THE EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM

How would you feel if you were told that through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed?  Would it make a difference in how you view yourself, how you live your life and how you parent your children?  How much would such a promise strengthen your commitment to God and to living righteously?  This promise was given to Father Abraham after he had passed the ultimate test of being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham's whole life was a life of righteousness and perfect example to us, his posterity. In his First Presidency Message in 1975,  President Kimball claimed that Abraham was such a model of righteousness that following his example will lead us to eternal life:

"As we follow Abraham's example, we will grow from grace to grace, we will find greater happiness and peace and rest, we will find favour with God and with man.  As we follow his example, we will confirm upon ourselves and our families joy and fulfillment in this life and for all eternity." (President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, June 1975, p 7)

From the very beginning of his life, Abraham had an acute spiritual sensitivity to the reality of the one true and living God.  Consider these insights from his early life:

"At just three years of age, as one source has it, the boy already 'began to understand the nature of God', so that the next year he resisted when his grandfather tried to teach him to worship idols.  Nor could Abraham's father, despite long and persistent effort, persuade his son to revere the statues.  Young Abraham 'was all alone with God', says Hugh Nibley, 'dependent on no man and no tradition, beginning as it were from scratch .... Having no human teachers, he must think things out for himself, until he receives light from above'."
(E. Douglas Clark, The Blessings of Abraham, Becoming A Zion People, p. 40)

"An ancient and widespread legend tells of bold action taken by the young Abraham.  The story is not found in the Bible, but it is the most oft-repeated Abrahamic narrative in the Qur'an, is found in numerous ancient Jewish sources, and was repeated by Brigham Young, John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff.  As recounted by Jewish sources, it began when the young Abraham found himself alone in a room full of idols.  But one important source, the Maaseh Avraham Avinu, specifies that this was not just any occasion and not just any room full of idols.  The event was a major religious festival called by King Nimrod himself and was centered at Nimrod's pagan temple.  Abraham had been urged to attend by his father but declined to go and was instructed to stay behind to guard the idols.

When Abraham was all alone, he acted boldly and decisively.  Some sources report that 'the Spirit of God came upon him'.  As recounted by the Maaseh Avraham Avinu, 'He took an axe in his hand, and as he saw the idols of the king sitting, he said, 'The Eternal, He is God', and he 'pushed them off their thrones to the ground, and he smote them mightily.  With the large ones he began, and with the small ones he finished.  He lopped off this one's hands, he cut off this one's head and blinded this one's eyes, and he broke that one's legs' until 'all of them were broken'.  Then, placing 'the axe in the hand of the largest idol', Abraham left.

When his father and the king returned and discovered the wreckage, they were wroth.  'The king commanded that Abraham be brought before him.  And they brought him.  The king and his ministers said to him, 'Why did you shatter our gods?'  He said to them, 'I didn't break them, no.  Rather, the large one of them smashed them.  Don't you see that the axe is in his hand? And if you won't believe it, ask him and he will tell'.  And as the king heard his words, he became angry to the point of killing him."  (E. Douglas Clark, The Blessings of Abraham, Becoming A Zion People, p. 47)

How appropriate then that the Lord would hear Abraham's cries for help whilst under the knife of the priest of Elkenah and honour Abraham's fortitude in destroying Nimrod's dumb idols.  Abraham had two admirable desires which God honoured by rescuing him from human sacrifice:  he desired to change his world by removing himself from a family and society that sought 'to do evil' (Abraham 1:6); and he sought for the blessings of the priesthood.  There would have been no more righteous desire than this that was in the heart of Abraham:

"......I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God...." (Abraham 1:2)

Not only did Abraham desire to be a father of many nations but he ensured he was a father that could be followed in righteousness and example in all things.  One Jewish tradition records that Abraham's deliverance from human sacrifice was so marvelous that many onlookers who witnessed it came to believe in God and bore witness to others of God's power and that Abraham was his servant (Gorion, Mimekor Yisrael, 1:45-46).  In addition, 'many followed Abraham home, and brought their children to him, and said, 'Now we see that the God in whom thou trustest, is the only true God: teach our children the truth, that they may serve Him in righteousness (Baring-Gould, Legends of the Patriarchs, 160). (E. Douglas Clark, The Blessings of Abraham, p. 58

Abraham was all a good father should be.  The available Jewish writings portray him as a man full of loving-kindness, humility, submission and gentleness.  A man who loved righteousness, was clean of heart and pure from sin and who sought to establish Zion wherever he went.  He is remembered among his Jewish descendants as 'the embodiment of hesed (loving-kindness), 'for the decisive factor in Abraham's personality was the unceasing urge to help others'.  It is remarkable to note that the three messengers who came to announce the promise of a long awaited son, were 'found' by Abraham whilst he was searching for someone who might be in need of help.

"....Abraham 'was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot' (JPST Gen 18:2).  It was the hottest part of a very hot day, say the rabbis, with the sun beating down mercilessly.  As one writer recounts, 'Abraham sits in his tent door enjoying its grateful shade, and looking out on the plain of Mamre, from which the sun's fiery beams have driven men, birds and panting beasts to such shelter as rocks and trees and tents can afford'.

Abraham, however, was not focused on himself and his discomfort, compounded by his recent circumcision, but was worrying for travelers who might need assistance on a day like that.  'Notwithstanding the intense heat and his own sickness he still sat there to invite any stray passer-by'.  When no one came, he sent his servant to go in search of anyone needing help, even though Abraham had planted trees for the benefit of travelers - rest stops along the way.  When the servant returned without success, Abraham determined to go himself.  It was then, says rabbinic tradition, that Abraham discovered the three travelers.

Abraham might easily have remained seated, and simply directed a servant or subordinate to attend to these travelers. Or, says one writers, 'he may wait their approach, leaving them to solicit his hospitality.  Not he - Abraham arose and despite the scorching heat, and 'although he was in great pain from his wound, ran forward to meet them'.  Genesis tells that upon reaching them he 'bowed himself towards the ground' (Gen. 18:2)." (E. Douglas Clark, The Blessings of Abraham, p. 172)

It is then that he received the promise of Isaac.

The sacrifice the Lord asked of him which followed some years later is just unimaginable in my mind. Through his willingness to offer this sacrifice Abraham proved that he loved God above all else.  Is it any wonder then that the Lord was willing to make a covenant with him that would grant him the blessings he most desired?  This covenant is known to us as the Abrahamic Covenant, a covenant with which we should make ourselves very familiar because by virtue of being of Abraham's seed, we are entitled to every blessing that comes under its' promise.  Not only are direct descendants of Abraham counted as his seed but all who accept Christ's gospel and are baptised into his Church become his 'adopted' children.  Looking at the diversity of the members of the Church, we can easily see how Abraham becomes 'a father of many nations'.

"The covenant that the Lord first made with Abraham and reaffirmed with Isaac and Jacob is of transcendent significance.  It contained several promises:

• Abraham's posterity would be numerous,
• and will bear the priesthood;
• He would become a father of many nations;
• Christ and kings would come through Abraham's lineage;
• Certain lands would be inherited;
• All nations of the earth would be blessed by his seed.

That covenant would be everlasting - even through 'a thousand generations."

(Elder Russell M Nelson, Ensign, May 1995, p 33)

These promises came to Abraham only after he married Sarah for without her he could not obtain them.  The blessings promised could not be obtained unless Abraham entered into the 'Order of the Priesthood' and this order could not be entered into without a legal wife. But not just any wife.  Sarah was in every way Abraham's equal.  She was devoted, righteous and submissive.  Together they were a perfect example of what a marriage union should be; he lead in righteousness and she followed in righteousness. "Together Abraham and Sarah were, in the words of Erastus Snow, 'models of noble character, purity of purpose' and 'superior integrity to God', whom they 'hesitated not to obey....at all hazards even to the sacrifice of that which was nearest and dearest unto them". (E. Douglas Clark, The Blessings of Abraham, Becoming a Zion People, p. 107)

We cannot have ancestral parents of more noble character than Sarah and Abraham.  Because of their exceedingly righteous example, God commands us to look to them for understanding of our origin and our destiny.  In Isaiah chapter 51, we read:

"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.  Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.  For the Lord shall comfort Zion. (Isaiah 51:1-3)