Abraham And Sarah-You Can Imitate Their Faith

He is called "the father of all those having faith." (Romans 4:11) His beloved wife also possessed that quality. (Hebrews 11:11) They were the godly patriarch Abraham and his devout wife, Sarah. Why were they such fine examples of faith? What were some of the trials they endured? And of what value is their story to us?

Abraham manifested faith when God commanded him to leave his home. Jehovah said: " Go your way out of your country and from your relatives and from the house of your father to the country that I shall show you." (Genesis 12:1) The faithful patriarch obeyed, for we are told: "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed in going out into a place he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, although not knowing where he was going." (Hebrews 11:8) Consider what that move meant.

Abraham lived in Ur, in what is now southern Iraq. Ur was a thriving Mesopotamian center that traded with lands of the Persian Gulf and likely the Indus Valley. Sir Leonard Woolley, who directed the systematic excavation of Ur, points out that in Abraham's time most houses there were built of brick, with plastered and whitewashed walls. For instance, the home of one prosperous citizen was a two-story building with a paved central courtyard. The ground floor housed domestics and guests. At the first-floor level, a wooden gallery ran around the wall, providing access to rooms reserved for family use. With their 10 to 20 rooms, such residences were "comparatively spacious and afforded scope for a life decent, comfortable and, by Eastern standards, luxurious," says Woolley. They were "pre-eminently the homes of a civilized people and answered to the needs of a highly developed urban life." If Abraham and Sarah left such a home with the prospect of dwelling in tents, they made great sacrifices to obey Jehovah.

Abraham's move took his family first to harran, a city in northern Mesopotamia and then on into Canaan. That was a distance of some 1,000 miles - quite a move for an elderly couple! On leaving Harran, Abraham was 75 years of age and Sarah was 65. - Genesis 12:4.

How might Sarah have felt when Abraham revealed that they were going to leave Ur? Leaving the security of a pleasant home, moving to some strange and potentially hostile land, and accepting a lower standard of living might have concerned her. Nevertheless, Sarah was submissive, thinking of Abraham as her "lord." (1Peter 3:5, 6) Some scholars consider this a manifestation of Sarah's "customary, respectful attitude and behavior toward him," evidence of "real habits of thought and feeling." But above all, Sarah trusted in Jehovah. Her submission and faith stand as a fine example for Christian wives.

True, we are not asked to abandon our home to obey God, although some full-time evangelizers have left their homeland in order to preach the good news in another country. Regardless of where we serve God, as long as we put spiritual interests first in life, he will care for our needs. - Matthew 6:25-33.

Neither Sarah nor Abraham regretted the decision they made. "If they had indeed kept remembering that place from which they had gone forth, they would have had opportunity to return," says the Apostle Paul. But they did not return. Confident that Jehovah "becomes the rewarder of those earnestly seeking him," they exercised faith in his promises. So must we if we are to continue to render wholesouled devotion to Jehovah.- Hebrews 11:6, 15, 16.