Abraham And The Audacity To Listen: What a Bronze Age Nomad Teaches Us About Finding God
- Kerry Morris
- May 1
- 5 min read
It seems humans, as a species, cannot agree on anything. We live in between 193 to 206 different countries, depending on who you ask (1). But the most populous country (India) still only contains around 17% of the people on earth. We speak over 7,000 languages, but the most popular one (English) is only spoken by around 18% of the world (2). Even faith, something foundational for many, is incredibly fragmented, with over 10,000 religious groups around the world (3), and more than 45,000 denominations with Protestant Christianity alone (4).
But there is one ancient story that connects over half the world’s population, not through doctrine or politics, but through an individual moment of raw, personal faith.
Around 4.3 billion people, 55% of the world’s population, are followers of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They trace the origin of their faith to a Bronze Age middle-eastern nomadic herder named Abraham, and the faith he placed in a God he knew as Yahweh (5). Abraham’s faith is remarkable in that it existed completely outside of any religious framework or tradition we know today.
Why Is Abraham Such a Big Deal?
Whether viewed as an historical figure or an archetype, nearly all sects of Jews, Muslims, and Christians agree: the story of Abraham provides powerful insight into the nature of the relationship between God and man. Judaism views Abraham as the first patriarch of the faith. Paul of Tarsus, a devoted student of Judaism and perhaps the greatest evangelist for Christianity, said that Abraham “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and “those who believe are blessed…with Abraham who believed.” (6) Islam views Abraham as a prophet who pointed people towards the One True God. The Quran refers to Abraham as “a leader of humanity,” and says “Who would forsake the religion of Abraham, except he who fools himself?” (7)
By all accounts, Abraham was a man of extraordinary faith. But his was not a generalized ‘hope for the best’ or ‘God is out there somewhere’ kind of faith. Abraham claimed to have heard from God, and took action.
“The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing. Abram left just as the LORD told him…” (8).
We do not know how the message from God was delivered, if it was an audible voice or a feeling in his heart or words delivered by another person. But it seems clear something enormously impactful happened to Abraham. Something happened so transformative that he gathered up all his possessions and family, left everything he knew, and headed into the wilderness. Something so transformational that his conviction resisted decades of disappointment and the decay of time.
Listening For God Before Listening For Religion
The days in which he lived surely had glimpses of the divine, bits of truth filtered through the dirty gauze of human understanding.
God is like the sun, giving light and life to all creation.
God is manifest in nature, and we can learn about him by looking around us.
God is bigger than we are, and should be honored.
But there was nothing like the structured religions we know today. There was no Judaism, no Islam, no Christianity. There was no Torah, no Bible, no Quran, no scriptures. He had likely not been exposed to Buddhism or Hinduism. Most scholars think he lived hundreds of years before the first traces of Zoroastrianism, likely the earliest known monotheistic religion.
In a religious sense, Abraham was alone. But he was alone with God. Abraham’s faith is all the more remarkable because it was organic, a pure flame sparked without the kindling of any belief system or dogma. He was just an open-minded person who held out the possibility that God existed, and listened intently to hear God’s voice. He listened, and he responded.
In the four thousand years since Abraham lived, great bodies of knowledge and experience about God have emerged. These glimpses of the divine have crystallized into religions followed by millions, been documented in scriptures, taught in schools, doubted by many, believed by many, debated endlessly, even fought over. With all the religious infrastructure mankind has built, it is easy to lose sight of how little we actually know. We stand proudly atop our Babel, comically unaware of how far we still are from the heavens.
God may use the frameworks of religion and scripture to reveal himself to us, and we should explore those avenues. But even while we seek God in those places, we must also remember he does not need them. If we believe there is a God who is real, we must also acknowledge how hopelessly insufficient institutions and documents and sermons are to fully contain him.
The Challenge of Abraham
For anyone who seeks to understand the universe, the cosmos, the divine, Abraham offers a powerful lesson. While faith can be informed by and supported by religions and rituals and documents, ultimately our faith is not in those things. True faith is anchored in a personal connection with God, and the humility to embrace the unknown.
Abraham challenges me to allow room for the possibility that there is something bigger, more powerful, more complex than my current senses can understand. As much I think mankind has learned, I must acknowledge how much there is yet to know. I must stand before the cosmos and humbly admit it is infinitely bigger and more complex than I could ever understand. Then, straining every sense of mind and spirit, I must peer into that void.
Abraham did just that, and in that honest silence of the soul, he met God. Four thousand years later, 4.3 billion of us still treasure the truth Abraham found.
If we listened with the openness and humility of Abraham today, I wonder what truth we might discover?
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The United Nations recognizes 193 member states, but also includes 2 observer states (Vatican City and Palestine). But if you partially recognized states (e.g. Taiwan or Kosovo), autonomous territories (e.g. Greenland, Puerto Rico) and the like, you can count up to 206 countries.
Ethnologue has documented 7,151 languages currently spoken.
Joshua Project / Operation World
World Christian Encyclopedia 2020
Finkelstein, Israel & Silberman, Neil Asher. The Bible Unearthed (2001). Walton, John H. Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (2006).
Galatians 3:6-9
Al-Baqara 2:124, 130
Genesis 12:1-2, 4-5 CEB