Abraham: Difference between revisions

Hebrew patriarch and progenitor of the [[twelve tribes of Israel]] (c. 2100–1700 <small>B</small>.<small>C</small>.), an embodiment of the Ascended Master [[El Morya]]. Jews, Christians and Moslems accord him the place in history as the first to worship the one true God. In the biblical account of his life, he is originally referred to as Abram (meaning “the father, or my father, is exalted”) and is later named by God Abraham. Traditionally taken to mean “father of a multitude of nations” from the passage in Gen. 17:5, Abraham is currently thought to be a dialectic variant of Abram.  

=== Call to the Promised Land ===

Genesis tells us that Abraham, his father and his family left Ur to dwell some 600 miles away in Haran, a major commercial center in northwest Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent (where Syria now is). Although the Bible is silent on Abraham’s early years, according to Jewish oral tradition he was fully engaged in a battle to win converts to monotheism and is said to have smashed the idols of his father, Terah, an idol maker who the Book of Joshua says “served other gods.”<ref>Josh. 24:2.</ref>

Abraham left Ur with his wife, Sarai (whose name was later changed by God to Sarah), his nephew Lot, and “all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haran.”<ref>Gen. 12:5.</ref> When they arrived in the land of Canaan, the Lord appeared to Abraham and again promised, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” And it is written that here Abraham erected an altar to Yahweh “and called upon the name of the L<small>ORD</small>.”<ref>Gen. 12:8.</ref>  

When a severe famine struck the land, Abraham traveled south to Egypt. Afraid that the Egyptians would kill him because his wife was such a beautiful woman, Abraham represented Sarah as his sister and allowed the Pharaoh to take her into his household. As a result, the Lord plagued the Pharaoh and his house. When the Egyptian ruler learned the truth, he quickly sent Abraham and Sarah away with all the servants, cattle and riches Abraham had acquired in Egypt.  

Thirteen years later, when Abraham was 99 and Sarah 90, the Lord revealed himself to the patriarch as El Shaddai, “the Almighty God,” and established an everlasting covenant with Abraham to be a God unto him and his seed. He promised to give Abraham and his descendants “all the land of Canaan.... Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.”<ref>Gen. 17:8, 5.</ref>  

The Lord also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah and told Abraham that she would be “a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.”<ref>Gen. 17:16.</ref> He revealed that Sarah would bear a son, Isaac, “at this set time in the next year” and that Isaac, not Ishmael, was to be Abraham’s heir.  

Finally, as the Lord had prophesied, Sarah “conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age.... And the child grew and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast.”<ref>Gen. 21:8.</ref>  

=== Sacrifice of Isaac ===

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[[Category:Embodiments of ascended masters]]

[[Category:Messengers]]