Era #2

Back to the Old Testament!

Can you remember the four events of the Nothing Era? Remember the main characters? Answers at the end.

This Era is called the Something Era God chose the Hebrew race and turned it into something. This something refers to two things, the significance of the Hebrews and their size. This happens when God tells Abraham to leave his homeland and go to a new country, the land of Canaan. God, in turn, promises to make Abraham into a great nation. Abraham's offspring become the Hebrew nation.

It took the Hebrew nation almost 200 years to become a great nation. Why? For many years, the men kept marrying barren women. Abraham's wife, Sarah was barren, but gave birth at age 89. That son, Isaac, married a barren woman Rebecca. Finally, they have two sons. One of those sons, Jacob, marries a barren woman, Rachel. However, as God is always faithful to His promises, he gives them 12 sons, which become the 12 tribes of Israel.

One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, ends up being sold as a slave and taken to Egypt at the hands of his jealous brothers. Good thing, too, because a few years later, Joseph is the one who saves the Hebrew nation in Canaan from 7 years of famine. That's when they grow into a great multitude.

Abraham is referred to as the Father of Faith. Aside from going to a strange country with nothing to go on but God's command, he shows his great faith in God. Believing he and Sarah will give birth to a child, though they are past the age of child bearing, also shows great faith. Probably the most significant example of his faith comes when God tells him to take his son Isaac up to a mountain and sacrifice him there. He takes him, a few servants, some wood, a knife, and fire. He ties his son down and raises his knife to kill him. Just then an angel of the Lord calls out to Abraham and tells him to stop. He looks up to see that God has provided a ram for the sacrifice. Now remember God had promised Abraham years earlier he would become a great nation. Somehow from Abraham's seed, this would happen, but God has asked him to kill his son. At that time, the culture often sacrificed their children so it wasn't too far a stretch to do this. How did Abraham equate God's promise and God's command to sacrifice? Most experts believe that Abraham thought God would raise him from the dead.

Here are the lessons we can learn from Abraham:
1. We can have faith in what God tells us because God is faithful. That's part of who He is.
2. A person's faith in God can grow.
3. You grow your faith when you trust God to do what He said He would do. Sometimes you have to put yourself in a position for your faith to be tested. The area of giving comes to mind. Sometimes you have to give first, then see God provide for your family. As this happens repeatedly, your faith in God will grow and you will learn to trust Him more and more. I don't know anyone who is giving generously and not making ends meet. I know lots of people who are stingy with what God has given them, and are always short in their finances and worrying about it.
4. Sometimes God waits a long time to do what He said He would do. Be patient.
5. The opposite of faith is fear, so if you find yourself fearful, you have the wrong focus. Immediate place it back where it belongs, on God and His faithfulness.

Christ revealed: In the Nothing Era we learned that Christ was coming to overcome the works of the serpent. In the Something Era, we learn from which nation Christ would come, from the seed of Abraham, the Hebrew nation. God blessed the Hebrews SO THAT they would be a blessing to all the other people groups of the world by announcing that a Deliverer was coming to overcome sin and Satan.

There you have it, the Something Era. Next we will look at the third Era, Exiting Egypt.

To prepare for next time, you can read Exodus 1-40, covering the plagues, Moses, and the 10 commandments.


Creation - Adam and Eve
Sin/Fall - Cain and Abel
Flood - Noah
Tower of Babel - God