Lesson 12~ Abram the man whose faith made him the Father of God's chosen people and gave him a new name

Genesis 11:26-24:67

Abram was the son of Terah (Gen. 11:26) who is of the lineage of Shem the son of Noah (Gen. 10:11-26). Abram showed that he had great faith in God after his father, Terah died. Let's look at that.

After Terah died, God went to Abram and told him to leave the his father's land to travel to an unknown land in which he did not know (Gen. 12:1). Back then people didn't leave their father's land for that was their inheritance. But Abram had enough faith in God to leave a secure way of life to launch into an unknown future. 

God also promised Abram that he would make a great nation out of him in this new country (Gen. 12:2). It took faith to believe that since he and his wife Sarai  had no children & were past child bearing ages. But believe God he did! So he left his home land with a house and land to become a wanderer in a land that he did not know and live in tents. Abram had to hold on to the promises that God gave him of a son for about thirty years until God fulfilled it (Gen. 12:4; 21:5). Now that takes faith!To prove to Abram that he would keep that promise, God changed his name to Abraham which means father of a multitude. Which he did become. Not only to twelve tribes of Jewish people but also to twelve tribes of non-Jewish people through Ishmael.

God was so pleased with Abraham's faith that he even had him put in the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrew 11.