Or, A Focus Toward Fulfillment
Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9
Date: March 20, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The author of Hebrews makes it clear that Abraham obeyed the Lord’s call by faith, desiring a “better country, that is, a heavenly” one (Hebrews 11:6). Abram is an example of following God to receive a blessing, and he is the channel of God’s blessing to all the earth.
Within four to five generations after the flood men became so proud again that they attempted to make a name for themselves apart from God. God judged them at Babel, turning their language into confusion (Genesis 11:1-9) and thereby causing them to disperse into many lands and clans and nations (Genesis 10). God chose a line through Noah’s son Shem to offer hope to all peoples, focusing on and through Abram (Genesis 11:10-32).
Maybe you are old enough to remember “Body by Jake.” It was a line of fitness equipment sold by Jake Steinfeld on a TV show by the same name. The implication was, if you get Jake, then you will get healthy.
According to Genesis 12, if you get Abram, you get happy. This is blessing by Abram.
Though we already learned that Abram left Ur in Genesis 11:31-32, chapter 12 provides more details about how he came to relocate. This God’s summons.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)
In the beginning, God’s word brought everything into existence that had no existence, including humanity. Now God’s word again creates permanent changes to the stream of humanity and history. Note four things about the call.
There is nothing in Abram that caused God to choose him. Abram lived among idolators in Ur and was counted among their number (Joshua 24:2). Some of the women in his family were named after goddesses connected to worship of the moon. More than likely Melchizedek was alive at this time (see Genesis 14), as well as Job, both of whom would have been better candidates according to righteousness. But God elects according to His sovereign, redeeming initiative. He does not need a “good” start according to our assessment.
God calls Abram to Go…to the land that I will show you. He does not tell him where or give him a coordinates or the name of a city or country. The LORD points Abram in the right direction and will let Abram know when he gets there. He traveled around 600 miles from Ur to Haran and another 400 or so miles from Haran to Canaan. Abram had to go.
God includes the cost when He gave Abram the command. Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house. In order from least attached to most closely connected, God called Abram away from familiarity into uncertainty and difficulty.
It is as if the LORD said to Abram,
I command thee to go forth with closed eyes…until, having renounced thy country, though shalt have given thyself wholly to me. (Calvin)
Or as Luther wrote in “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” we must “let goods and kindred go.”
We may not (or we may) be called to geographic change, but discipleship could cost us in other ways (friends, position, etc.). God called Abram to trust in Himself for security and prosperity.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2–3)
All of these are gifts to Abram not achievements by Abram. Four times the LORD says I will, a declaration of His purpose to involve Himself.
There are at least five parts promised:
The emphasis of the promise is on blessing. The word is used five times in these first three verses compared to five times in the previous eleven chapters of Genesis. “Blessing” means God’s goodwill that leads to well-being, peace, a good harvest, children, and joy. Abram is the focus of blessing and becomes the “blessing bearer” (Waltke).
All further promises, therefore, not only to the patriarchs, but also to Israel, were merely expansions and closer definitions of the salvation held out to the whole human race in the first promise. (Keil and Delitzsch)
God promised a blessing through the seed around 2000 years earlier in Genesis 3:15, and God sent a blessing in the seed of Jesus around 2000 years later. In between was Abram, called by Yahweh to believe and follow.
Abram must exchange the known for the unknown (Heb. 11:8), and find his reward in what he could not live to see (a great nation), in what was intangible (thy name) and in what he would impart (blessing). (Kidner)
This is Abram’s sojourn. He didn’t leave Ur or Haran because he was discontent, he wasn’t on the run, he was following the Lord.
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. (Genesis 12:4–9)
God called Abram when he was 75 years old. We don’t learn anything about the previous seven and a half decades, but we do know that Abram effectively starts over mid-life. The LORD told him to “Go” and he goes. The ESV translates it as departed but it is the same Hebrew word as “Go” in 12:1.
Lot is mentioned twice, perhaps to foreshadow issues of inheritance in following chapters. He’s Abram’s nephew, could he be the one through whom Terah’s line continues?
Shechem was the heart of Canaan. Canaanites were in the land is more than a statement of fact. It highlights that the promised place was already occupied, and probably that Abram was not received with kindly hospitality.
The LORD appeared, the first theophany or visible manifestation of God, at least to a patriarch. The message was that everything would be okay for Abram and that Abram wouldn’t see the fruit of the promise.
To your offspring I will give this land sounds great until you realize that “offspring” means later. It means not now, not even me.
Twice Abram built an altar to give thanks for the revelation, for the promises before they were fulfilled. We have reason to worship God when we receive promises from Him not only when we receive the fulfillment of them. The altars stayed even when Abram moved.
To call on the name of the LORD is to make an invocation; it’s a part of worship. The altar provided the place but dependence provided the motive. An altar, like any external form of worship, is only as good as the heart. We do not trust in our liturgy while believing that our liturgy is an expression of our trust in God.
Abram sees the land from the north to the south, the Negeb being the bottom border of Canaan. He kept pitching a tent and then pulling up the stakes. He keeps moving and he keeps believing. His part was to believe God.
Abram is a clay pot blessing. He isn’t worthy. He receives blessing. He pours out blessing. He also could not have imagined how great the blessing would be.
We should remember:
First, every salvation blessing we’ve received relates to God’s promise to Abram.
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:7–9)
God focused toward fulfillment, narrowing for sake of spreading. All who believe, whether Jew or Gentile, are “sons of Abraham.” We do not identify ourselves as the great nation (Israel) that God promised to Abram, but we do identify with that great nation as those of another nation. We’re part of the “all the nations.”
Second, every salvation blessing we pour out extends God’s promise to Abram. When you tweet and Facebook and talk to your neighbor about Christ, you are talking about the same story that started in Genesis even if you don’t reference the earlier chapters. That’s fine; you can’t tell the whole thing every time. But be encouraged as you remember that the blessings you extend are only the tip of the iceberg.
Third, every salvation blessing we enjoy provokes Israel to desire Abram’s blessing. This is also part of God’s means to His ends. Check Romans 11 for more on this.
Abram makes faith look good, not easy, but good. He never saw the nation that came from him, he could not grasp how great his name became, and he could not imagine the extent of blessing that would come through him. Abram’s tests are far from finished, and he’s already quite an example (Hebrews 11:8-19). Do we make faith look good?