Abraham the priest and the prophet Pt.2

Messages for October 2017: Our Month of THE BLESSING

Message for Sunday 29^th October, 2017

Theme: Walking in the Footsteps of Abraham

Topic: Abraham the priest and the prophet Pt.2

Introduction: Last week, we began to conclude our theme for this month with this very interesting topic looking at the priestly and the prophetic roles played by our father Abraham. We established among other things that an observation of Abraham’s lifestyle discloses to us that he was a priest of God and he proved that by habitually raising altars to God everywhere he found himself.

We further related this to the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ who has by his sacrifice made us priests and kings to the Lord our God. We also saw that whereas the priests of the time of Abraham used animal sacrifices, now we depend on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ who obtained eternal redemption for us once; at this end of time. [Heb.9:12-15]

Today, we shall be looking at Abraham the prophet. I believe this will also bless us as seeing him as a priest did.

Abraham the Prophet: The first time I saw Abraham referred to as a prophet in the bible, it came from the mouth of God. In Genesis 20:7, we read: “Now restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.”  The implication of this was that Abraham was not just a prophet because he could prophesy, but because he was standing in the office of a prophet from God’s view point.

Who then is a prophet? According to the Farlex dictionary for IPad, a prophet is one inspired by God to speak in his name or announce future events as Moses, Elijah etc. in other words, a prophet is someone who speaks by divine inspiration. The best person to tell you who a prophet is however, is God. In the text quoted above, God called Abraham a prophet. However, in another place where we hear God define who a prophet is in the bible, we find Amos giving us another definition of a prophet in Amos 3:7. Amos says it this way: surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets. This in other words mean prophets are God’s confidants who serve Him. We can therefore list out who a prophet is as follows:

1.     A servant of God who is usually inspired by God to speak on His behalf. This aptly describes Abraham. His service rendered to strangers which unknown to him were angels in Genesis 17 paints a clear picture of this. He offered them lodging and to wash their feet and feed them. This fetched him the manifestation of his desired miracle of a son by his own wife even when it was thought to be too late for them. This kind of act was encouraged by the Apostle Paul while promoting good works in Heb.13:2.

2.     A friend of God: Prophets are usually friends of God. Just like a friend confides in his friend before doing anything, so does God with Abraham. In Gen.19:18, God asked himself if he could hide what He was about to do from Abraham seeing that Abraham was going to pass on the legacy to subsequent generations. The idea of Abraham being a friend of God was actually communicated to us by God Himself through the prophet Isaiah in Isa.41:8. In Amos 3:7 we are made to understand the principle of friendship with God by the prophet when he said the Lord will do nothing except He first reveals it to His servants the prophets. 

3.     God’s confidant: A confidant is one to whom secrets are disclosed. It is someone to whom private matters are confided. God saw to it the He disclosed so many private matters to Abraham knowing he could count on him. Many of the things God told Abraham were not recorded in the Torah but the Lord gave us a clue when He said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day and saw it and was glad. Jn.8:56

4.     One who forth tells and foretells on God’s behalf: To forth tell is to simply speak on behalf of someone whereas to fore tell is to speak of future things to come. Abraham did both. At a point, when Abimelech tried to marry Abraham’s wife for her beauty thinking she was just his sister, he was led to pray for him as God’s prophet to avert the wrath of God from befalling the house of Abimelech. He did this and the wrath of God was averted. See Gen.20:7

5.     They are the eagle wings of God. During the time of Moses, God used this term to describe the ministry of Moses to the children of Israel. Then we could picture Moses as the eagle God used to carry the children of Israel out of the land of bondage just like Christ was to come and rescue us from the bondage of Satan through His sacrifice on Calvary. See Ex.19:4 and Num.11:11-14. In the same way Abraham was an eagle to his household and to subsequent generations after him when he received the call of God and was told that through his offspring shall all nations on earth be blessed. See Gen.12:1-4; 18:19 and Gal.3:9, 16. In his lifetime, Abraham demonstrated his eagle nature as a prophet when he routed four nations to rescue his Nephew Lot from captivity with an army of three hundred men trained in his household. See Genesis 14.

6.     They play the role of spiritual fathers in the Church. Just like fathers are the beginning of families, so are Apostles and prophets in the New Testaments ordained by God to pioneer ministries and Churches. This is why in the Old Testament for instance, their protégées refer to them as “my father”. Indisputably, Abraham pioneered a new breed of people whom God separated to Himself as holy unto Him. This is why for all eternity and time after him, he would be known as the father of many nations. See Rm.4:17-18; Eph.2:20; Rev.21:14; 2Kings 2:12 and 2Kgs.13:14.

7.     In the New Testament Church, prophets are foundation layers like Apostles. The difference is that the prophets may not be engraced to operate in all the fivefold ministry offices like the apostles who can flow in all five. From the story of Abraham, it is clear that he laid the foundation for a new dispensation out of which the Church was eventually born. Abraham as a prophet was actually instrumental in the hands of God to lay the foundation of God’s chosen people from where the Messiah of the human race was to be born into this world and the rest is history. See Gen.12:1-4; Gal.3:9, 13-14 and 16 and Gal.3:29.

8.     Prophets herald the moves of God and are usually part of it depending on their level of sensitivity. Undisputedly, Abraham heralded God’s move to keep his promise to Adam that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. This explains the persecution of the descendants of Abraham who were custodians of the promise of God to Abraham over the years. All the time in history when kings like Pharaoh and Herod were used to murder the male children form the lineage of Abraham, it is because the devil was looking for the Messiah to kill. He did it to stop Moses but failed and he also repeated his failure when he tried to stop the Lord Jesus Christ by Herod when the Lord was born. See Gen.12:1-4; Ex.1:22 and Mt.2:16-20.

The proof of an authentic prophet was seen in the life of Abraham. In the book of Deuteronomy

1.     If a prophet speaks on behalf of God, whatever he says comes to pass. This was the case with Abraham. In Deu.18:21-22, the great Prophet Moses gives us this clue to watch out for in determining who a true prophet is. Abraham disclosed that God called him to go to an unknown location which later turned out to be Canaan and the Lord confirmed it. When he was 99 years, the Lord told him he was going to have a son the next year by his 89year old wife and it was so. See Gen.17 and 21.

2.     Prophets live their lives to glorify God. This was the case of Abraham who lived his life to glorify God. A person can be said to live their lives to glorify God when they put the interest of God above themselves. First when he was told to go to an unknown land, he went without question because God’s will was more important to him than his personal interest. Every time God told him to do anything, he was prompt to obey with delight. For instance when God commanded him to raise an altar to him and bring him some sacrifices in Genesis 15, Abraham obeyed to the letter without questions asked and God appeared to him and made a covenant with him that transcended his generation. Everything Abraham did pointed others back to God which is the hallmark of a true prophet of God. Hear prophet Moses:

“And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?

When the prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deu.18:21-22.

Also, in Deu.13:1-2, Moses gives us the key for assessing the authenticity of a true prophet and dreamer of dreams. He said that if such a person now tries to guide you to seek the help of other gods, you shall not follow them because they are not of the Lord. This is the reason for the practice of Spiritism around. By the way Spiritism is the art of accessing the spirit realm for solution or to get things done illegally. To access the spirit realm illegally is to get into the spirit realm any other way than God’s way of doing so. Abraham never did this.

As we round off this series this month, I want to believe that we have learnt so much to copy from the life of Abraham that we would be among those who would make the sacrifices of Abraham and the Lord worth the effort. Someone reading this may be thinking that they cannot say this with confidence as they are yet to receive the salvation brought us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not too late for you now; you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be saved:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

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