Father’s Day    June 18, 2006

Read Genesis 17:1-7

Key verses: Genesis 17:3-5
Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations”.

This father we are honoring today was the ancestor of the Israelite people. His name was originally Abram, signifying high father. but Genesis 17 relates that God later changed it to Abraham, which means father of many nations. According to the Bible, Abraham was born at Ur in ancient Babylonia. He left his homeland to settle in the city of Haran in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). After the death of his father, Terah, in Haran, Abraham moved to Palestine, obeying a command of God. He built his first alter in Palestine at the town of Bethel. Abraham had two sons born in Canaan. One, Ishmael, became the founder of some Arab tribes. But Isaac, his older son, was his true heir and the ancestor of the Israelite people. The miraculous deliverance of Isaac from death by sacrifice is related in Genesis 22. The Bible shows Abraham as the representative man of faith. He ranks among the greatest in Hebrew history.

I read about the faith of Abraham in Harold Sala’s book Profiles in Faith, and it says if you  risk your money on dice, they call that gambling, and if you risk your money on the stock market, they call that business, but risk your future on God, and that they call you a fool. Such was the way it was with Abraham who lived long ago. When God began to speak to Abraham about leaving his hometown, people thought of him as a fool. Hebrews 11:8 speaks of his step of faith, saying, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”

According to the book Profiles in faith, Ur, where Abraham lived, was a nice place. Good schools and hospitals; good stores; comfortable homes. Ur was a good address to have on your letterhead. When people saw the address on your card, they commented, “You’re from Ur...moving up in the world” - but Abraham left this all behind as he set his sights on his goal.

Oswald Chambers, a man who died an early death in Egypt, once wrote, “I am not many kinds of fools in one; I am only one kind of fool; the kind of fool that believes and obeys God”. That is the kind of man Abraham was.

Mrs. Albert Einstein was once asked if she understood the theory of relativity for which her husband was famous, and she replied, “No, but I know my husband, and I know he can be trusted. Mrs. Abraham probably could have said the same when she followed her husband away from Ur.

Some live for gold, some for fame, some for power and influence, but Abraham lived for God. Thinking over the statement in your life, how would you define its message?

PRAYER: Father, on this very special day, Father’s Day; as we remember with thankful hearts the love we have received from You and our fathers, we pray that you will touch the lives of everyone in the whole world in such a way that everyone will come to understand, that you love us so much that you sent your Son to save us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Luther McCollum