The Renown of Abraham and Descendants

CONSIDER the prominence, the standing, of the record devoted to Abraham in our Bible. The first two thousand years of human history, starting with Adam being expelled from the garden are all covered in eleven chapters from Genesis chapter 1 to chapter 11. No less than twenty generations—a period of twenty centuries—are covered in these eleven brief chapters. This first section of Genesis ends at chapter 11, verse 30. The second section of Genesis begins with the record of Abram who would later have his name changed by God, to Abraham. All the rest of the Book of Genesis from chapter 12 to 50, covering a period of only about four hundred years, is entirely devoted to the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham’s great grandson, Joseph. The rest of the Old Testament, the entire thirty-nine books, deals with the history of the nation which sprang from Abraham, the nation of Israel, as promised to Abraham by God, Himself. All the rest of the entire Bible is occupied with, centers in, and focuses on Abraham’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

These simple, yet important facts at the outset of this series of messages on Abraham sets the emphasis and the important, strategic place he holds in the revelation of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind. There are only four men who dominate the greater part of the first book of the Bible, and their descendants dominate the entire Scriptures. In the history of these four men we see God’s wonderful plan of redemption. The theme of the whole Bible is salvation through grace, appropriated by faith. While the Bible contains a great deal of information concerning various subjects such as history, geography, geology, the customs and habits of people, chemistry and almost every other subject you could think of, these subjects are only introduced to reveal the plan of salvation and because they have some bearing on the revelation of God’s plan of redemption through Abraham’s greatest descendant, Jesus Christ.

Adapted and Excerpts from Studies in the Life of Abraham by M. R. De Haan (1891-1964)
*Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.