One thing Abraham did not escape from in his relationship with YHWH was the reality of living in this world – a severe famine in Canaan (Genesis 12:10), a Pharaoh taking a shine to his wife (15-19), quarrels between his herdsmen and his nephew Lot’s herdsmen (13:6-7), and even a full blown local war too (14:1-3). 

Passing off his wife as his sister – that got the Pharaoh eyeing her up as his own – was Abraham’s own fault, but the other problems, like the herdsmen upsetting the family business, and the violent rebellion spilling out against a tyrannical overlord (14:4), weren’t his fault.  

Either way, whether it was problems in Abraham’s own head causing him grief, or problems in other people’s heads, we see YHWH using them to grow Abraham’s relationship with him. In the sticky situation with the Pharaoh, for instance, YHWH personally got Abraham out of that mess, but he also let Pharaoh give Abraham the tongue lashing he deserved. Which helped Abraham get to know YHWH very quickly as both kind and stern (echoes of Romans 11:22). 

YHWH then grows the relationship further when the victors in the territorial war cart off Abraham’s nephew Lot and all his possessions (14:12). Amazingly, Abraham takes it upon himself and his own private army to rescue Lot, but that means taking on a combined army of four kings led by a vicious thug. By a daring night raid, however, the enemy is sent packing and Lot and all his possessions are recovered (14-16).

It’s an amazing victory over impossible odds, because YHWH wants Abraham to know he does this kind of thing as well, as told in person to Abraham by Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, who not only passes on YHWH’s blessing for the victory, but also that it was the mighty, supreme God himself who “delivered your enemies into your hand” (18-20).

So “Do not be afraid, Abram,” YHWH tells him in Genesis 15:1, “I am your shield, your very great reward.” And YHWH had been exactly that in Genesis 14, rewarding Abraham with victory in an impossible situation, protecting him from overwhelming odds, to give Abraham a thoroughly good reason for not being frightened as to what might happen next. 

So for Abraham, and for us too, there’s no escaping the reality of living in this world, but through it all YHWH was growing Abraham’s relationship with him, as we see in Abraham addressing YHWH for the first time in Genesis 15:8 as “O Sovereign Lord”….(next blog) 

What happened to Abraham gives us clues as to what happens to us as his children through the generations. As Paul said, we’re “blessed along with Abraham” (Galatians 3:9), and as “our father” (Romans 4:16-17) Abraham trod the ground that we’d be treading, learning about the relational YHWH as he did, and being changed by knowing his love too. 

So how did knowing YHWH’s love change Abraham? Well, in a nutshell, he became a rather loving chap himself. After his thorough scolding by the Egyptian Pharaoh in Genesis 12:18-19 for selfishly seeking to preserve his own life by palming off his lovely wife as his sister, resulting in “the Lord inflicting serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household” (17), Abraham learnt something about YHWH’s love, in both his mercy and correction, that changed him in how he dealt with the next dilemma in his life. 

It was on his return trip to Canaan from Egypt that another problem arose. He and his nephew Lot had both accumulated so much livestock that “the land could not support them while they stayed together” (6) and “quarrelling arose” between their herdsmen (7). 

At which point, Abraham could have sought a selfish solution to preserve his own interests (just as he’d done in Egypt), and being the senior of the two men he could have put his foot down and demanded his way. But how YHWH had dealt with him in Egypt had clearly made a major impact on Abraham, because he came up with a solution for himself and Lot that was enormously gracious and generous – and totally unselfish. 

He starts off by saying to Lot, “Let’s not quarrel, we’re brothers” (8) – so rather than pushing his seniority in the family, Abraham puts himself and Lot on the same level, as “brothers.” And on suggesting they part ways so their herds aren’t piled up in one spot, Abraham gives Lot first choice as to what part of the land he would like (9). 

Lot likes the look of “the whole plain of Jordan” to the east (11), because it’s “like the garden of the Lord” (10), perfectly set up with everything he needed. Abraham, meanwhile, remains in Canaan (12).  

YHWH is delighted that his love for Abraham has now made Abraham loving too, because right after Lot leaves he tells Abraham he’s giving “all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever” (15). 

More in the next blog, then, about “Abraham’s growing relationship with YHWH”

An altar to Abraham was like a living thing. To him it was a living memorial of the promises YHWH had made to him, and a living reminder of YHWH choosing him and his family through the generations as the means by which those amazing promises would be fulfilled.

The altar was just a pile of rocks but it had a living purpose, because it continues fulfilling its purpose in our lives today – as we see in 1 Peter 2:5, when Peter describes the Christians of his day as being “like living stones.” 

It seems like a contradiction in terms to call lifeless stones and rocks as “living,” but amazing things happen in the lives of those who recognize what YHWH has promised for our world, and the staggering realization that he’s working out his promises through rocks and stones like us.

Take what happened to Abraham, for instance. Right after building his altars in Genesis 12:7-8, a severe famine struck in verse 10. So the very land – in which YHWH had just promised to make Abraham a great nation (2) – had become impossible to live in. Out of the blue, then, Abraham is faced with a decision he never saw coming. So, how did he react, knowing what YHWH had promised?

Did he “call on the name of the Lord” like he’d done at the building of his second altar (8), and in faith look to YHWH for a solution? Not in the Holy Spirit record, he didn’t. Instead, he ups sticks (10) and drags his wife and possessions down to Egypt – where things get worse when he realizes his wife’s beauty could get him killed if someone takes a shine to her (12). But again, no record of him trusting YHWH for a solution. Instead he figures his life will be spared if he passes his wife off as his sister (13).

So this is what it’s like being a living altar: we know YHWH is working out his plan through us, but he also allows life to throw impossible situations at us. Why? So that, just like Abraham, we learn two things: that first of all, we can make a right botch of things when not trusting YHWH and trying to resolve our impossible situations ourselves. And secondly, that YHWH is totally aware of our flaws, but in those flaws he reveals his love and mercy, as he did in Abraham’s case by putting a stop to the Pharaoh taking Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as his own (17). 

Abraham was learning about a loving God he could trust in, so “What did knowing YHWH’s love do to Abraham?”….(next blog)    

As Abraham’s offspring something remarkable has been given to us by YHWH. It was pictured originally by the land of Canaan that YHWH gave to Abraham and his offspring as an everlasting possession in Genesis 12:7 and 17:8. But what Paul understood that to mean in Romans 4:13, was that YHWH had promised “Abraham and his offspring they would be heirs (or possessors) of the whole world.”  

The “land of Canaan,” then, pictured the entire world and the children of Abraham inheriting it, which is exactly what Paul preached as “the message of salvation” in Acts 13:26. This was “the good news” he referred to in verse 32, that “What God promised our fathers (verse 33) he has fulfilled for us, their children.” In other words, ever since Jesus was “raised up” (33), the promises YHWH made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the “fathers”) are now being fulfilled in us, their children. Meaning that the blessing of all nations promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 is in the process of happening in his living children right now.

And it’s when this reality of YHWH and what he was promising hit Abraham, that’s when he built an altar of rocks. It stood as a sort of permanent “living” memorial and reminder of the brilliance and love of YHWH, not only in his plan for all humanity, but also in his plan for them as the ones he’d be fulfilling his plan through. 

It’s not surprising, then, that this picture of a living altar in celebration and constant reminder of YHWH’s plans for the world, hit Peter the same way. 

Because Peter, when describing our purpose as Christians, used the analogy of “living stones” in 1 Peter 2:5. We are “like living stones,” he wrote, “being built into a spiritual house.” And it tied in perfectly with why Abraham built his little “spiritual house” of rocks too, because in verse 9 Peter writes, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises (excellence) of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

Abraham’s altars or Peter’s stones, the meaning for us is the same. We are living stones and altars in this world, “being built into a spiritual house” displaying the brilliance and love of YHWH. Wherever we are, and wherever we go, therefore, that’s who and what we are. So next blog: “What’s it like being a living altar?” 

In Genesis 12:7, Abraham built an altar in response to YHWH’s promise, “To your offspring I will give this land.” He built the altar, therefore, not only in recognition and amazement that the great YHWH had chosen him and his offspring, but also in recognition of why YHWH had chosen them. 

He’d chosen them, verse 7, to give them the land he’d brought them to. So that little portion of Planet Earth was now theirs, which made sense, because in verse 2, YHWH had just promised to make Abraham “into a great nation.” To be a nation meant having land.  

But having land and becoming a great nation – what was going on here? Well, it clearly meant that YHWH had a plan right here on this planet. It was here that the Creator of the universe was concentrating his power and wisdom to accomplish something remarkable. Which in itself was amazing to Abraham – but there was more, because YHWH had also said he was involving Abraham and his descendants as the means by which he was going to accomplish his plans. 

But there was more still, because in Genesis 17:8, YHWH also said he was giving the “whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.” Oh, so YHWH’s plan for Planet Earth through Abraham and his descendants was forever too.  

And not in heaven forever? No; YHWH was planting his flag in the good old soil of Planet Earth, just as he’d done in the Garden of Eden, but this time he was guaranteeing the everlasting blessing of this planet through Abraham and his family. And Abraham, bless his heart, not only believed every word of it, he immediately built an altar as a memorial of the moment – that would also serve as a visual reminder that he and his descendants were the means by which YHWH was working out his ‘forever plan’ on this planet. 

In other words, he and his offspring were now living altars providing visual evidence in their lives as to what YHWH was up to. And this was why YHWH had chosen them, to help people see what he was up to on this planet, because it could be seen happening in them.   

Which helps us see why YHWH chose us too, then, doesn’t it – because as Abraham’s offspring it means we’re living altars as well. So, what it’s like “Being a living altar”?….(next blog)

The reason Abraham built an altar in Genesis 12:7 was because YHWH “appeared to him.” In what form he appeared it doesn’t say, but the result of YHWH’s appearance was dramatic.

Abraham’s mind was suddenly opened to the reality and greatness of YHWH. And it struck him so amazingly and clearly that he dropped all immediate practical needs, like setting up the family tent, to seal that moment in the most permanent way he could. He constructed a pile of rocks that would serve as a visual marker and reminder that the YHWH who had suddenly become so real and great to him had also, for some incredible reason, chosen him and his offspring for what he had in mind for the whole world.

So that’s what happened to Abraham, but how does it play out in our lives today? Well, according to Paul in Galatians 3:7, we are now Abraham’s children, so at one point YHWH must have appeared to us in such a way that it opened our minds as well to how real and great he is, and to the amazing realization that God has chosen us for some incredible reason, just like he chose Abraham. 

And we see exactly that being played out in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit also appeared in dramatic fashion, which had the immediate effect of opening people’s minds to “the wonders of God,” verse 11, the same thing that happened to Abraham, that God was real and he was great. 

And then they were told in verses 38-39 that the Holy Spirit would do the same thing – not only for them and their children – but for anyone else “whom the Lord our God will call.” So they got to hear the same message Abraham heard, that this very real and mighty God was calling and choosing people – the immediate result in verse 41 being thousands of people making God’s calling their life’s permanent purpose, just like Abraham did – and just like we do too. 

Because “the blessing given to Abraham,” Galatians 3:14, was that we Gentiles “might receive the promise of the Spirit” who will do exactly the same thing for us, therefore, that he did for Abraham.

Which is the amazing realization dawning on us that God has called and chosen us too. But that raises the question: “Why did God choose Abraham?”….(next blog)   

By the great tree of Moreh at Shechem, Genesis 12:6, “the Lord (YHWH) appeared to Abram” to promise that land to his offspring (7). And what was Abram’s response? “So he built an altar there to YHWH who had appeared to him.”

But why an altar (cairn of rocks)? Because in Abraham’s mind it marked that spot as sacred to both himself and to YHWH. Sacred to himself because it was on this spot that YHWH had personally sealed his promise to Abraham and his offspring, that through them he would “bless all peoples on earth” (3). And sacred to YHWH because that was the spot where he planted his flag on this planet, staking his claim to blessing it, and now with a solid visual marker too.  

The altar could be viewed as both a personal and a political statement, therefore – personal in Abraham’s own expression of thanks to YHWH for choosing him, but also political, in stamping God’s presence and purpose on the planet in his committed promise to bless it.    

Abraham then built a second altar in “the hills east of Bethel” (8), but this time he “called on the name of the Lord” too. Unlike the first altar – that marked the spot where YHWH spoke his promise to him – this altar marked the spot where Abraham spoke his faith in that promise to YHWH. 

In the building of these two altars, therefore, we can see what knowing YHWH did to Abraham. 

It made him deeply thankful, first of all, that YHWH had chosen him and his offspring as the means by which he was going to bless all nations, and for the huge influence he promised they would have (verse 3). It also made him want to stamp YHWH’s presence and his greatness on this planet through a visual means. It also made him want to call on YHWH by name, on realizing how much he and his offspring would need him in fulfilling their part in his purpose.      

But how does all this relate to us now? Well, as Paul writes in Galatians 3:7, we are now “the children of Abraham,” so will knowing God as YHWH do the same three things to us? 

To the next blog, then: “How do Abraham’s altars play out in our lives?”

In Genesis 13:4, Abraham “called on the name of Lord,” the Hebrew word for “Lord” in that verse being YHWH. 

So Abraham clearly knew God as YHWH. But in Exodus 6:2-3, “God also said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord (YHWH) I did not make myself known to them.’” So in Genesis 13:4 Abraham does know YHWH, but in Exodus 6:3 he doesn’t. Is there a contradiction here?

Which would be good to know, because with Abraham being the father of us all and us being his offspring, his relationship with God gives us clues as to what our relationship with God is like too. And Abraham knowing God as YHWH ties in with that. 

Israel knowing God as YHWH tied in with that too, because it got the same point across to them about the caring, relational God that Abraham knew him as. We see that in YHWH personally telling the Israelites through Moses that he’d “heard their groaning,” Exodus 6:5, he’d “free them from being slaves” and “redeem them with an outstretched arm” (6), and “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God” (7). 

It was this deeply caring, rescuing, redeeming, personal YHWH side of him that God wanted the Israelites to know. They were about to see his “mighty hand” (1) ripping them out of Egypt, just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had known God as “God Almighty” (3) – El Shaddai in Hebrew – but God wanted the Israelites to know him as YHWH, and “be remembered by (that name) from generation to generation” (3:15).  

In context, then, God was introducing himself to the Israelites as both El Shaddai and YHWH, the same way he’d introduced himself to Abraham – as El Shaddai in Genesis 17:1, and as YHWH in Genesis 15:7. But how to make sense of Exodus 6:3, that sounds like Abraham didn’t know God as YHWH? 

In the context of what God was up to here, it would make sense if verse 3 was phrased: “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, and by my name YHWH did I not make myself known to them?” In other words, “as to my name YHWH, was I not known by that too?” Because he WAS known by that name too, so calling him YHWH should be nothing strange for the Israelites, and especially since knowing him as YHWH was what God wanted most for them.   

It was also what God wanted most for Abraham, so next blog: “What did knowing YHWH do to Abraham?”

In Galatians 3:14, Paul says it’s “by faith that we receive the promise of  the Spirit.” Which ties in perfectly with Abraham because, verse 9, Abraham is called “the man of faith.” 

So did Abraham receive the Spirit because of his faith too? It would seem odd if he didn’t, because he is “the father of us all” and “our father in the sight of God” (Romans 4:16, 17). So if we, as “Abraham’s offspring” (16) receive the Spirit by faith, then surely he as our father and “man of faith” would have received the Spirit too. 

But why is this important? Because if Abraham did have the Spirit, then what the Spirit did in his life would give us some clues as to what the Spirit does in our lives. Which, according to Galatians 3:9, was meant to be, because “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham,” so what he was blessed with we are blessed with too. 

Can we see signs of the Spirit at work in Abraham’s life, then, that show the Spirit at work in our lives too? 

There’s a clue in Genesis 13:4, when Abraham returns to Bethel “where he had first built an altar, and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord.” But why on “the name of the Lord”? Why not just “on the Lord”? Or was there something special about “the name” in Abraham’s mind?   

The Hebrew name of the Lord in that verse is YHWH, first used in Genesis 2:4. In verses 2 and 3, “God” is ELOHIM, the supreme and mighty one, but when dealing directly with humans in verse 4 the name YHWH is added to Elohim. Elohim emphasizes the creative power and sovereignty of God, but YHWH emphasizes the relational God, the great I AM in Exodus 3:14 who’s always “watching over us” (verse 16) caring and rescuing us and answering our call for help (as he did for the Israelites), and that’s the name he wants to be known by “from generation to generation” (15). 

And that’s the name Abraham knew him by. Which strongly suggests Abraham had the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit emphasizes the relational God for us today too. In Romans 8:16, for instance, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children,” so that God to us becomes “Abba Father” (15). 

Which begs the question: Since the Holy Spirit is doing the same for us that he did for Abraham, are there examples in Abraham’s relationship with God that clue us in to what happens in our relationship with God too?  

But another question first: “Is there a contradiction about YHWH in Exodus 6:3?”…(next blog)

Paul gave us a clue as to how we know Jesus is talking to us in Galatians 3:14, when he wrote that “Jesus redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus.” And what Paul meant by “the blessing coming to us Gentiles” was “the promise of the Spirit.” 

So right back in Abraham’s day, God was already looking ahead to the time when the Holy Spirit would be given. And what would the Spirit’s purpose be? Jesus answered that for us in John 14:26 when he told his disciples, “the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” 

So Jesus would continue talking to his disciples – as he had done while he was with them in person (verse 25) – but now through the Holy Spirit instead. And they’d know it was Jesus’ words they were hearing because as Jesus said in John 15:26, “When the Counsellor comes….he will testify about me,” and in John 16:13-14, the Spirit “will speak only what he hears…by taking what is mine and making it known to you.”

The Holy Spirit, therefore, would do the same for people today that Jesus did for the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,” Luke 24:27, “he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” And what was the reaction in the disciples on Jesus doing that for them? Verse 32: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

And there’s our clue as to how we know Jesus is talking to us: it’s by the Holy Spirit now doing for us what Jesus did for those two disciples – and for his other disciples too, by “opening their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” about himself (verses 45-46). 

And it was all contained in “the promises spoken to Abraham and to his seed,” Galatians 3:16, the “seed meaning one person, who is Christ.” The promise of the Holy Spirit, then, was to make that “one person, Christ” and what he said and taught so real, that for millions of us Gentiles it would seem like Jesus is “walking the road to Emmaus” and talking to us too. And in such a way our “eyes are opened” (Luke 24:31) so we know it’s him talking to us and it’s his words we’re hearing.   

Which raises the question: If this amazing promise of the Spirit was given to Abraham, “Did Abraham have the Holy Spirit?” too…(next blog)