I want to tell you the story of Abraham, especially the parts everyone forgets about. It started off as the story of a guy named Abram. He had a wife named Sarai. God shows up one day and tells him he wants him to leave his home and his family, and to go someplace. God didn't tell him where. He just said He'd show him the place. He didn't say when He'd show him either. He also made a vague promise about making him famous and making a nation out of him. I guess Abram believed him. Or maybe Abram just felt like he didn't have anything to lose. He was an old man, after all (75). Whatever his reason, he went.

Now we were all taught in Sunday School (or we assumed) that Abram trusted God from the very beginning, like some kind of superhero.

Here's what really happened. God led him to Canaan. He told him he'd give him that land. Then there was a drought. That's reassuring, isn't it? So Abram goes to Egypt. He's afraid. Sarai's a looker, and he's afraid the Egyptians will kill him to get her. So he tells her to lie.

Remember, God said he'd make a nation out of Abram's descendants. As far as they both knew, she wasn't pregnant, so God hadn't even begun to keep that promise yet. At least not the biological part of it. So, you and I can read that story and say, "You idiot! You were invincible! God couldn't let them kill you!" But hindsight's 20/20, and fear is stronger than hindsight. Sometimes it's stronger than wisdom too. Pharaoh took Sarai into his harem, showered Abram with gifts, then terrible things happened to him because he'd taken Sarai, so Pharaoh and the Egyptians told Abram to get lost and take Sarai with him.

Abram leaves Egypt a tycoon. He and Lot have so much, the land can't sustain them. So they separate. Abram takes the bad land, Lot takes the good land. God repeats His promise about Canaan. Abram trusted God at least a little bit, it would appear, because he was willing to take the worse of the two choices.

But the story's not over. Lot gets taken captive. So Abram assembles an army and rescues him. He routs them, and he doesn't keep the loot. Abram's trust seems to be getting stronger.

Then God comes to him in a vision and says something vague about being Abram's shield and great reward. But Abram doesn't care about any of that stuff. He wants a son, and God hasn't given one to him yet. He's getting old, and his heir is one of his slaves, and he's not happy about it. What's the point of having all this loot when you don't have anyone to share it with, after all?

This is where it gets really cool. Read Genesis 15. You know where Abram gets terrified? The way the people of Abram's time signed contracts was messy business. You'd dig a trench, cut several animals in two, and place their halves on either side of the trench. Then the stronger party would walk through the trench. The blood would splash up on them. The implication: If I don't keep my end of the bargain, this will be my blood. Then the weaker party would walk through. Same implication.

Abram set up the trench, and then in verse 12, a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. He knew he was a dead man if he had to walk through there, because he knew he couldn't keep up his end of the covenant with God.

But look at verse 17. God walked through the trench. Abram did not. The implication: If I don't keep my end of the bargain, I'll pay with my blood. If you don't keep your end of the bargain, I'll pay with my blood. A pointer to the greatest of Abram's descendents--Jesus.

Remember that the next time you take communion.

So, now Abram's a superhero of faith now that God's signed a contract in blood, right? Bzzt. Sarai's still not pregnant. They're getting old. And desperate. So Sarai tells Abram to sleep with her maidservant Hagar, as was common practice at the time. He does. Hagar gets pregnant. Sarai gets jealous and treats her badly. Hagar runs away. God promises Hagar that her son will be a great nation. Read Genesis 16:12, hen remember that Ishmael gave rise to the Arab nations. Appropriate, no?

Finally, at 99, God visits Abram once more. He gives him a new name, Abraham, and tells him that Sarai will bear him a son within a year. Finally, God tells Abram the last detail, and guess what? He doesn't believe it!

Then God shows up in person with what appears to be two other men. He repeats the promise, within earshot of Sarai (now Sarah). She doesn't believe it either.

Abraham's faith was tested again. Lot was living near Sodom and Gomorrah, and God was sick of the towns' garbage. Abraham pleads with God to spare the towns if he could only find 50 righteous people there. Then Abraham nickels and dimes God down to 10. He fails to find 10, so the towns are destroyed. Lot and his daughters are the only survivors.

An eternal question: Would God have spared those two towns from destruction on account of Lot and his daughters? Abraham didn't ask. He should have been bolder. But hindsight is easy, as I've said.

In Genesis 20, history repeats itself. Once again, Abraham and Sarah lie. Once again, Abraham fears for his life, that someone will kill him and take Sarah. So they tell everyone they're brother and sister. Now, Sarah probably wasn't pregnant yet, because people believed that lie. Once again, Abraham was invincible, but didn't realize it.

God forgave them. Isaac was born when his father, Abraham, was 100 years old and his mother, Sarah, was 90.

When Isaac was a fairly young boy, probably 12 years old or so, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son. We all know this story. Abraham made all the preparations, then at the last minute, God told him not to harm the boy and to untie him. Because of this story, Abraham is considered a superhero of faith.

Keep in mind Abraham was about 112 years old at that time. He had been walking with God for some 37 years. He was even one of those rare people that God talked back to. Yet it still took him 37 years to get to the point we remember him at.

The important thing to remember about Abraham isn't that he had superhuman faith. The important thing to remember is how he got there.

He prayed a lot.
He did what God told him to do.
He made a lot of mistakes along the way.
He learned from his mistakes. Eventually.
When God finally granted him the greatest desire of his deepest heart, Abraham knew he could trust God. And he followed through on that trust.