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02: Abraham: The First Missionary – Lesson Plan — 2 Comments

  1. On #2, I think it is sometimes important to get into a new environment – but not always. Too many times new Adventists have trashed existing relationships when they should have been witnesses to their new faith. In my view they should show what the Lord has done for them by their new lifestyle and hopefully done positively instead of fanatically.

    For Abraham to raise a nation in the environment he was living in would have been difficult. As a foreigner in a new land it would be different. However, we still need to see that the Canaanites were in many ways just as bad as those living in Ur.

    Perhaps the biggest reason for the move was that God was going to set up His people in a crossroads area for the purpose of being a living witness to all those caravans traveling through the area. No doubt that is how the Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon and Solomon didn’t disappoint like Hezekiah did when he focused on what he had.

    (2)
  2. On #4b, we have always praised Abraham for his faithfulness in being willing to sacrifice Isaac. The problem to me is that God consistently denounced human sacrifice and there is no greater evidence of that than the many statements He has made concerning Baal worship. As others would no doubt point out “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa 8:20 NKJV). We follow what is written just as Jesus did but that is not what Abraham did. To me he could have very rightly refused to sacrifice his son on the grounds that it conflicted with the preponderance of testimony God has given on other occasions.

    To me he could have done what Peter did in refusing to go against previous commands:

    In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. (Acts 10:12-16)

    Notice that it was done three times yet Peter would not violate God’s previous command. So why didn’t Abraham?

    One could possibly say that Abraham knew God’s voice but that is putting faith in the sound of a voice rather than the content. It was on content that Jesus withstood the three temptations in the wilderness – not the sound of a voice which Satan can easily mimic.

    (1)

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