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God’s Servant Abraham

What does the Bible say about servanthood? According to Scripture, these five characteristics reveal servanthood: humility, obedience, sacrifice, trust, and devotion.

During the next few days, we’ll look at examples of great servants in the Bible and see how each one displayed these traits. We’ll begin with Abraham.

We start with Abraham not because he was perfect but because he is a good example of the humility, obedience, sacrifice, trust, and devotion that characterize a servant of God. We also begin with him because in him we have a clear picture of how God uses imperfect servants for major kingdom purposes.

Consider two pivotal moments in Abraham’s life. The first came in Genesis 12 when God called Abraham to leave his father’s house and go to a foreign land, and the second came when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac, his promised son. Hebrews 11:8–12, 17–19 (NIV) says:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith, even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. . . .

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Abraham made his share of mistakes and struggled at times to trust God. Nevertheless, God used him to establish the Jewish people and to inaugurate His plan of salvation that culminated in Jesus Christ. Why did God use him? Because Abraham was a faithful servant, exemplifying humility, obedience, sacrifice, trust, and devotion in the way he followed God. He trusted God when called upon to do unthinkable things. He willingly offered God the sacrifice of obedience by leaving his father and family and by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac. Rightly so, Abraham became an example of a servant of God, helping us to see what dispositions God wants in us.