No .02 Father Abraham

So, if you have been reading the bible for a while I am sure you are very familiar with the story of Abraham, or Abram as he started off.
Maybe, like me you have that infuriating song now starting to creep its way back into your mind…forgive me..

Father Abraham has many sons, many sons had father Abraham…

Thing is, when I read the exploits of Abraham, the picture I get in my head is of this old bloke, white beard, white wavy hair looking all, well, old. I hadn’t ever really thought of Abraham as a warrior or action man in that sense.

Now my maths could be off here, so if it is let me know in the comments, but the way I see this, Abram is promised a son, he waits about 20 years for that son who arrives when Abraham is 100 years old. So he must have been about 80 when the promise came in. The promise came in just after Abraham rescues Lot, could be a few years in it, so I think that when Abraham rescues his nephew Lot (the action in today’s blog) he was about 75+ years old.

“Don’t be discouraged, you will find with God, that it is never too late to get involved.”

If my maths is correct, and Abraham was a man in his 70’s, going to battle is very impressive. The story was that Sodom, where Lot lived got sacked by four kings that had come together, they took Lot and a load of other possessions with them as spoils of war.

“When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.
Genesis 14:14-16

I love this moment of action because Abraham could have processed this in loads of ways that would avoid some sort of direct action. “I’m too old for this, there must be someone else, this can’t be happening, where can I bury my head and hope this goes away?’

Abraham gets news of this and calls out for back up from his own household and immediately goes into action. Men, I think there is a danger for us blokes to get old and comfortable too quickly. We can take our foot off the gas and drop into a rut so easily when we actually have a lot of battling left to do.

I’m not saying this is all about your energy and a physical fight, I remember a guy who mentored me for a few years with incredible insight into the bible. He just made time for me, made it a priority and didn’t forget to show up.

The battles will be different shapes and sizes but the point is, God isn’t finished until he calls time on the earth suit and calls you home. Take courage from Abraham, even in his 70’s he wasn’t done fighting yet.

Image Credit: Word for WORD Bible Comic
The Word for WORD Bible Comic is a historically accurate, unabridged and untamed graphic novel of the Bible with a high view of Scripture.