“And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”
Acts 9:5a

On Monday, I challenged you to think about the reason why God picked Abraham for such an honor. The same with God’s “Chosen People” in the Israelites. The same with you and me, as born-again believers. Come to think about it, the same with Paul or Moses or Gideon or Jeremiah or…..on and on it goes.

I figured the genealogy of Abraham going back to Noah. It turns out that all of his male ancestors, including Noah, were still alive when Abraham was born. In fact, he was ten when Noah, his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather died. In fact, Shem, one of Noah’s sons who survived the flood, lived 34 year longer than Abraham! At the time Abraham left his home and family, at age 75, only three of his ancestors had died. Sometime, assumedly earlier on, there was the Tower Babel incident. From what I make of it, all this was in the area of Bagdad, Iraq in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans.

It was his father, Terah, that originally set out to live in Canaan, which is generally where Israel is today. However, he stopped and settled in Haran, which is 400-500 miles to the north. Then, when Abraham was 75 years old, God told him to pack up and move to the land of Canaan, to a land where he will make of him a great nation. Canaan was inhabited by a descendent of one other son of Noah’s – Ham.

That’s about it. “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’” (Genesis 9:1) Of Noah, it is recorded, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9b) The same was said of Enoch before him. Noah’s father said at the time of his birth, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” (5:29) Nothing like that was said of Abraham before God approached him about his assigned journey.

So, your guess is as good as mine as to why God chose him. Was it because he was such a good guy? Nothing was said about him walking with God as was said about Enoch and Noah. Perhaps he did, but the bible doesn’t say that. Besides, we also know that Noah had his faults, or at least one fault: wine. But as of Abraham, it doesn’t say anything good or bad about him leading up to God choosing him. He’s just one more name in a long list of names.

What do we make of this? How does this apply to our own lives, if it applies at all? We tend to think that the closer we walk with God, the more blessings we receive. Is this right? Let’s face it, Abraham is the father of blessings, so can we assume that he was the tightest of them all in his walk with God? If there is no record, then we probably shouldn’t assume that he was. Maybe he was like the people of Babel and tried to elevate himself to the level of God. Perhaps he then came around in his thinking and called upon the name of the Lord? Unfortunately for us, there is no record of any kind.

Or, is there another answer? Maybe God has a different criterion. Seriously, folks. We know that the world was wicked before Noah as well as afterward. At Babel, humans tried to put themselves like gods. The same is true today. Could it be that God chooses based upon his own will and not ours? Might God have a purpose for us that is for his own purpose?

I’m going to consider all this some more tomorrow. Until then, I encourage you to do the same.

Father, where do you have us going with this? Amen.

Copyright © 2019 Scott Powers