Grandad says: “Come to think of it, our child, Abraham probably sat on his great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Noah’s knees, just like you, to hear all about God and God’s wisdom for us.”

Nanna says: “Yes Grandad, and Noah was 902 years old, when Abraham was born to his mother and his father Terah. Over the next 58 years Abraham could have learned a lot of good things about God from Noah, before Noah died, 950 years old.” (Genesis 11:10-26)

Grandad says: “That’s right Nanna, and Abraham who was first called “Abram” before God renamed him Abraham, probably knew Shem too, who lived for 210 years after Abram was born. Shem even lived 35 years after Abraham, who died when he was 175 years old” (Genesis 25:7)

“So, a lot of history and knowledge about God could have been easily passed on from Noah, and Shem, to Abraham and Sarah. They then taught their children, Isaac and Jacob, who taught their children”, says Nanna.  “Will you teach your children all about God, when you grow up?”

“So, who was Abraham and Sarah?” we hear you ask.

Well, he was first called Abram by his father Terah, when he was born 292 years after the Flood.

Abram loved God and lovingly obeyed God’s commandments and laws.  (Genesis 26:5)

When he was grown up, God told Abram to leave his father’s house and go to another land with his wife, Sarai and he also took his nephew Lot, with him.  (Genesis 12:4)

After some experiences in Egypt, Abram and Sarai travelled with Lot and all their servants, herds and flocks, up into the promised land of Canaan.

Soon Lot’s servants began to quarrel with Abram’s servants, so Abram took Lot to the top of a high mountain and unselfishly asked his nephew to choose between the mountains or the flat fertile plains to live.

Lot saw that the plains were better than the mountains for his animals, so he took all his family, servants, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle down to the rich Jordan Valley. They lived in the city of Sodom. Abram and his family and animals lived in the mountains.

Lot had made a bad decision, because the people who lived in Sodom were bad people, who did wicked things, and did not keep God’s commandments.

God loved Abram very much, because he loved God and kept God’s laws. (Genesis 18:19, Genesis 26:5)

Even though Abram lived up in the mountains, God blessed him with good rains, and grass for his animals and Abram dug wells and he became very rich in cattle, silver and gold. (Genesis 13:2)

God said He would take care of Abram and his children and make a great nation from his family, even though Abram and his wife Sarai were very old and did not have any children, then.

Lot soon learned he had made a bad mistake to live in Sodom, when 4 kings and their armies from Shinar (the land of Nimrod), suddenly battled against the 5 kings of Lot’s Jordan plains and beat them in war.

They also took Lot and his family as captive slaves. (Genesis 14:14)

Abram hastily gathered 318 of his bravest men, trusted in God’s help, and fought against the Kings’ army.  He saved Lot and his family, alive. The Kings’ army ran away so fast, and left all their valuable gold and silver possessions behind. (Genesis 14:13-16)

“Gideon later did a similar brave thing with only 300 men, with God’s help”, says Grandad. “But, that’s another story, we will tell later on”, says Nanna. (Judges 7:7)

Melchizedek was the “King of Salem” (later called Jerusalem) and he came to congratulate Abram on his courageous victory. He was a very unusual King, called the “King of Righteousness”, because He was also the High Priest, that Abraham gave his tithes to. (Hebrews 7:1-6, Leviticus 27:30)

Melchizedek was the one who was the Word of God. He was God with God the Father, and He later became Jesus Christ the Son of God. (Hebrews 7:3-4)

Grandad and Nanna have learned to tithe, or give one tenth of our “increase” to God, in thankfulness and appreciation to God, just like Abram and Sarai followed God’s statute law of tithing.

Just like Abram and Sarai, Grandad and Nanna have been very blessed, because of tithing, just like God promises us, if we happily obey God. (Malachi 3:8-11, Numbers 18:19, Hebrews 7:5, Hebrews 7:12)

Abram loved keeping God’s good laws like tithing, because God uses the money given to His servants.  God’s tithing money is used, to preach and teach and publish the good news about God and God’s plan to bring God’s Kingdom and government to this Earth for 1,000 years. (Revelation 20:4-6, Isaiah 9:6-7, Daniel 7:18, Daniel 7:27)

God uses His laws like the Sabbath, annual Holy Days, tithing, eating clean meats and not unclean meats, to test us, to see if we will love God, have faith and trust in God.

God wants to know if we will lovingly obey the things God has wisely told us to do …or will we be like most people in this world, and be foolish, selfish and rebellious against God?

This is a big lesson that Grandad and Nanna have learned, from the brave and good example of Abram and Sarai, who God blessed and changed their names to Abraham and Sarah.

To give is better than get.  To love is better than hate. Be generous and not mean and miserly.

We have found that you cannot out-give God. God is good. God gives and is very generous to us.

God promised Abram that he would be the father of a great nation, as a reward for learning to live God’s right Way of life. But, because Abram and Sarai were getting old, Sarai didn’t believe she could have children. So, she gave her Egyptian maid, Hagar to Abram, so they could have a child.

This was not the right thing to do, but Abram and Sarai thought their way was better than God’s Way. (Proverbs 16:25)

So, when Abram was 86 years old, Hagar had a baby boy, who was called Ishmael. His name means “God hears”. He became the father of the Arabian people, today.

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord God (who later became Jesus Christ) appeared to Abram and said his name was to be changed to “Abraham”, which means “father of many nations”. The Lord also said Sarai’s name would be changed to Sarah, which means “princess”. Sarah was to be a “mother of nations and kings”. (Genesis 17:4-6, Genesis 17:15-16)

God said that even though Sarah was 89 years old, she would have a son when she was 90. (Genesis 21:1-3)

When Abraham and Sarah heard this, they both laughed, because they couldn’t believe Sarah would have a child, when she was passed child bearing age. (Genesis 17:17, Genesis 18:12)

So the Lord said his name would be called, Isaac, which means “he laughed”. 

Isaac was also to become the child of God’s “Covenant” agreement, for us to love God with all our hearts and minds and to love living by God’s good laws for us, so God could bless us.  (Genesis 17:19, Genesis 17:21, Joshua 22:5)

Sure enough, when Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 years old, Isaac was born, and there was great joy, as they realised that God always keeps His promises, and we should never doubt God.

Isaac became the father of Israel which became our modern day nations of Israel. (Read “America and Britain in Prophecy”)

“There is much more to this wonderful story”, says Nanna …“but we will have to save it for next time”, says Grandad.

To be continued in Chapter 8...