Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible










Was not our forefather Abraham shown to be upright by his good deeds, namely, by offering Isaac his son upon the altar? Verse ConceptsAncestorsAbraham, New Testament ReferencesJustified By WorksWorks Of Faith






and said to him, 'Leave your country and your kinsmen and come to Whatever country I may show you.' So he left the country of the Chaldeans and for a time made his home in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country in which you now live. He gave him no property in it, not even a foot of land, and yet He promised to give it to him and his descendants after him, as a permanent possession, although he had no child at that time. read more.
This is what God promised: 'His descendants will be strangers living in a foreign land, and its people will enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.' But God further promised: 'I will pass sentence on the nation that enslaves them, and after that they will leave that country and worship me on this very spot.' And with Abraham He made the sacred compact of circumcision, and he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

By faith Abraham, on being called, obeyed in starting off for a country which he was to receive as his own, and he did it in spite of the fact that he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his temporary home in the land that God had promised him, although a land inhabited by others, living merely in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were to share the promise with him. For he was confidently looking forward to that city with the solid foundations, whose architect and builder is God. read more.
By faith Sarah received strength to become pregnant, and actually gave birth to a child, although she was past the time of life for it, because she thought that He who made her the promise was to be trusted. And so there sprang from one man, and that dead as to any prospects for offspring, a people as numberless as the stars in the sky and as the sands beside the seashore. These people all died victoriously as a result of their faith, although they did not receive the blessings promised; that is, because they really saw them in the far-off future and welcomed them, and so professed to be only foreigners and strangers here on earth. For people who make such a profession as this show that they are in search of a country of their own. And if they had been cherishing the memory of the country they had left, they would have had an opportunity to go back. But in reality they were aspiring for a better country, I mean, a heavenly one. This is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test, offered Isaac as a sacrifice; that is, he who had received the promise was starting to offer as a sacrifice his only son,