Father of The Faithful

Father Abraham

Called to leave his kin

To journey to a land

God would show to him.

He marched right on in faith

 With God as his Guide,

His confidence also boosted

With Sarah by his side.

Diverting once to follow

The counsel from his wife,

Up came a predicament,

His two sons meant strife.

Ishmael was forced to go

 So reluctantly he went,

Isaac was the promise;

The seed that God had sent.

One day out of heaven

The sternest of tests came,

“Abraham, take Isaac

And offer him in My Name.”

Abraham heard and knew

It was God that spoke,

Without doubt he knew

 That this test was not a joke.

Early from home he set out

And headed for the place,

Determined to be obedient

But trusting God for grace.

Intent on following through

On God's precise command,

Raised the knife to strike

As the angel stopped his hand.

Abraham had passed the test

 And God gave him the nod,

“Now I know,” the angel said,

 “The fear you have for God.”

From this we can preview

The Lamb that was to come,

The Lamb slain before the world,

God’s own begotten Son.

Abraham was truly pleased

That God had spared Isaac,

There in a nearby thicket

A lamb was securely trapped.

Provided by God the Father

And placed in open view,

A shadow of the Lamb to come

Provided for me and you.

Jacob followed Isaac,

And Joseph his favourite son

Was the scourge of his siblings,

The object of their fun.

He was sold into Egypt,

Rose to second in command

Then fed his entire family

When a famine struck the land.

God was always with him

And granted him His favour,

So to all his family

He became a type of Saviour.

He repaid their evil dealings

With kindness and with love,

At last they came to realize

His help was from above.

But Joseph died in Egypt

And there in his coffin lay,

Requesting that he be moved

On the appointed day.

He told them of God’s visit

And of a coming change,

They’d leave the land of Egypt

Just as God arranged.

Joseph’s bones would not be left

 In Egypt on that day,

When God delivers them

And sets them on their way.

So down in the land of Egypt

Joseph would remain
Until the land of Canaan

Was theirs to make their claim.

Stewart Russell © November 2017

Extracted from:

The Bible in Poetry

Stewart Russell © 2013