Abram/Abraham

The father of the Israelites, a man who was God’s friend. In the beginning, his name was Abram. His family lived in the city of Ur. Then the whole clan moved nearly eight hundred miles northwest to Haran. At Haran, God told Abram to go to Canaan. Abram, his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot, lived in Canaan.

Abram and his nephew, Lot, grew rich; each had many cattle and herdsmen. They eventually separated when their workers kept getting into arguments.

For a long time, Abram and his wife had no children. But God appeared to him and said that someday he would have as many descendants as the stars in heaven. When Sarai still did not have children, Sarai suggested that Abram and a servant woman named Hagar have a child. A son, Ishmael, was born when Abram was eighty-six.

Thirteen years later, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and again promised that he would have a son. This would be a miracle because Abraham and his wife were much too old to have children. But when Abraham was one hundred years old, a son, Isaac, was born! God tested Abraham’s faith by telling him to offer his son as a sacrifice. At the last moment, God stopped him from killing his son as a sacrifice. God only wanted to see how much Abraham trusted Him. After Sarah’s death, Abraham married Keturah and had six more children, even though he was 140 years old!