◄ What laws did Abraham follow in Gen 26:5? ►
What commandments, statutes, and laws did Abraham follow according to Genesis 26:5?

Immediate Commands Personally Given to Abraham

1. Leave country, kindred, and father’s house (Genesis 12:1–4).

2. “Walk before Me and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1).

3. Covenant of circumcision for every male eight days old (Genesis 17:9–14).

4. Change of names—Abram → Abraham, Sarai → Sarah (Genesis 17:5, 15).

5. Send away Hagar and Ishmael at God’s word (Genesis 21:12–13).

6. Offer Isaac as a burnt offering (Genesis 22:1–2, 12).

7. Intercede for Abimelech; pray and heal (Genesis 20:7, 17).

8. Establish treaty at Beersheba with an oath before Yahweh (Genesis 21:22–34).

Pre-Sinai Moral and Ceremonial Ordinances Already Revealed

• Creation Ordinances: one-flesh marriage (Genesis 2:24), stewardship of earth (Genesis 1:28), weekly rest grounded in God’s seventh-day sanctification (Genesis 2:3).

• Noahic Covenant: sanctity of life, capital punishment for murder (Genesis 9:5-6), blood abstention (Genesis 9:4), promise signified by rainbow (Genesis 9:12-17).

• Clean vs. unclean animals implied in the flood narrative (Genesis 7:2).

• Altars and substitutionary sacrifices beginning with Edenic coverings (Genesis 3:21) and Abel’s offering (Genesis 4:4), continued by Noah (Genesis 8:20) and inherited by the patriarchs.

Evidence Abraham Practiced These Ordinances

1. Built altars and called on the name of Yahweh at Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, and Moriah (Genesis 12:7-8; 13:4, 18; 22:9).

2. Regular sacrifices: ram in place of Isaac (Genesis 22:13).

3. Tithing 10 percent of spoils to Melchizedek the priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:20).

4. Strict monotheism—public repudiation of Canaanite idolatry (cf. Genesis 14:22-23).

5. Hospitality to strangers seen by later Scripture as obedience to the moral law (cf. Hebrews 13:2 reflecting Genesis 18).

6. Early morning prayer and intercession for Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33).

7. Keeping marital fidelity with Sarah after divine rebukes (Genesis 20:3-18).

Statutes Foreshadowing the Mosaic Law

• Circumcision ⇒ later formalized in Leviticus 12:3.

• Sacrificial substitution ⇒ Leviticus 1–7.

• Tithing ⇒ Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21.

• Dietary separation of blood ⇒ Leviticus 17:10-14.

• Sabbath principle ⇒ Exodus 20:8-11; roots in Genesis 2:3.

This shows continuity rather than novelty when Sinai codifies what patriarchs practiced.

Patriarchal Legal Parallels in Ancient Near-Eastern Documentation

Nuzi tablets (15th c. BC) illustrate adoption contracts like Eliezer-heir possibility (Genesis 15:2). Mari letters (18th c. BC) record treaty-oath rituals akin to Genesis 21:27. Ebla archives (24th c. BC) note personal deities bearing “El” names consonant with El-Shaddai usage (Genesis 17:1). These finds corroborate the Genesis milieu without undermining its theological uniqueness.

Theological Significance: Faith and Obedience Integrated

Gen 15:6 “Abraham believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Obedience to commandments flowed from saving faith; it never earned covenant favor but demonstrated it (Romans 4:1-3; James 2:21-23). Thus, “commandments, statutes, and laws” in 26:5 summarize comprehensive covenant faithfulness.

Practical Implications for Believers Today

1. Saving faith must issue in practical obedience (John 14:15).

2. Family discipleship—Abraham “commanded his children…to keep the way of the LORD” (Genesis 18:19).

3. Relational evangelism—hospitality and intercession reveal God’s character.

4. Covenant signs—baptism now parallels circumcision in marking the people of God (Colossians 2:11-12).

Concise Answer

Abraham obeyed every revelation God had disclosed up to his day: personal directives (depart, circumcise, sacrifice), universal moral standards (monotheism, sanctity of life, sexual purity, justice), creation ordinances (marriage, stewardship, Sabbath rest), Noahic regulations (blood abstention, capital justice, covenant fidelity), and sacrificial worship practices. Genesis 26:5 summarizes this comprehensive obedience with the fourfold formula “charge, commandments, statutes, laws,” foreshadowing the later Sinai codification yet demonstrably operative centuries earlier.

Why did God bless Abraham for his obedience in Genesis 26:5?
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