Why was Abram renamed Abraham in Genesis?

“Your name will no longer be Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5).

Each signals a pivotal redemptive-historical turn. Abram’s case inaugurates the line through which Messiah comes (Matthew 1:1).

2. Universality: “Many nations” anticipates Gentile inclusion (Romans 4:11-17; Galatians 3:8).

3. Irrevocability: The covenant is “everlasting” (Genesis 17:7); Paul calls the gifts and calling of God “irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Hagar was OK. But why did the old Abram and the new Abraham twice throw away his wife for a sister? Self-preservation?

All kidding aside, here's my take:

1) Hagar was probably Egyptian, being that Genesis 12:5 says that Abram and Sarai acquired servants while in Egypt. If Hagar wasn't Egyptian herself, it may be that her presence reminded them of almighty Egypt. Banishing her might have been a chest-thumping moment against Egypt in the minds of Abram and Sarai, much like Tennessee Vols fans the few times they beat Bama.

2) (Back to original post about Abram being from Ur and renamed to Abraham) God was making a new name for someone He was sending the descendants of (Jews) back to that land. Back then someone's name meant a lot. Also, his ancestry defined him. So the Jews later moved back to Canaan as the descendants of that renamed guy Abraham, making them different from the descendants of the other Canaanite descendants. Think about that when you read in Genesis 15:13-16 that Abrahams descendants will be slaves in Egypt until the sins of the Amorites are complete. Note that "Amorites" = most dominant tribe in Canaan. Perhaps the Amorites pushed Abram and his father Terah, etc. out of Ur, the reason for Terah's moving out isn't given. Or perhaps it was related to global cooling (see #3 below). Ignoring the "climate change" political BS, historically there are real problems with centuries long global cooling and it often leads to people fighting each other over land.

3) Look at the graph below above the number 4 representing 4,000 years ago (2000 BC). Notice the red top goes down (lower temps) until about 3,100 years ago (1100 BC). I've seen some graphs bottom out around 1500 BC or 1300 BC. In other words, the average temps were cooling from the time of the Jewish patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) until around the time that Moses began his ministry. These centuries long cooling periods bring lower crop yields, less predictable precipitation, and higher deaths by plague (at least in the cooling periods written about later when more cultures had written languages). We see some of that with the famines in Genesis from the time of Abraham. So an argument could be made that God was making a covenant with Abraham and his descendants at a time they most needed God to look out for them.

Thanks Seven_0,

If you ask someone what it was that Abraham did that was so important to this world. Or what it is every single person in this world forever owes a debt of thanks to Abraham for.

Most will say it was because he obeyed God and as proof was willing to sacrifice Isaac without question or that we are all descended from Abraham. Being now that we are ALL in his household, permitting the future “Kinsman Redeemer” provisions Jesus completed under the Law of Moses, to then be legally applicable to us ALL in the Court of Heaven.

I say these are not the reasons above. Even Moloch had people lining up to sacrifice their children.

It was entirely about Abraham establishing THE Spiritual and Legal authority on this Earth for God to later raise his Son from the dead. Established from within, from inside of our fallen world where everything IS dying and WILL die. Where all we should receive from a Holy and Just God is fire and to be consumed away to ashes in our sins.

What Abraham did that was so incredibly special, was not just that he was willing to obey God, which is true. It was that he KNEW that God would restore his Son back to life. A knowing belief, as a truth unto itself.

Abraham absolutely UNDERSTOOD that God keeps his promises and he promised him he would become the Father of Nations. He knew they BOTH would be coming back.

Abrahams tacit understanding that God would raise up his Son established the absolute spiritual and legal foundations upon this Earth for ALL of us, where 2000 years later Gods only begotten Son Jesus would later utilize this SAME authority established upon the Earth on that very day, to restore himself to life “on the third day.”

The Third Day:
“Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.” - Genesis 22:4

Abraham knew BOTH he and Isaac would return:

“And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” - Genesis 22:5

The Lord will provide HIMSELF (Jesus):

“And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” - Genesis 22:8

Jesus had no one at the Tomb when he rose on the Third Day just as he said he would, and he wondered. The Angel was curt in his response.

“And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.” - Isaiah 63:5

“He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” - Matthew 28:6

Christ rises “in accordance with the Scriptures”

If you follow Abraham's seed letter hei ("Hei is seed for you") for when it becomes a seedling...

...נֶבֶט הוא *צמח* צעיר

"A seedling is a young plant..."

(the seedling [הנבט] = 66 = ben David)

>>>

Mashiach is a young plant:

משיח הוא צמח צעיר

= 878

Makes mathematical sense because 878 *is* Mashiach spelled out, all the letters sprouted into seedlings so to speak:

מם שין יוד חית

= 878

If anyone would know the seed address where Abraham and Sarah's seed germinated on the family farm, it's Serach, the search lady of great antiquity.

Who isn't familiar with the saying about finding a needle in a haystack? It's code for something impossible to locate, yet a blind man could stick his hand in and...

Hay is full of stickers and seeds and pokey ends and other things needle sharp.
Ten Things You Don’t Know About: Haystacks

"for in Isaac shall your seed be called" (Gen 21.12)

כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע

= 878

Isaac -- the sower of the family, never left the land:

Genesis 26:12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.

Isaac = "he will laugh"

100 is the letter kuf (a resh + zayin, רז):

The letter kuf means "monkey" (קוף), the symbol of laughter of the month of Adar...
The word kuf also means the "eye of a needle." The sages teach us that even in the most irrational dream one cannot see an elephant passing through the eye of a needle...
https://inner.org/times/adar/adar.htm

You might recall my recent post on that very topic. The opening of the eye *is* the simple meaning.

Letter-wise, the germination/enlargement visual is of breaking apart a mystery (the kuf ק, which is a raz רז).

Shining letters! Let there be 207, light.

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