Did you notice that Father’s day is getting second billing? Nearly 81% of Americans who were polled celebrated Mother’s Day, but only 72% plan to celebrate Father’s Day today. On average sons and daughters spent $98 on Mother’s day but plan to spend only $86 on Father’s day. The total spent for Father’s day is $8.04 billion. That sounds like enough to me. Three-quarters of buyers plan to purchase at least a greeting card, followed in popularity by clothes, gift certificates and books or CDs for their father or grandfather. About 41% plan on celebrating with a special outing such as dinner or brunch. Despite the amount spent, almost half of fathers don’t remember what they received for Father’s Day last year (WP, 6/19/04, A1, A4)..

It is rather appropriate that on this Father’s day we should land on the name, "Abraham." More than anyone else in history, this man was known as the FATHER. Three of the largest religions in the world look back to him as their father. The Bible looks at him as "father" in many ways. For example, just in Romans four he is called the "father of all who believe" in verse 11. He is called the "father of the circumcised" in verse 12, and the "father of us all" in verse 16. In verse 17 he is called the "father of many nations." He is called a "servant of God" in Genesis 26, a friend of God in II Chron 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23), a prophet (Genesis 20:76) and the father of Israel (Isaiah 51:2). Thus I think it to be appropriate to talk about the life of this man on Father’s Day. Here is a father, here is an ideal father.

One of the problems of being a father is the tension that exists between what you are and what you know you ought to be. We are all fathers in training. We all got in too early, when we weren’t quite ready for the tasks. "Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults" (Peter De Vries). Our position provides on-the-job-training. And God is at work in this role called "fatherhood." What He wants to do is stretch our faith, develop our faith, teach us to trust Him as we face the demands of our role.

I want us to notice today how God worked on Abraham, this outstanding father. What kinds of challenges and choices did He bring into Abraham’s life? What kinds of directions did God give him? Let me mention three of the challenges that God laid before our father Abraham.

I. The challenge of HOUSING – to "leave." God directed Abraham to make a move – to take his wife, his possessions, before he had any children, and move out. He faced what every father faces – where to live.

Genesis 12:1 Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you." 4 So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth-- his livestock and all the people who had joined his household at Haran-- and finally arrived in Canaan. 6 Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I am going to give this land to your offspring. " And Abram built an altar there to commemorate the LORD's visit. 8 After that, Abram traveled southward and set up camp in the hill country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar and worshiped the LORD. 9 Then Abram traveled south by stages toward the Negev. 10 At that time there was a severe famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to wait it out.

"Here’s your mission, father Abraham. Pack up all your stuff and go out to a place where I will show you. I’ve got a city planned for you; I’ll lead you, you go out. You are heading west northwest to start with. The first leg is about 500 miles – walking. The second leg, described in this passage from Haran down into Canaan, is about 400 miles."

Abraham actually didn’t know his final destination. Imagine answering the questions of those with you, "where are we going?" "I don’t know." "When are we going to get there?" "How much farther do we have to go?" "I don’t know. "Will we live in a house like the one we left?" "I don’t think so." "Will the neighbors like us?" "I don’t know." Can you imagine traveling that way for not only 8 hours or 14 hours, but for 8 days or 14 days?

Think with me about what Abraham’s life looked like after he obeyed:

A. He lived in a tent. 8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith-- for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent. And so did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise. 10 Abraham did this because he was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

"Well that’s back in the days where everyone was primitive and lived in either tents or caves," you say. False. Abraham came from the "big city." It’s name was "UR." Ever heard of Ur? What was it like? Remember it was down there in the plain of Shinar with Babylon, and Erech and Akkad and Calneh. It is located about 140 miles SE of Babylon. Excavations were started at Ur in 1854 by a man named J. E. Taylor. Over the years, the excavations have been so complete that Ur is now probably one of the best known sites in Southern Iraq. We know it to be a great and prosperous city, as well as totally idolatrous. They worshiped the moon god, Nannar and his consort Ningal. The city was dominated by the huge temple and worship area with a giant ziggurat upon which Abraham gazed. Some have suggested that the tower to Nannar was the greatest of the Babylonian ziggurats.

In 1922 excavations uncovered royal cemeteries that have yielded some particularly beautiful art treasures from the tomb of a Queen named Shubad. The head attire, the personal jewels, a golden tumbler and cup are particularly striking, and they date from about 500 years before Abraham’s time. That would be shortly after the flood, when Ur was just being built. In one small burial room, less than 27 feet square, they found the bones of 74 people who had been interred with the royal person, most of them probably alive when they were buried, and probably with the intent of assisting him in the afterlife.

The city was built right on the side of the Euphrates river and had canals that wrapped around it, and a canal that went through it. Education was advanced because they have found schools with an array of clay tablets on which students learned to read, write, and do forms of arithmetic. The city has yielded a vast library of books, business documents, and other written materials. Ur had two story houses; running water, and a sewer system. It was a shipping town with commerce that came in ships up the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates river. The evidence seems to suggest that by the time Abraham lived there, the city was actually beginning to decline from its former glory.

Think about what Abraham left when he left Ur. He left big city life for camping in a tent. And he apparently lived the rest of his life in tents – 100 years! .

B. He moved. His life was like that of a gypsy. If you will notice chapters 12-13 closely you will notice eight different indications of Abraham moving: 12:6 - passed through; 12:8 removed from thence; 12:9 journeyed; 12:10 went down; 13:1 up out of Egypt; 13:3 journeyed to Bethel; 13:12 dwelled in the land of Canaan; 13:18 removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre. Abraham didn’t settle down when he first arrived in the promised land. And his moves were not with something like a camping trailer. He had to take everything he owned, every time. And 13:2 says "Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." All had to be moved every time. There weren’t any U-Stores in Canaan, even though Abraham may have longed for one.

C. Tent living was unprotected. Most people lived in cities because the only way to protect yourself and your family from animals and thieves was to put yourself behind walls. But Abraham was apparently camping out in the open. Think of what that was like when wild animals came through or marauding bands of robbers. Perhaps that is why chapter 14 of Genesis mentions 318 "trained" servants. Those servants were probably his watchmen, his bodyguards and soldiers.

D. He was alone. He was totally disconnected from his family. The command had been to leave his father’s house, his family and his kinsmen.

Can you see what it meant for Abraham, as a father, to obey God? God led him into a kind of life that was unsettled, somewhat dangerous, and perhaps frustrating. I would imagine that it would put him on edge because of the unsettled variables. "Where am I going to go?" "Who might attack us?" "When is this going to end?" Abraham left a settled, visible, prosperous life in Ur for an unsettled, unspecific, camping trip in a foreign land, where they spoke a different language, where he lived as a gypsy, by faith – temporarily for 100 years!

Can you picture Abraham second guessing his decision over and over again. "Did I do the right thing? Am I in the right place? I am looking for a city that God promised to show me. Where is it? When will I find it? Who would ever think that this kind of life was the life to choose? How could permanent camping be the best life for my children?"

The conflict that often arises in fathers is between what we want, or what we see as the "right" picture for our lives, what we think will make our lives "fulfilling," and what God wants. What God wants may look like it will lead in the opposite direction from what we want. It may look more fearful than what we want. Faith says, "I will follow God in my housing plans."

What are you believing God for? That he will move you to a nicer house and make you more settled and comfortable in your job in this area? Sometimes we feel like failures as fathers because we don’t have a house like the Jones’s or aren’t giving our children as much as the neighbors are. A lot of servants of God are travelers, on the road, moving from place to place. That is what the apostles did; in fact the name "apostle" means "one sent out on a mission." Do you see yourself on a mission? Or are you called to settle down and become permanent? The Bible pictures us as "strangers and pilgrims" on this earth. This means we grip our possessions lightly. God may want to send us somewhere else. On the other hand, God may want to keep us here for the rest of our lives. The key is the HEART – the mindset toward these things.

II. The challenge of WEALTH – to "ignore." In Genesis 14, Abraham wins what today would be comparable to the Mega-Lottery. He was faced with a massive commercial opportunity to inherit much of the wealth of one of the well-heeled cities of his time. The chapter unfolds an interesting story of trusting God when he was presented with an opportunity he could not turn down.

A. Abraham experienced great success. It all began with an unbelievable victory. There were four kings in Northern Canaan with unpronounceable names who came down and attacked five kings in the south with unpronounceable names and took them captive. The south was a very rich area, which made it attractive for a take-over attempt.

A survivor of the attack came and told Abraham that his nephew Lot, had been taken captive. Abraham organized his trained servants and took off after the four kings. It was an enormous journey because they had to travel all the way up to Dan (120 miles), where they caught them and attacked them at night. They then chased them another 40 miles beyond the city of Damascus. What they accomplished would probably be like riding a horse or running to Philadelphia, and then fighting in hand to hand combat once you get there.

Abraham totally conquered the four kings! In addition he rescued all the people of Sodom and recaptured all their riches. Think of what such a victory would do to Abraham's image in the neighborhood. What is significant about being a victor is that you theoretically OWN everything that you have captured. He had re-taken all the wealth that the four northern kings had their eyes on. This victory placed Abraham in an unbelievable position. He could now experience "financial freedom" for the rest of his life.

B. Two kings came to meet Abraham. On his way home with the rejoicing, freed captives of Sodom (probably quite a few homosexuals), Abraham is stopped by two kings. The king of Sodom goes out to meet him first in verse 17. But apparently that meeting is interrupted by an interesting fellow named, Melchizedek in verses 18-20. Melchizedek has two titles, one that comes from his name, which means "King of Righteousness," and the other that comes from the realm over which he rules, "King of Salem," which means "King of Peace." The combination of these names is interesting because it suggests both physical victory ("peace" as a result of war) and moral victory ("righteousness" as a result of war with sin). His kingship relates to both the physical and the spiritual.

Melchizedek says to Abraham, "Blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand," emphasizing that his victory over the four kings was a gift from God Most High. He brings bread and wine, apparently for the purpose of getting Abraham to stop and think about what has happened to him. He is tired. He has been running and fighting on and off for more than 300 miles. He has these happy homosexuals partying around him. And Melchizedek is directed by God to interrupt Abraham’s homecoming to get him to stop and think about the source of his victory – the blessing of God Most High.

Abraham responded. He stopped, partook of Melchizedek’s food, and worshipped God Most High, right in front of all the Sodomites, who may have had a different attitude toward Melchizedek and his intentions. And Abraham gave Melchizedek one tenth of everything he had gained as a tithe. The tithe signified that Abraham recognized Melchizedek's authority in his life. He recognized Melchizedek as a representative of the true God.

The very next verse (21) presents the attractive offer of the other king – the king of Sodom: "give me the people and keep the goods for yourself." In other words, "you can keep all the wealth that four kings took from us; just let the people go home to Sodom." Most people would jump at that offer. It must have contained millions of dollars of merchandise and minerals. How did Abraham respond?

C. Abraham rejects the offer of the king of Sodom. Abraham recognizes that he is dealing with a king that has ulterior motives. He is acting generous in "giving" Abraham much stuff, but he has other things in mind. The fact that he is the "king of Sodom" probably doesn’t say much for his character. What kind of person would Sodomites want to rule them? Probably one like them.

Abraham had accepted the gifts from Melchizedek, the food and drink and blessing. What was so bad about this offer from the "other" king? Abraham theoretically owned these things anyway, since he had captured them in battle. But did he really? Losers weepers, conquerors keepers. Is this true? He knew these things belonged to the people around him. Why would he want to touch their valuables? Plus he knew the mileage the king of Sodom would make out of his reception of the goods: "Lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich." He didn’t want to be "blessed" by a king of his notoriety.

The way Abraham answers to king of Sodom is interesting. He couches his decision in the past tense: "I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours." In other words, "I have already made my mind up at a time in the past. I anticipated the possibility of this proposal and decided beforehand my course of action. And this is my final answer. No thank you."

What do you make out of this decision? It was a deliberate choice to turn down prosperity because of its connections. He wanted no connections with what Sodom had to offer. I think God wants us to learn that it is more important to deal wisely with what you have than go out of your way to get more. The challenge of quick WEALTH is to IGNORE it. "I could provide for my family better if I could win the lottery. I could make my wife happier if I could win at the casino, if I could make this killing on the stock market." The advice in the Bible is, "ignore it." God wants to say to us what He said to Abraham, "I am your shield, your very great reward" (15:2). He can’t say that to people who are busy chasing the golden calf. He can only say that to people who are being faithful with what they presently have.

But wouldn’t it be best for your children to grow up in financial freedom? Won’t it stunt their growth to grow up in a family that doesn’t have everything, that has to pray and wait on the Lord to meet some of their needs, that has to say "no" to certain things that others buy freely? My neighbor gave his two children new cars when they turned 16. Am I to feel like I am a poor father because I haven’t equaled his gifts? Abraham says a lot by his "no thank you" to the king of Sodom. We should say that more often.

III. The challenge of FAMILY – the challenge to "wait." Genes 15-16 shows that faith is not always picking up stakes and moving. Faith is not always turning away from quick riches so you can trust God. Faith involves times of waiting and doing nothing, so that God can work out the details.

A. God announces that Abraham’s family is not going to come from Eliezer. Abraham says in Genesis 15, "Lord, I could start a family with my head servant. This is what they do around here. Instead of adopting children from outside the family, you adopt the children of your chosen servants. That sure seems to be to be a better way than what I see You working toward." Abraham is just back from his amazing victory, having given up fame in Sodom, and everything he could have had. God speaks to him and announces to him that God Himself will be Abraham’s great reward (15:1). Abraham is grateful but has one lingering problem that sticks in his mind and heart: he is yet childless. He has been quickly victorious on the battlefield, but the children issue has dragged on and on. And I see Abraham saying to the Lord, "Lord you have promised these things to me, but nothing has happened, even though I have obeyed you and am living in the foreign land. I am childless, but I do have a steward named Eleizer. Maybe that’s the way to go."

God’s answer in verse four is, "no he is not the man. Your son will come from your own body." "And I still have this plan for you – to make your children as plenteous as the stars." God took Abraham out and showed him the star filled night sky, and it says that Abraham believed God. Believing God at that time meant that Abraham stopped thinking in terms of Eleizer and trusted instead the word of God. He would yet be the "father of multitudes" as his name promised. He didn’t make Eliezer’s son his own, and adopt him into the family. He did nothing. And God blessed him. Doing nothing when he wanted to do all kinds of things to help God out, was faith. He was by faith turning from the gift (a child), and worrying about the gift, to the GIVER.

B. His family was not connected to Hagar. Genesis 16 details the results of Sarah’s notion of how God would accomplish His promise. Abraham ought to have a child through her Egyptian servant girl. I can imagine Sarah reasoning this way: "it’s rather obvious that I am not the one who is going to have any children at this age. Maybe God intends it to be through someone close to me, like my maid servant."

Rather than ask God about the situation, Abraham listens to his wife and Hagar delivers a son whom she named, Ishmael (16:15). But that was not God’s plan, to give Abraham the promised child through Hagar. We are today still seeing the result of Sarah’s suggestion in the conflict that continues between the sons of Isaac (the Jewish state) and the sons of Ishmael (the Arab states). Think about it. Israel’s greatest enemies are probably the Arabs around her, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Yassar Arrafat and the Palistinians. And where did they come from? Most claim to come from Haggar. Ishmael. Israel’s greatest difficulties today come from his brother, Ishmael.

God planned to give Abraham his own son, and no other method would satisfy. Abraham’s responsibility was to listen – and wait. And that is difficult, because men especially are not designed for waiting. They are instead designed to do something, to finish something, to take on a project. And God says, "eliminate all your projects; trust Me."

How easy it is to feel like a failure when it comes to family. Maybe you don’t have any children among families with many; maybe you have too many among families with the official 1.7 children. And the birth control issue is a big one. "Should we practice birth control so that we will have the proper number of children at the right time?" And the answer, as most couples find out, is that birth control is not the answer to your family needs. God opens and closes the woman’s womb. God is the one who gives you children when He chooses. So don’t worry. Learn from Abraham, even though he learned this truth slowly.

IV. The challenge of the FUTURE – to "sacrifice." After waiting for 25 years, until he was 100 years old and too old to have children, Abraham received a miraculous child from God, the child of the promise, the one through whom Abraham was going to be able to bless the world.

And now, in Genesis 22, God asks for Isaac back. Back? Yes, He wants Abraham to sacrifice him on an altar. What a strange request. Child sacrifice was practiced by the unbelieving nations around. Why would God want Abraham to do anything that even resembled that horrible act?

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you." 6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" 8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." 12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

A. Abraham obeyed immediately. There was no hesitancy on Abraham’s part. Once he knew what God wanted, verse three says he was up early in the morning to do it. In spite of the conflict he was experiencing between Isaac as the gift from God (for which he had waited 25 years) and Isaac as the father of many children (and dying before he could have any children), Abraham was determined to obey. He journeyed three days and then climbed the mountain with Isaac, bound his only son and laid him on the altar, and took a knife to kill him before the angel of the Lord interrupted him. He was determined to obey the Lord even if it meant separating himself from his hope for the future in Isaac.

B. Abraham settled for a miracle. He didn’t know what would happen. He didn’t know how God would work it all out. But Hebrews 11:17 says that Abraham went up to that mountain in faith. "By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son." The faith was seen in Abraham’s act of giving Isaac up. It says that Abraham "offered" him. In other words, the deed was done in Abraham’s mind as he walked up that mountain. He was already God’s and Abraham would hand him back on an altar.

But how was Isaac to become the "one in whom your seed shall be called" if Abraham sacrificed him before he had any children? The only thing Abraham could conclude was that God was going to raise him from the dead after Abraham sacrificed him (11:19 - accounting that God would raise him from the dead). Thus, Abraham was walking up Mt. Moriah expecting to see something he had never seen before – a resurrection. Isn’t that interesting? Abraham KNEW that Isaac was to be the father of all his children. Abraham KNEW that he was going to sacrifice him to God. The conflict between the two opposed truths was going to be solved by a MIRACLE – because that is the way Abraham’s God worked!

Thus Abraham moved by "faith." Each step depended on listening to what God said, believing that what He said was true, and moving on it. It was consistently a choice of taking words over things, the unseen over the seen, the future over the present, the promises over the circumstances. In one way he was living in the UNSEEN world, with His mind on God and God’s trustworthiness, rather than all the visible things that clamored for his attention and action.

We are not talking about fathers today doing the same actions as Abraham here. God is not necessarily saying, "leave Bowie," or "sacrifice your firstborn son to me." What we are talking about is a heart of obedience to God, a heart that obeyed in spite of the fact that his future looked more limited because of his obedience.

Our daughter, Beka, is going to Uganda. It’s one thing to talk about it, its another thing to realize that it is about to happen. Our youngest daughter is leaving and going to Africa for a year. What’s it like to let her go? It was one thing to see her go to Uganda back in September when she was gone for two weeks, but a whole year? That’s different. You tend to think of the dangers involved. I mean, she could die there. But the more you think about it the more you realize that she could die here in Bowie, when she drives out on route 50 at 8 am some morning. Danger can show up anywhere. The exciting thing is that God is involved here. God is directing her, and will protect her as He has done in the past. And Africa is an extremely needy continent, with literally millions of orphans whose parents have been butchered to death, and are alone in this world. So we are going to send her with our blessing and prayers and support. She is is safer in Africa under God’s protection than she would be in Bowie on Beechtree lane without God’s protection.

What does a family need? A family needs to watch a father make choices that believe God. A family needs to be involved in the father’s (and mother’s) interest in God’s work. What usually becomes a family project is the father’s vision, the father’s passion, the father’s ambition. Should he desire to be rich, that becomes the family project. Should he desire to serve God, that becomes the family project. The easiest thing for the family to become is what the father is. Abraham shows us a heart, a heart of listening to what God said, trusting what He said, even to the extent of saying, "yes" I am going to do that, no matter what it is.

That action is what impacts your children and family and relatives more than anything else. You can have a class for your children on faith, but it will be of greater benefit to them to just get on the bus with you as you exercise faith and experience the ride.

Frank McKinney Hubbard said, "the reason parents no longer lead their children in the right direction is because the parents aren’t going that way themselves." And Josh Billings added, "to bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while."

06/20/04, BBC, am