What does it really mean to leave a legacy? Join us as we open the book of Genesis and explore the life of one of history’s most iconic fathers: Abraham.
Happy Father’s Day!
A key focus of any godly man and father, apart from following hard after Jesus Christ, concerns leaving a rich, lasting legacy to his family and friends.
What does the word legacy mean?
- From a financial perspective, it denotes the money you save and leave for your family when the Lord calls you home. Solomon talks about the importance of this: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Prov. 13:22). That must be a sizeable nest egg if your children and grandchildren can enjoy the proceeds you stored up not just for your life, but for theirs.
- From a personal perspective, legacy encompasses the virtuous character, high moral values, work ethic, and spiritual example you leave behind for family and friends to consider emulating.
Though my father, Al, is with Christ, I’m still thankful he left me a legacy that encompasses both definitions. I am who I am today because of his example. My family and my grandchildren benefit from his impact upon my life, and now I trust that my example will also leave a financial and spiritual legacy that will bless and challenge them when God calls me home.
How is your legacy as a father? As you look at the personal side of the term, it is helpful to ask a simple question this Father’s Day: Which biblical character can I study to fine-tune my legacy plan? The answer? Study the life of Abraham as recorded in the book of Genesis, chapters 12 through 25.
Abram’s Hebrew name also gives you a hint as to why you, as a father, should study his life well. Ab, or Av (אַב) in Hebrew, means father, while ram means exalted. Put together, his name means Exalted Father. When God changed his name to Abraham after He gave him the magnificent Abrahamic Covenant, the addition of the Hamon ( הָמוֹן . . . Gen. 17:4-5) to his name means a large crowd/group, or nations. Hence, not only would he be the father of the Israelite nation, he would be the Father of a Multitude or Nations. We are still talking about him today because of his spiritual impact not only on his immediate family, but on the Jewish nation, and Gentiles around the world. His impact, of course, is most profound when you consider the Messiah, Jesus, came through the life of this one dedicated and courageous father. All of this shows us how important the legacy of one man can be.
Since Abraham’s eventful life spans so many chapters in Genesis, and given how slowly I move between contexts, logic dictates that we limit our focus in this study to salient snapshots of the godly father in action. As we consider these contexts, we shall pose one concise question for every father to consider:
What Spiritual Legacy Am I Leaving To Family & Friends? (Gen. 12-14)
Abraham’s legacy began in his home, Ur of the Chaldees. Located on the Euphrates River, some 150 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf, Ur became a wealthy city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq. From 3800 to 450 B.C., Ur was known for trade, innovation (they developed the first written language: Sumerian, which later became Akkadian), sophisticated urban planning, and a stepped ziggurat or pyramid that loomed above the city.
Why go into this historical detail? Good question. According to Stephen’s speech in the book of Acts, he specifically mentions that God personally appeared to Abraham, the idol worshipper, in Ur and challenged him to follow His leadership to a new land he had never seen before.
2 And he replied, “My brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he had settled in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go forth from your land and [from] your kinsfolk to the land that I will show you.’ 4 So he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he made him migrate to this land where you now dwell. (Acts 7)
This encounter with God changed Abram’s life forever. He went from serving and worshipping false, lifeless gods to worshipping the true living God. And when God called him to leave everything and almost everyone behind to go to a new land God would show him, he didn’t argue, drag his feet, or stall. No. He packed up his family and servants and walked into the unknown. He traded security for insecurity, discomfort (who’d like to live in a tent as a nomad for years?) for comfort, financial stability for possible financial instability, a familiar culture for an unfamiliar one, and predictability for unpredictability.
True, Genesis 11 informs us that Abram’s father, Terah, moved the family to Haran, which was some 600 miles across a trackless, forboding desert. Nevertheless, Abram’s encounter with God must have played some role in this radical move. After an undetermined amount of time, Terah died at 205 years of age. Abram could have, at that time, rationalized staying in the comfort and security of Haran, which enjoyed a continuous water supply since it was located on a tributary of the mighty Euphrates, but he didn’t. He told Sarah, Lot, and all their family members and servants to pack up and get moving southward as God led.
All of this background information sets us up for our first legacy point that emerges from Genesis 12:
Legacy Snapshot #1: When God Challenges You, Rise To The Challenge (Gen. 12)
God’s call to Abram couldn’t have been clearer:
1 The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.
The Hebrew is most explicit:
Genesis 12:1 וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶ
This is the only time in the Old Testament that God gave this specific command to anyone. God told him to go, and he went. God didn’t give him specifics about his destination, but he followed Him anyway. What faith. Most people, most fathers would have asked more questions before they uprooted their family. Will there be water for our animals and us? Where will we get food? How many miles do you want us to cover in a day? How long will it take us to get there? Should we take weapons with us? How long will we have to live in our tents? Abram didn’t ask any questions. He merely trusted God completely.
Abram’s total obedience led to total blessing from God.
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you. 4 Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (Gen. 12)
At 75 years of age, most fathers would be zeroed in on living off their investments and enjoying a good, predictable, and comfortable life. Not Abram. God revealed Himself to Abram, and he pulled up stakes and left his homeland for the great unknown. For his obedience, God blessed him immensely. He would become the father of a new nation, the Israelite nation through whom the Messiah would come, he would be greatly blessed . . . and he was in all ways . . ., his name would become a major name in human history, those who stood with him would be blessed and those who stood against him would be divinely cursed, and the entire earth, or all the people of the earth, would eventually be blessed because of His obedience. All of this has proven to be true. We, as Jews and Gentiles, sit here today and enjoy the salvation from God’s wrath that Abram’s greater son, Jesus, secured for us.
And to think that millions of people have been impacted for God because of the radical, sacrificial faith of one senior citizen, Abram. God called, and Abram responded. It was a lesson his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and the rest of Israel never forgot. When God is leading you to do something for Him, you do what you have to do to follow His leadership. When you do, anticipate that God will stretch and grow your faith, but He will always bless you.
When the Korean War broke out, my father, Al, left his mother and father, ten sisters, and comfortable little hometown of Kershaw, South Carolina, to fight for his country by joining the U.S. Navy. During the war, he met my mother at a little Baptist church near his airbase in El Centro, California. They rode a train all the way across the States so he could introduce her to his family. The family, of course, challenged them to get married and move into this comfortable southern town he had grown up in. He could easily find a job, and they’d be able to form friendships quickly. My father sensed, however, that God wanted them to stay in California, where he had no relatives or connections, so they did.
His radical action blessed not only my mother, but all of us as children. That little Baptist church they were married in eventually became our church. It is where we learned about God and the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is where we all got saved. It is where we learned how to serve and lead in a church. It is where I got involved in preaching in high school in Mexico. It is where I felt called to the ministry. It is where we built many life-long Christian friends who impacted us in profound ways. It is where we watched God bless my father as his career first with the Border Patrol and then with U.S. Custom’s flourished.
My father’s radical action later became my desire when I took my new wife to Dallas Theological Seminary. She had never left California when we headed to Texas. We showed up with two cars, little money, no jobs, no place to live, no friends, no credit cards to cover us if we had a real issue, and only a couple of days to secure an apartment because our humble belongings were en route. That radical move changed our lives forever, and the blessings God poured out on us still leave us in awe today.
When God called us to leave the comfort of our nineteen-year ministry in Northern California for the East Coast, again, we took the lead from my father’s Abrahamic model. We sold our beautiful home, said goodbye to friends and family, and headed to a place where we had only met a few people, didn’t know the culture, didn’t know how we’d afford it, and so on. Looking back now, after being here for eighteen years, I must say God has blessed that radical move in humbling and profound ways. Such are God’s ways, especially with fathers.
Abram’s life became a model for my father’s life. My father’s life became a model for my life. Now, my life is hopefully a model, a legacy to my family and friends. And what is that legacy? It is taking a step of faith when you sense God is moving and trusting that God will bless you greatly for your obedience. Your military career might be ending because you’ve put in 30 years, and you’ve been passed over for a rank promotion for the third time. Now what? You radically follow God as He opens new doors for you. Your business model didn’t turn out too well, and you lost your shirt. Now what? You radically follow God to Haran and then to Canaan. You radically followed God to D.C., but this is the last place you ever thought you’d live. You paid way more for your home than you ever dreamed you would. You don’t have friends yet. You don’t really know what is next. Your teens are wondering why they had to leave all their friends in the last city. What now? You wait on God to lead you, and He will, and when He shows you what He wants, you radically pursue Him. What can you expect when you lead your family by faith? You can expect that He will bless you beyond what you could ever ask or think. Why will he do this? Because this is how God responds to men who, like Abram, aren’t afraid to move out when God calls out.
I don’t know about you, but I thank God for fearless fathers of faith. By choosing to live like Abram, you will impact not only your family for Christ, but also friends and people you haven’t even met yet. That’s what a godly legacy is all about, and we learn it first from a man like Abram.
Legacy Snapshot #2: When There’s A Family Storm, Be The Stiller Of The Storm (Gen. 13)
Being a man of faith doesn’t mean your life will be easy street all the way to glory. On the contrary, God will typically send, or permit, adversities to see how you will function. Sometimes those adversities arise within your own family, and those can be the most challenging. For Abram, his deceased brother’s son, Lot, became one of the biggest tests of his spiritual life.
After enjoying a great time in worship of the Lord near the mountain town of Bethel (Gen. 13:4), we read that a family feud was brewing. Take note. Times of great worship can be followed by times of divinely ordered familial chaos to test your spiritual mettle. How you will fare as a father and a leader is the question.
5 Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.
God had so blessed Abraham and Lot that their herds couldn’t be in the same area because there wasn’t enough grass or water. So, what happened? The under-shepherds of each man began fighting one another. You can imagine what they said to each other:
- We found this water source for our sheep, so you need to find your own and not mooch off of ours.
- We found this green pasture for our sheep before you, so you need to back off and find your own.
- You have got to quit mixing up your rams with our rams. It’s hard to tell who owns what, so back off, or else.
And while they hurled insults and accusations at each other, the Canaanites and Perizzites, the resident unbelievers, were watching how followers of the living God treat each other. What a sad, tragic testimony. If your faith can’t have a positive impact on your family, who would want it in their family? This short sentence is dropped into the narrative to remind us that unbelievers watch how we lead as fathers during family feuds.
What did Abram do? He did the unthinkable.
8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. 9 “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me: if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left.”
He could have said, “Look, Lot, I’m older and wiser than you; therefore, I should get first pick at where my flocks graze, and you should be committed to heading off and finding your own feeding grounds a long way from my shepherds and flocks. So, get going.” He didn’t do this. Instead of living by sight, he chose to live by faith, trusting that God would supply his needs. Instead of being selfish or exerting his rights, he became utterly selfless and gave up his rights to Lot, of all people. Instead of being stingy, he became generous. Instead of underscoring his power and authority as the clan leader, he gave up that power and authority by giving Lot the privilege of choosing first where he wanted to live.
How did Lot respond? He acted like a carnal man, a man of the world.
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere– this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah– like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. 11 So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other.
Lot was an unwise father. At the time, the Jordan Rift Valley was jungle-like and enjoyed vast amounts of water. To look at it from the 2,900-foot height of Bethel was to think you had just caught a glimpse of the Garden of Eden. That, however, would all change when God would eventually judge Sodom and Gomorrah. But at this point in history, Lot couldn’t resist the allure of the lush, fertile land around Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, therefore, lived by sight, not by faith. He was selfish, not selfless. He lived for the easy life, not the hard life. He trusted his own senses, not God’s promises. He enjoyed the temporal as if it were eternal. He thought and chose wrong. His choice helped resolve the problem between him and Abram, but it only opened a whole host of problems for him and his family once they moved in. That’s a story for another day, but it does remind us that blessing does not come to those who do not live by faith.
What happened to Abram the peacemaker? What happened to the man who surrendered his rights all for the sake of familial reconciliation? God rewarded him. God took care of him as He promised He would.
12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the LORD. 14 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. 16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. 17 Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” 18 Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD. (Gen. 13)
Whereas Lot had lifted up his eyes and became enticed by the well-watered land around Sodom and Gomorrah, God told Abraham, the peacemaker, to lift up his eyes (a similar statement in Hebrew) and consider that He was going to reward his magnanimity with a greater magnanimity. He would give Abram all the land of Canaan, not just a couple of cities near a large body of water.
How did Abram, the peacemaker, respond to God’s promise? He packed up his family and moved south toward the mountain town of Hebron. At 3,300 feet, the cool air would feel good as they continued to live in tents. The soil in this region was rich and supported vineyards, olive groves, and fruit orchards. Ah, this would be the perfect place to settle down a bit and enjoy the blessings of God as his flocks found plenty to eat.
One more thing. Abram built an altar here. Why? He wanted to worship the living God who had rewarded his commitment to being a peacemaker, not a war-maker. Yes, he wanted to worship the God whom he realized would always bless him for living like a godly man in a godless time. Can you think of any better legacy to leave your family and friends?
More precisely, perhaps you are involved with a Lot-type in your family. He is causing havoc and problems with your once-tranquil family. I don’t know what the issue is, but you do. It’s on the front burner of your mind right now. Your cousin borrowed money from you a few years ago when he hit a rough patch, and then he stopped making payments after three months. Now it’s an issue between the two of you. Your sister, an attorney, used her legal prowess to cut you out of part of your parents’ inheritance. Your son became a drug addict and wound up stealing a lot of money from you to support his habit. Now he’s in your face, saying you aren’t doing enough to help him out. You are Abram. What do you do? Do you step into the fight and mix it up, or do you find a way out, a way to bring peace and reconciliation?
Abram-types leave a legacy of problem-solving and effective conflict management to their family and friends. Again, I ask, What greater thing could you do as a father than teach your children in the rough and tumble aspects of life what a man of peace is all about? What greater things could you do than surrender your rights and trust that God will more than take care of you?
Years ago, one of my father’s sisters died and left me and my cousins her belongings and home. She did this because she never had any children, and it was as if we were her children. A family member took over the estate administration, which involved disposing of her belongings and selling her small, wood-framed home. When it was all said and done, that family member called me and said, “Hey, Marty, I just wanted to let you know that once we liquidated everything, there wasn’t enough left to buy each of the cousins a bag of groceries. So, I’m just calling to say you aren’t getting anything.”
In my head, I thought: “Really? You sold a home that I’m pretty sure my aunt had owned outright for many years, and there was no money from the proceeds?” But realizing I was dealing with Lot, I chose to surrender my rights and just let it go. Was it easy to do? No. But it was the right thing to do for the sake of peace. Has God taken care of my family and me? Without a doubt. In fact, He has blessed us beyond measure, and for that I’m grateful.
I share this story not to elevate myself, but to show that when you desire to leave a godly legacy as a father, the Lord will put you in situations that reveal the seriousness of your desire. Will you trust Him, or will you trust yourself? Will you put your fist down, as it were, or will you lash out? Will you give up your rights, or will you trust in His leadership and provision?
I know how a legacy man answers these questions. Go out and be that man and watch how the Lord will bless you, your family, your friends, and even your world.
Happy Father’s Day to all fathers who know what it means to be a legacy man.
