“Welcome to the Bible Stories Channel, where we delve into the timeless narratives that have shaped cultures, religions, and individuals for centuries. Today, we embark on a captivating journey through the life of Abraham, a key figure in the biblical narrative and often referred to as the ‘Father of Nations.’ From his initial call to leave his homeland to the harrowing events in Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham’s story is one of faith, obedience, and divine intervention. Join us as we unfold the layers of this compelling tale, exploring the challenges, triumphs, and the overarching themes that resonate through the ages.”
Leave your homeland and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. A voice resounded in the silence of my heart, a voice that, though not audible to the ears, was clearer and more powerful than the roar of any storm. “I will make of you a great nation; I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you, and by you all the peoples of the earth will be blessed.” These were the words of the Lord that resonated in my being, marking the beginning of my story. I am Abraham, born as Abram and a resident of Ur of the Chaldees, a prosperous city in Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers feed the land with life. My father, Terah, was a respected man, but our lives were ordinary, marked by the seasons and the rituals of a polytheistic society.
The divine call was both an awakening and a rupture. “I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12). How could someone like me, a mere mortal among so many, be the one chosen for such a destiny? The promise was as overwhelming as the night sky under which I stood, and it is here, at the age of 75, that my incredible story begins. When I decided to conquer fear and set out on the journey, I could not have imagined that I would make it to 178 years old or that I would have a great offspring. This is where my story begins, with a heart full of hope and a budding faith. I obeyed the Lord and set out with my wife, Sarai, Lot, my nephew, and all our possessions and the people we had gathered. We headed for the land of Canaan, a journey full of hope guided by divine promise. We traveled northwest through Haran and finally arrived in Canaan, a land of rolling hills and fertile valleys. It was a diverse region inhabited by Canaanite peoples and fortified city-states, each ruled by its own king. Life in Canaan was different from Ur; here, fields and vineyards stretched as far as the eye could see, and the scent of olive and fig trees filled the air. We discovered that although the land stretching before us was rich and promising, it was occupied by other peoples and cultures.
I traveled through the country to the holy place of Shechem under the oak of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were the owners of those lands. It was there that the Lord appeared to me again, promising me, “To your descendants, I will give this land.” In honor of Him and His promise, I erected an altar in that holy place. Then I moved toward the hill country east of Bethel and between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. I set up my camp there too, erected an altar to the Lord, and called upon His name, marking every place of my sojourn with an act of faith and devotion. However, the test of our faith was not long in coming. The promised land, which had welcomed my steps under the blessing of a divine promise, soon became inhospitable under the yoke of severe famine. “Why have you brought us to this place?” I wondered, looking skyward, searching for answers. The decision to leave for Egypt, the land of the Nile and its full granaries, was made with regret, knowing that it tested the Almighty’s promise to care for my family. “Fear not, Abram,” the promise echoed. “I am your shield; your reward will be very great” (Genesis 15). Still aware of Sarai’s beauty and fearing for my life, I hatched a plan. I asked her to pose as my sister: “Thus I will be well treated for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you.” Indeed, upon arriving in Egypt, Sarai’s beauty captivated everyone, including the officers of Pharaoh’s court, and she was taken to his palace. For her, I received deferential treatment, acquiring sheep, cows, donkeys, maidservants, asses, and camels. My stay in Egypt was marked by the dissonance between the opulence of the palaces and the slavery of many of its inhabitants. However, the Lord inflicted great evils on Pharaoh and his people because of Sarai. Pharaoh, realizing the truth, confronted me: “What have you done to me? Why did you not warn me that she was your wife? Why did you say that she was your sister, allowing me to take her as my wife?” There, you have your wife; take her and go.” After this, he ordered his men to escort us out, along with Sarai and all our property.
When we were expelled from Egypt, we not only returned to Canaan with more than we had brought with us but also with a deeper understanding of the nature of our God — a protector, a provider, an unfailing guide in times of uncertainty. From Egypt, I ascended to the Negeb along with my wife and all our possessions, and Lot was coming with us. By God’s blessing, I had accumulated great wealth in cattle, silver, and gold. We continued our journey northward, returning to Bethel, to the place of our first encampment between Bethel and Ai, where I had previously built an altar to the Lord, and where I again called upon His name.
Lot, who accompanied me, also owned sheep, cows, and tents. Our possessions had grown so much that there was no longer enough space for us and our flocks, which led to conflicts between my shepherds and Lot’s shepherds. At that time, the territory was inhabited by the Canaanites and the Perizzites, which further complicated the situation. To avoid disputes and maintain peace, I proposed a solution to Lot: “There should be no conflicts between us or our shepherds since we are family. See, the whole earth is before you; if you choose to go left, I will go right; if you prefer to go to the right, I will go to the left.”
Lot observed the Jordan Valley, which was a fertile land similar to the garden of the Lord or Egypt before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Thus, he chose for himself the entire lower Jordan region and moved eastward, separating us physically. I stayed in Canaan, while Lot settled near Sodom, whose inhabitants were known for their wickedness and sin against the Lord. After Lot and I went our separate ways, the Lord spoke to me again, reaffirming His promise: “Lift up your eyes and look from where you are to the north, south, east, and west. For all the land you see, I will give it to you and your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth; if anyone could count the dust, he could count your descendants.”
Following the Lord’s command, I traveled the land in its length and breadth, mindful of the divine promise that had been given to me. Finally, I moved my camp and settled by the Oak Grove of Mamre in Hebron, where I erected another altar to the Lord, marking a new beginning and a
sacred place of worship and communion with Him. Grateful for His guidance and promises of blessing for me and my descendants, one fine day, the Lord appeared to me as I was sitting at the entrance to my tent in the Oak Grove of Mamre, at the time of day when the sun was burning brightest.
As I looked up, I noticed three men standing near me. Without hesitation, I ran to them from the entrance of my tent and bowed to the ground as a sign of respect and hospitality. “My Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes, I beg you not to pass by and stop before your servant. Let me bring you some water to wash your feet and rest under this tree. I will bring you a piece of bread so that you may regain your strength before you go on your way. You have passed by your servant.” For some reason, they agreed, saying, “Do as you have said.”
Immediately, I went to the tent where Sarah was and asked her urgently, “Quickly, take three measures of the best flour, knead it, and prepare some cakes.” Then I ran to the corral, selected a tender, well-fed calf, and handed it to a servant to prepare it without delay. I served curds, milk, and the prepared calf to our guests, standing with them under the tree while they ate. It was then that they asked me about Sarah, my wife, and I answered that she was in the tent. One of them, whose words carried the weight of divine promise, said, “I will certainly see you again next year, and by that time, Sarah will have had a son.”
Sarah, listening from the entrance of the tent, laughed inwardly, incredulous at the thought of experiencing the pleasure of motherhood and fatherhood in our advanced age. The Lord, aware of Sarah’s laughter, questioned me, “Why does Sarah laugh, thinking that she cannot have a child in her old age? Is anything impossible for the Lord? When I see you again at the same time next year, Sarah will have borne a son.” Sarah fearfully denied that she had laughed, but the Lord said, “Yes, you have laughed.”
After the men’s departure for Sodom, I reflected on the divine purpose and prepared to bid them farewell. The Lord shared with me His plans, pondering whether I should conceal from myself what was about to be done in Sodom and Gomorrah. Faced with the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, I approached the Lord, pleading for the city. “Will you destroy the righteous along with the guilty? If there are 50 righteous in the city, will you destroy it anyway?” The Lord promised that He would spare the city for the sake of the 50 righteous. My concern for righteousness led me to intercede further, reducing the number of righteous needed to spare the city from destruction to 10. The Lord, in His mercy, agreed not to destroy it if He could find those 10 righteous.
When the two angels arrived in Sodom that evening, my nephew Lot was sitting at the entrance to the city. When he saw them, he rose to meet them, showing respect and bowing to the ground. He begged them, “Please come to your servant’s house for the night. You may wash your feet, and in the morning, be on your way.” Although initially reluctant, agreeing to spend the night in the square, Lot was so insistent that they finally accepted his hospitality and made their way to his house.
There, Lot prepared a meal for them, baked unleavened cookies, and they ate together. Not much time had passed when the men of Sodom, from the young to the old, surrounded the house, demanding that Lot hand over to them the men who had come to abuse them. Lot, going out to confront them and closing the door behind him, begged them not to commit such vileness. He even offered his two daughters rather than allow them to harm his guests—a desperate decision showing his commitment to protect those who had come to his home.
The mob, however, rejected him and threatened to treat him worse than the others. Just as they attempted to break in, the angels intervened, saving Lot and blinding the attackers so that they could not find the door. Then the angels revealed to Lot the purpose of their visit: the imminent destruction of Sodom because of its great wickedness. They urged Lot to gather his family and leave the city. Lot tried to warn his sons-in-law, but they did not take him seriously. At dawn, at Lot’s hesitation, the angel took him by the hand along with his wife and daughters and led him out of the city.
By the Lord’s mercy, once safe, the angels warned Lot to flee to the mountains without looking back. Lot was afraid to go that far and asked for refuge in a small town nearby, Zoar. The angel agreed, allowing Lot and his family to take refuge there. When the sun rose and Lot reached Zoar, the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone and fire from heaven. Lot’s wife, disobeying the command not to look back, became a pillar of salt.
The next morning, I returned to the place where I had stood before the Lord, watching in horror as the smoke of destruction rose from the ground. Although divine judgment had fallen on Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord remembered His promise to me and saved Lot—a testimony to divine justice and mercy even in the midst of judgment. The devastation of those cities was a grim reminder of the consequences of sin and the importance of obedience to God.
From there, I moved to the Negeb area, settling between Kadesh and Shur, and finally made my way to Gerar, where I decided to stay for a while. As I had done on previous occasions for fear that my life would be in danger because of Sarah’s beauty, I said that she was my sister. Abimelech, the king of Gerar, hearing this, sent for Sarah to be brought to his palace that night. However, God intervened in an impressive way. He appeared in a dream to Abimelech and warned him that he was about to make a grave mistake by taking Sarah, for she was my wife.
Abimelech, surprised and frightened by the dream, defended his innocence before God, claiming that he had acted in good faith based on the information that both Sarah and I had given him. God, in His mercy, replied that He was aware of his innocence and that was precisely why He had intervened to prevent him from sinning against Him. He ordered him to return Sarah and added that I, being a prophet, would intercede for him so that he would not die. At dawn, Abimelech summoned his servants and told them what had happened, causing great fear among them.
“As we conclude our exploration of Abraham’s story, we witness a life marked by unwavering faith, even in the face of daunting trials. From the initial call to leave familiar surroundings to the divine promise of descendants as numerous as the stars, Abraham’s journey is a testament to the enduring power of trust in the Almighty. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah serves as a sobering reminder of divine justice and the consequences of disobedience. Yet, amidst the challenges, Abraham emerges as a model of faith, interceding for others and standing as a beacon of hope. Thank you for joining us on this enlightening expedition into the pages of biblical history. Stay tuned for more captivating Bible stories that continue to inspire and shape our understanding of faith
