I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could deal if all we ever read about in scripture were perfectly holy people, never doing wrong, and shining through the ages as beacons of irreproachable righteousness.

I cannot adequately express how much that would suck.

So I am thankful that, for every example of faith, the Bible also keeps record of the mistakes, the sins, the doubts, the “bad-life-decisions”, and the utter failures that remind us God’s historical cast was broken, inadequate, temperamental, imperfect and, well, human.

And Abraham is no exception.  Father of nations or no, Abraham pulled some really stupid stuff in his time.  Like when he passed his wife, Sarah, off as his sister.  Or when he tried to take control of God’s plan and slept with his servant to produce an heir.  Or when he abandoned that servant and her newborn child to his wife’s jealousy.  Or when he passed his wife, Sarah, off as his sister…again.

Really, Abraham? Not cool.

It is encouraging, then, when we get to Hebrews and find that even a life as flawed as Abraham’s can be marked by faith: Continue reading →

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Hebrews 11:8 [NASB]

One of the things I love about opening the Word is that I am never quite certain where it is going to take me.  Take this week for example:  I sat down to look at Abraham’s mentions in Hebrews thinking that I would probably need to look at his faith in two parts – Abraham’s life of faith in a strange land (v. 8-10) and Abraham’s faith in God’s promises (v. 17-19).  As I dug in, however, I realized that there was a lot being said in verse 8 alone, things that needed to stand on their own, things that I needed to hear.

So now, we’ll be looking at Abraham’s faith in three parts.  And we start with his first steps, when he was still Abram: Continue reading →