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Firm Foundations

Creation to Christ

Lesson 16 - God Chose, Called and Guided Abram; Lot Chose the Fertile Plains of Sodom and Gomorrah

Questions for the LFC Firm Foundations Coordinator may be emailed to firmfoundations@lenoxchurch.org

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REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Why could God give Noah and his sons control over all the animals, birds, and fish? Because the world and everything in it belongs to God.

2. What sign did God give to show He would never again destroy the earth by a flood? The rainbow.

3. Has God kept His promise? Yes, God is true to His Word. He never lies. He never changes.

4. Did the generation following the flood know the truth about God? Yes.

5. How did they know?

a. The truth about God the Creator and His judgment by the flood was told from one generation to the next.

b. They could see that there was an almighty Creator by the things which God had made. The sun, moon, stars, and all the things on the earth were proof that God was their almighty Creator.

c. The rainbow was God’s sign in the sky.

6. Did the descendants of Noah all worship God? Did they agree with what He said and trust in His promise to send the Deliverer? No, only a few believed and worshiped God.

7. What did the majority of the people do?

a. They deliberately turned away from what they knew was the truth and followed the lies of Satan.

b. They worshiped idols made like people, birds, animals, and reptiles. They also worshiped the sun, moon, and stars.

8. Who were these people? They were the descendants of Adam and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, so they were our ancestors.

9. Why did they begin to build the tower of Babel?

a. So that they would not be scattered all over the world as God had commanded.

b. So that they would be greatly exalted on the earth.

10. Did God know what they were planning to do? Yes.

11. Does God know all the secrets which people have? Yes, He knows them all.

12. What did the Lord do? He gave different languages to different families so they could no longer understand one another.

13. What was the result? The various families separated from one another and moved to different places.

14. Where did our earliest ancestors get their religious beliefs? From Satan and also from their own ideas when they deliberately turned from the truth about God.

THE FOLLOWING ARE OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

15. Name some attitudes prevalent among the people of Babel that are common to people today. Pride and rebellion.

16. What would you say are some of the things that men and women worship today? Answers will vary and may include the following: men and women today worship movie stars; outward beauty; money; fame; themselves, etc.

How many of you know the name of your great-great-grandfather? Not many of us know the names of our ancestors, but today we are going to talk about a man who lived about 4,000 years ago and is still remembered by his descendants.

Why is he remembered?

- He is remembered because of God’s promises to him.

- He is remembered because he believed God.

Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; Abram was a descendant of Shem. Abram, the son of Terah, lived close to where the people had begun to build the great tower of Babel.

Later on in their story, we will see Abram’s and Sarai’s names change. Abram married Sarai, but Abram and Sarai didn’t have any children.

- Note:

In those days, the inability to have children was considered to be a disgrace. Couples who had no children were looked down upon by society. Male children were most desirable so that a man might have heirs to carry on his family name.

Terah, Abram’s father, moved from Ur and traveled up to Haran.

- Terah took Abram and Sarai with him.

- He also took his grandson, Lot, because Lot’s father had died in Ur. Terah planned to go into Canaan, but they only got as far as Haran, where Terah died.

Refer to the map below.

- God called Abram to leave his own country and go into the land of Canaan.

- God spoke directly to Abram and told him what he was to do; the Bible was not yet written in Abram’s day. God doesn’t speak to us now through a voice. He speaks to us through His written Word, the Bible. The only way we can know about God and His message for us is through the words of this book, the Bible.

Where Abram lived in Mesopotamia the people worshiped idols.

- They did not trust, love, or obey God, their Creator.

- Joshua 24:2 tells us that Abram’s father, Terah, was an idolater. Was Abram also a sinner? Yes, he, too, was a descendant of Adam. But Abraham believed God.

- He came to God in God’s revealed way.

- He trusted in God and His promises.

God’s plan for Abram could not be achieved while Abram was living among his idolatrous countrymen.

- He must leave his homeland.

- He must go to the country to which God promised He would guide him. God had the right to tell Abram what to do.

- God is greater than all.

- He is supreme.

Our ancestors, the descendants of Noah, had deliberately turned away from God and the truth.

- They worshiped the things which God had created instead of God, their Creator.

- They rebelled against Him by beginning to build the tower of Babel. In spite of all their sinfulness, however, God did not abandon His plan to rescue mankind from Satan’s power and everlasting punishment.

- No one and nothing can stop God from carrying out His plans.

- Consider:

Listen to what God said many years later through His prophet Isaiah to people who were still worshiping Babylon’s false god, Marduk: “Remember this, and show yourselves men; recall to mind, O you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. Saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:8-10).

Whatever God promises to do, He does. Whatever God begins, He brings to a conclusion. Nothing can keep God from carrying out His plans and accomplishing His purposes.

- Calling Abram was God’s next step in His plan to deliver men from their bondage to sin. God is still the same today as He was in the days of Abram.

- He is still loving, merciful, and gracious.

- He has not forgotten His plan to save people from everlasting punishment.

- He wants everyone to be saved from Satan’s power and from sin.

Let’s read God’s promises to Abram.

- Even though Abram and Sarai did not have any children, God promised Abram that he would become the father of a great nation.

- God also promised that He would protect and prosper Abram so that he would become an important man and that, through him, others would also receive great benefit and help.

- God also promised that He would prosper those who helped Abram, but He would bring evil on anyone who treated Abram wrongly.

- Let’s take a closer look at the end of verse 3: “...in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ”

This is the greatest of all the promises given to Abram, because it is about the Deliverer. Do you remember our studying that, in the garden of Eden, God promised He would send a Deliverer into the world to crush the power of Satan? God now promised that one of Abram’s descendants would be that Deliverer. All families of the earth would be blessed through Abram’s descendant.

- That promise includes you and your family and me and my family and all of the other families and all people in the world.

- The Deliverer whom God promised to send was for all people in every part of the world.

Abram’s environment and circumstances:

- Remember that Abram was living in a very idolatrous, sinful world and came from a family that did not worship God.

- Abram, like Noah, was surrounded by men and women who scorned God and followed after their own evil desires.

- Abram and Sarai were childless.

In spite of his environment and his circumstances, Abram believed God’s promises.

- Abram believed that God would send the Deliverer and that the Deliverer would be one of his descendants.

- Abram, like Noah, believed God’s Word, and for that reason, he obeyed God.

Refer to the map below

- Consider:

Let’s keep in mind as we study the story of Abram that he was a real person in history, one who is mentioned many times throughout the Old and New Testament. Archeological discoveries at Ur, Mari, Ebla and other ancient sites agree with the details in the Bible concerning life in Abram’s time, that is, about 2,000 B.C. Recently, many new details have come to light about travel and trade, marriage and family, and even common names which agree with the biblical account.

- Consider:

Abram was very rich and had many servants, cattle, sheep, and goats. He took all that he owned with him. It is impossible for us to appreciate everything that was involved in such a journey, but we need to think about the fact that Abram’s decision to follow God was not a mere whim or desire for adventure. Abram made the decision to go because Abram believed God. Can you imagine “pulling up stakes” and taking off across the land with all your family and possessions and heading for a strange country—all in obedience to the God whom your neighbors scoffed at? Remember, Abram was a man of wealth and standing. People were watching him.

The city Abram had left earlier, Ur of the Chaldees, was an urban center with houses and temples similar to those at Babel. The remains of the city of Ur can be seen in the country of Iraq today. But now Abram had to travel and live in tents. In spite of inconvenience and social pressures, Abram believed God and obeyed Him, trusting all his family and possessions and reputation into God’s care. Abraham realized that God was totally worthy of his trust.

Lot, Abram’s nephew, also went with Abram and Sarai. Lot also believed God and trusted in His promises.

The Lord faithfully guided Abram to Canaan, the land that He had promised to give to him.

Lot, Abram’s nephew, was also rich like his uncle. Because they both had many sheep and cattle, it wasn’t long before trouble developed between the men taking care of their herds and flocks.

Abram had a solution which he proposed to Lot.

Lot looked around to make his choice; he chose the grassy plain which he thought would be best for his animals.

- Even though Lot believed and trusted in God, he wasn’t thinking of what was the best thing for him and his family and how this move would affect their knowledge of God or their ability to please Him.

- Lot was probably thinking only of how to make more money.

- Some terrible things happened to Lot because of this choice.

- Consider:

Remember Cain’s foolish decision to ignore God? All of his descendants were drowned in the flood. We need to be careful of the choices we make. In our society, we are continually pressured to make choices about things that really have no eternal value: How can we make more money? What shall we buy? Where will we go? What will we do tomorrow? What about vacation? But the real issues of life are seldom mentioned: What about our relationship to God? What do our children know about God? What has God written for us in His Word? What about the penalty for our sins?

If a person chooses to turn away from learning what God has written for him in the Bible, that person will regret it forever .We do not want to face the fact that God has prepared a place of punishment for all who turn against Him. Satan does not want us to think about it! But the Lake of Fire is a real place where Satan and all his demons and everyone who refuses God will spend eternity. What good will it do us to own everything in the world if we die and go to Hell? No one wants to talk about these things. We are continually urged to have more things and to think less about God. But God calls to us through His Word—pleads with us—to listen to Him and to believe Him.

- Compare:

Abram stayed up in the rocky, less fertile hills and mountains. Lot moved down to the fertile plain. In the eyes of men, it would seem that Abram was the “loser” in this division of territory. But God knows the truth which we cannot see on the surface of things.

Down on the plains, there were two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah.

- These cities were very wicked.

- The people who lived there didn’t want to know about God or what He wanted them to do.

- They were only thinking of themselves and of the evil things they were doing. God knew this and would have told Lot if he had asked. But instead, Lot just chose what seemed to look the best to him, and in doing so he took a tragic step away from God and into a terribly dangerous place of great evil.

Even though the people of Sodom and Gomorrah weren’t thinking about God, He saw all they did.

- He was their Creator.

- He rightfully owned them, even though they were following Satan.

- Consider:

Although people ignore God and refuse to listen to His message, He still knows all about them. They may choose to reject God and follow Satan, but they still rightfully belong to God. He will judge and punish them when He decides that He has given them enough time to change their minds and agree with Him.

Lot made a choice based on selfish desires. But Abram obeyed God because he believed that God would do all He had promised.

In our next lesson, we will consider further how God worked in these men’s lives. Let’s think about our own lives and our choices, too, in light of what we’re learning about God.

QUESTIONS:

1. Did God abandon His plan to send a Deliverer for mankind because they rebelled against God and built the tower of Babel?

2. What did God do to ensure that the Deliverer would be born into the world?

3. What did God tell Abram to do?

4. How many children did Abram and Sarai have when God told Abram to go into a different country?

5. What did God promise Abram?

a.

b.

c.

d.

6. Who would this descendant of Abram be?

7. God spoke directly to Abram, but how does God speak to people today?

8. Did God choose Abram because Abram wasn’t a sinner?

9. How did Abram come to God to worship Him?

10. What did Abram do when God gave him the promises?

11. What similarities do you see in Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and Abram?

12. Why did Lot move away from Abram and live down on the plain near to Sodom and Gomorrah?

a.

b.

13. What benefit will riches be to people if, when they die, they go to everlasting punishment?

14. Who saw the wicked things the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did?

15. Are any thoughts, words, or actions hidden from God?

Suggested Daily Bible Readings:

Day 76: Numbers, Chapters 34 and 35

Day 77: Numbers, Chapter 36 and Deuteronomy, Chapter 1

Day 78: Deuteronomy, Chapters 2 and 3

Day 79: Deuteronomy, Chapters 4 and 5

Day 80: Deuteronomy, Chapters 6 and 7