Gods Sabbath

H OW A BRAMAND S ARAI BECAME A BRAHAMAND S ARAH

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The Faith to Leave their Homeland

We will begin with the study of Abraham and Sarah, when their names were still Abram and Sarai. Their exercise of faith, dedication to God’s cause, desire for nothing more than to safeguard the best interests of God’s kingdom, and their willingness to make any sacrifice in order to see God’s work ad vance were all highly commendable. Every believer can be rich in such treasures, although we need to understand that even these do not sanctify wrong procedures, or cancel their evil in fluences and effects. Only when we are motivated by these powerful forces, and at the same time know and practice God’s ways, while trusting to Him more than self, can we enter into His rest. Like most well-meaning Christians, the patriarchal couple were ignorant of God’s ways and of the law of position. Conse quently, they took steps that were never planned by God and which instead greatly served the cause of Satan. The intensity of their zeal, the purity of their motives, and their earnest desire to do nothing to retard God’s cause, did not in any sense mini mize the evil effects of what they did. To this day, the curse of those actions is still with us in the endless strife between Jew and Arab, which threatens world peace repeatedly. Abram was a man of large faith, as is evidenced by his com plete and unquestioning obedience to God’s command to forsake the land of his childhood, Ur of the Chaldees, and journey forth without knowing where he was going. It was no small sacrifice to depart from that fabulous capital city with its unbelievable wealth and prestige. “Excavation of a vast cemetery from the period preceding that dynasty (26th century) produced royal tombs containing almost incredible treasures in gold, silver, bronze, and semiprecious stones, showing not only the wealth of the people of Ur but also their highly developed civilization and art.” Encyclopedia Britan nica , Macropaedia Volume 18:1021, 1975 edition. The city of Ur was strategically located in the valley of the Eu phrates, the capital of the lower Mesopotamian kingdom, and the center of fertile farm and grazing lands. It offered Abram