Look Unto Abraham

Isaiah invited us in these words, “Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him” (2 Nephi 8:2). Perhaps one of the ways that we can “look unto Abraham” is to see him as an example of one who was obedient and faithful even when the Lord’s requirements were very trying. Jacob said this about the Nephites’ efforts to be obedient: “And for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him; and for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness, even as it was accounted unto Abraham in the wilderness to be obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac, which is a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son” (Jacob 4:5). The Lord also pointed us to the same obedience of Abraham in offering up Isaac in our dispensation: “Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:4). We look to this ancient prophet as one who was obedient in keeping God’s commandments no matter how difficult. In another revelation the Lord described this further: “Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac; nevertheless, it was written: Thou shalt not kill. Abraham, however, did not refuse, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.” We too must learn to be obedient and faithful in whatever God commands no matter how difficult. The Lord continued by describing another challenging situation in which Abraham was obedient: “Abraham received concubines, and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law; as Isaac also and Jacob did none other things than that which they were commanded; and because they did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation.” He did only those things that the Lord commanded him, and for it Abraham was blessed. The Lord summarized the lesson for us this way: “Go ye, therefore, and do the works of Abraham; enter ye into my law and ye shall be saved…. For I did it, saith the Lord, to prove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:32, 36-37, 51). As we “look unto Abraham” we should look to his righteousness and obedience in doing whatever God commands and seek ourselves to “do the words of Abraham.”

Another way that we can look to Abraham is to see him as the person who has already made it to heaven: he is the saved man par excellence. In the Savior’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, for example, “the begger died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” When the rich man reached up in torment towards heaven it was Father Abraham who responded (Luke 16:22-24). In the Book of Mormon we read that whosoever will lay hold upon the word of God can overcome the devil and “land their souls souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out” (Helaman 3:30). To obtain salvation is to sit down with Abraham and others in heaven. In modern revelation the Lord said this about three faithful men who had already died: “I may receive him unto myself, even as I did my servant David Patten, who is with me at this time, and also my servant Edward Partridge, and also my aged servant Joseph Smith, Sen., who sitteth with Abraham at his right hand, and blessed and holy is he, for he is mine” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:19). These who had died were “with Abraham,” suggesting that they too had received their salvation. When Joseph had a vision of heaven he recorded, “I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof…. I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept” (Doctrine and Covenants 137:1, 5). Abraham was there in the celestial kingdom. The Lord also directly stated that Abraham indeed has been saved in this description: “I may receive him unto myself, even as I did my servant David Patten, who is with me at this time, and also my servant Edward Partridge, and also my aged servant Joseph Smith, Sen., who sitteth with Abraham at his right hand, and blessed and holy is he, for he is mine” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:29). As we “look unto Abraham” we can look in our mind’s eye to heaven knowing that we want to follow him to receive our exaltation in the presence of the Lord. We hope for us and all the saints to be with Father Abraham just as Alma wished for his people: “And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out” (Alma 7:25).