Ray H. Dunning - Abraham

In poignant reflections on the life of Abraham, Dr. Dunning reminds us that the journey of faith is often not a straight line. It is a series of small and large obediences to the often tender, sometimes demanding, but always faithful promptings of the Spirit. Every Christ-follower committed to the journey of faith will benefit from Dunnings clear message that while the destination is important, what we become as we go is essential.

David Busic

President

Nazarene Theological Seminary

Rarely does one find a text that so capably integrates solid biblical exposition, theological reflection, and faith formation from the readers own Christian pilgrimage. Through a series of studies in the narratives of Abrahams journey, Dunning brings the reader into an engaging and transforming dialogue with the biblical text, key tenets of the Christian faith, and the life of holiness. This text demonstrates a depth and a breadth much needed in the church today. Abraham: The Tests of Faith will serve both as a trustworthy theological commentary on the biblical text and as a challenge to the Christian who seeks maturity of faith.

Timothy M. Green

Dean of the School of Religion and
Professor of Old Testament Literature and Theology
Trevecca Nazarene University

The well-respected, seasoned theologian H. Ray Dunning helps us to discover from the narrative of Abraham that in the inevitable tests of life God will be faithful and we can be people of faith. These truths are preachable teachable and livable by faith.

Nina G. Gunter
General Superintendent Emerita
Church of the Nazarene

Ray Dunning has reflected on the life of Abraham through experienced eyes, seasoned biblical study, and down-to-earth life lessons. The holy life, he concludes, is shaped in our response to the voice that calls us and the life situations that confront us. At the end, what we know best is not where we arrived but who God is.

Dan Boone
President
Trevecca Nazarene University

Here is a biblically centered, theologically sound, and practical book, which in this case takes a careful, new look at Abrahams journey of faith. I commend this book to all who are looking for a firmly Wesleyan study that will challenge the commitment of all believers everywhere.

Kevin M. Ulmet
Senior Pastor
Nashville First Church of the Nazarene

Copyright 2012 by H. Ray Dunning

eISBN 978-0-8341-2969-6

Printed in the
United States of America

Cover Design: J.R.Caines
Interior Design: Sharon Page

All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Permission to quote from the following copyrighted versions of the Bible is acknowledged with appreciation:

The New Testament in Modern English (PHILLIPS), Revised Student Edition, by J. B. Phillips, translator. Copyright 1958, 1960, 1972 by J. B. Phillips.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.

The Message (TM). Copyright 1993. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dunning, H. Ray, 1926

Abraham : the tests of faith / H. Ray Dunning.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 978-0-8341-2880-4 (pbk.)

1. Abraham (Biblical patriarch) 2. Bible. O.T. GenesisCriticism, interpretation, etc.

3. Faith. I. Title.

BS580.A3D86 2012

222.11092dc23

2012020363

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to the congregation of the
Camden, Tennessee, Church of the Nazarene,
with whom I first shared these studies
while serving as their interim pastor

CONTENTS

Know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal. 3:7 (KJV)

Gods redemptive activity on behalf of the human race took a significant change of direction with the call of a middle-aged man who lived in ancient Mesopotamia. His name was Abram. Genesis 111 implies that up to that time God had acted without mediation. These eleven chapters do two things: (1) they answer the question of why the human race is in such a predicamentseeking but never finding lasting happiness, and (2) they picture the Creator endeavoring to make people aware of their need and attempting to create barriers to their further unhappiness. Genesis 3:9 records the Lord God speaking directly to Adam and Eve, asking the question, Where are you? in an effort to elicit the sense of need required for restoration. In general, God apparently used the stimulus of conscience to guide the human race in living out his creative intention for it.

The great flood of Noahs day was an act of judgment resulting from the reversal of creation, not just a punishment for the sin of the flood generation. As Joseph Blenkinsopp put it, The world in which order first arose out of a primeval watery chaos is now reduced to the watery chaos out of which it arosechaos come-again. The flood could be viewed as an attempt not only to bring the human race back to its original destiny but also to restore creation to its original order. Although deeply sorry he had created humans, God did not totally destroy them but found one righteous man who was the agent in this second attempt at a paradise. However, all this was to no avail, as the postflood events in Noahs immediate family demonstrated and the incident of the Tower of Babel validated.

Two of the major interpreters of Gen. 111, Gerhard von Rad and Claus Westermann, emphasize that while these chapters reflect the spread of sin and the intensification of moral evil, the structure also emphasizes that each major violation of the order God intended for the human race was accompanied by the manifestation of grace. Each transgression resulted in the declaration of judgment, but in each case, they point out, the punishment is lessened. This pattern is so pervasive that, following the insights of von Rad and Westermann, David Clines suggests that one can inscribe over this prepatriarchal history the words of Paul: Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom. 5:20).

On the surface, God does not seem to manifest his grace by the lessening of the punishment following the ill-fated attempt at building a secular city (Babylon), whose tower served as a brash monument to an alternative religion. Nevertheless, if we recognize that the break at chapter 12 was not original, the call of Abram was the most dramatic and obvious of all the manifestations of grace.

With the awakening of Abram and his call, God was choosing a partner in this redemptive enterprise. Abram himself was to be a recipient of Gods blessing, but in this position he was to be not only the model of the Lords creative intention for humanity but also the source of the family through whom God intended to put the world to rights. By living out the divine design, Abram could provide what an abstract voice and the guidance of conscience could never adequately do. This election purpose was expressed in the outcome of Abrams faithful response to Gods call, In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (v. 3). In making this same point, N. T. Wright refers to a Jewish tradition based on Gen. 12 that said, Abraham will be Gods means of undoing the sin of Adam. Wright adds,