JAM 5:17 says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are..." which so clearly reveals that the prophet Elijah was one of the sons of Abraham.

>>These men had "the flesh lust[ing] against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh...so that [they could not] do the things that [they] would," as we read in GAL 5:17, as well as you and I.

HEB 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."

>>Yes, but by human reasoning his took his father and nephew with him in direct disobedience to God's specific command.

>>By faith Abraham left Chaldea, but by human reasoning he stopped short at Haran.

GEN 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

>>By faith Abraham went forth against Chedorlaomer to rescue Lot, but latter for fear of his life he lied to Abimelech about his wife.

>>See how beautifully Genesis spells out the spiritual warfare of a true believer.

>>God's sovereignty was so beautifully displayed in the character of the Father of all those who believe to show there was nothing in them to commend them unto God.

>>The Word of the Lord gives special emphasis to our unworthiness by directing us to look to Abraham as the slim pit wherein we were found.

ISA 51:1-2 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

>>God had only one SON without sin, but none without suffering.

1PE 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.