". . . and he (Abraham) was called the friend of God." James 2: 23.

Objectives: (1) to be able to tell why Abraham was called "the friend of God" and "the father of the faithful"; (2) name the principal sin of Sodom and Gomorrah that led to those cities' destruction; (3) contrast the responses of Lot and his wife in the Sodom situation; (4) tell why God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac on the altar.

Time line: About 1921 B. C.

Map study: Ur of the Chaldeans, about 200 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf.

Textual study:

The call of Abram (Genesis 12)

His call is like our call. See Mark 10: 23-27; Matthew 10: 32-42.

Abram left all that was familiar to discover what it was that God wanted to show him. Oh that we had such courage today! We would overcome gluttony, alcoholism, drug addiction, materialism, and a whole host of spiritual illnesses if we would but do that. God calls us to freedom!

Abram's weakness: lying about his wife (12: 11-20; chapter 20).

The Sodom saga.

See Genesis 13 and 19. Famous last words: "He pitched his tents toward Sodom." From the New Testament: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.

The process of de-sensitization to evil. The frog in the pan of heating water. Satan is always after us. See II Corinthians 11: 13-15.

It is what the New Testament speaks of about the natural man in I Corinthians 2: 9-16.

The principal sin of Sodom was homosexuality. That has never been condoned by God and is still condemned today. I Cor. 6: 9-11; Romans 1: 24-32. I Peter 5: 17-18.

"Remember Lot's wife" was the New Testament command. Why? Lot's wife looked back, longingly, to the sinful life she had just left. "No man, having put his hand to the plow, looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Genesis 22--the offering of Isaac.

This might well be re-titled "the faith of Isaac" instead of "the faith of Abraham."

"Thy son, thine only son."

God always provides a way for those who respond to Him in faith.

Evaluative activity:

(1) tell why Abraham was called "the friend of God" and "the father of the faithful"; (2) name the principal sin of Sodom and Gomorrah that led to those cities' destruction; (3) contrast the responses of Lot and his wife in the Sodom situation; (4) tell why God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac on the altar.

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Sid Womack, webmaster