Abraham married again close to the
end of his life. He married Keturah and she bore him six sons. God
had blessed a man with no descendants to a man with eight sons in
total! He was truly blessed. And when the time came for him to die,
he left everything to Isaac, but he gave gifts to all his other
sons too. He died at the ripe old age of 175. And his sons Isaac
and Ishmael buried him in the same cave as Sarah, the cave of
Machpelah.
He truly was a blessed man and
after his death:
"After Abraham's death, God
poured out rich blessings on Isaac." Genesis 25:11
Abraham had a rich, full, blessed
life and God was continuing these blessings on Isaac, due to the
promises He had made to Abraham.
What can we learn from Abraham's
life? Well, I think first of all he obeyed God. When God told him
to move from his home country, he did. He didn't know where he was
going, but God looked after him. He built altars to the Lord
everywhere he went and made sure that he and his household stay
close to the Lord. He pleaded for the godless cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah and cared for his nephew, Lot, even though Lot didn't do
much to earn the favour. He also rescued Lot once and didn't
hesitate to take on a whole army, because he knew God was with him.
He was honest in his business dealings and he had a positive
influence on all he met. He was an effective witness to God and
gave Him all the glory for his riches.
He believed God when God made a
covenant with him and followed through on his side of the covenant,
namely to circumcise the men in household, immediately. He didn't
waver in his faith. He also acted immediately when God told him to
go and sacrifice Isaac. He believed that God will revive Isaac from
the dead if he sacrificed him. He placed God first above all. He
also believed that God will help him in finding the right wife for
Isaac. He trusted God for that and God helped him to find the
perfect one.
But Abraham also made mistakes. He
lied twice and said that Sarah was his sister and gave her to the
kings of the day. And of course he and Sarah tried to force God's
hand and had a child through Hagar, instead of waiting on God to
deliver on His promises. He was just a human as we are today. But
God was faithful to him and even helped him with the mistakes he
made. And in the New Testament we never read anything about
Abraham's mistakes, we read about his faith and how he trusted God
above all else. Isn't that just wonderful? God doesn't remember our
mistakes, but chooses to focus on our positive points! And even if
we make mistakes, He will help us through them!
There's so much to learn from
Abraham's life and I hope you can take some of these lessons and
apply them to your life. I know I have certainly learned a lot!
Therefore I would like to end of
this series with a blessing. I want to pronounce the following
blessing on your life and I hope that you take it and make it your
own:
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob bless you and keep you. May His face shine with favour
towards you. May He look after you just as He did with Abraham. May
you be blessed just as Abraham was. You are his spiritual children
and therefore all God's promises made to Abraham are yours
too. May these blessings rain on you, may it invigorate you, and
may it sustain you and give you the strength to obey God just like
Abraham did. May you make a difference on all those around you just
like Abraham did and may God give you His Shalom peace and keep you
safe from all harm. In Jesus' Name. Amen