And for the next several weeks we will see that it is in
God’s promises, and how we respond to God and His promises, that powerfully
impact our lives as well. So let’s launch into this series by looking together
at Genesis 12:1:
Now the LORD
said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And
from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;
Moses brings us into this story by giving us a glimpse
into a conversation involving the main character in the story. To fully
understand what is happening here, however, we first need to understand the
context for this conversation. As we
discovered last week, Abram was a descendant of Shem, who was one of the three
sons of Noah. In Genesis 11:27-31, we discovered that Abram’s father, who was
named Terah, along with Abram’s nephew Lot decided to leave the region of Ur of
the Chaldeans.
Now the region of Ur of the Chaldeans was where the tower
of Babel was built, and is located in the southern region of what is now modern
day Iraq. This region was marked by a large, wealthy population of people who
worshipped false gods. However, for reasons that we are not told, the family
left the region of Ur of the Chaldeans and traveled northwest to settle in a
town called Haran. The families established themselves in Haran and, as we will
see in a few minutes, were prospering there. However, Terah and the majority of
the family still were enmeshed in the worship of false gods.
And it is in this context that the Lord decides to engage
Abram in a conversation. Actually it was not much of a conversation. Instead it
was the Lord giving Abram a command: "Go forth from your country, And from
your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show
you”. In other words, the Lord commands Abram to leave his country, his
culture, and the religious system of his family behind. Abram was to leave all
that he had previously known behind in order to go to the land which I will
show you.
So, the Lord did not provide Abram a destination; instead
Abram was simply pointed in the right direction and told to get going. “So God,
you want me to leave everything behind to follow you? Yup. O.K., where am I
going? Oh, you’re going that way. O.K. I understand that I am going that way,
but where am I going to? How will I know when I have arrived? I’ll let you
know, just start walking that way.” Abram was to leave all that he held dear
for the unknown.
Now, I don’t know about you, but a natural question that
I would have had at this point is this: why? Why am I supposed to leave
everything that I hold dear for the unknown? What is waiting for me out there?
The Lord, anticipating that question, provides the answer to that question in
the form of an amazing promise in Genesis 12:2. Let’s look at it together:
And I will make you a great nation, And I will
bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will
bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you
all the families of the earth will be blessed."
In these two verses, we see the Lord make seven specific
promises to Abram. However, it is important to understand that these promises were
based on Abram’s obedience. Notice what God says here: Go forth from your
country and your relatives to a land which I will show you and I will do… So
the promises are based on Abram leaving all that he knew behind to follow the
Lord into the unknown.
First, God promises Abram “I will make you a great
nation”. The Lord promises Abram that
his obedience would result in his descendants becoming a great nation. From one
individual, God was going to form a nation that would be the vehicle that He
would use to reveal Himself to the world. Second, God promises Abram that “I
will bless you”. Now this phrase “I will bless you” literally means to declare
a person to be endowed or gifted with power for success, prosperity, and
fertility. So the Lord is promising Abram that his obedience would result in a
life of blessing for himself and his family.
Third, God promises Abram that “I will make your name
great”. In other words, the Lord is promising to work in such a way in Abram’s
life that his name would be extolled and praised. Abram’s obedience would
result in him being made much of by others. Fourth, God promises Abram that “so
you shall be a blessing. The Lord is promising Abram that his obedience would
result in him being a blessing to others. Abram’s obedience would result in
others experiencing success, prosperity, and fertility, as well.
Fifth and sixth, God promises Abram that “And I will
bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse”. Here we
see the Lord promise Abram that his obedience would result in protection. For
those who bless Abram, they will experience God’s blessing as well. However,
for those who choose to oppose Abram, there would be a much different response
from God. The phrase “And the one who
curses you I will curse” in the language that this letter was originally
written in, literally means that the one who reviles or disdains you I will
bind under a curse. The Lord here is promising protection to Abram against
those who would insult, disrespect, or oppose him.
And seventh, God promises Abram that “And in you all the
families of the earth will be blessed”. Now when the Lord says all the families
of the earth, He is not referring to every single family. Instead, this phrase
refers to people from every different people group. The Lord here is promising
Abram that his obedience would result in individuals from every people group
and culture, being blessed. In Abram, in other words what God was going to do
through Abram and Abram’s descendants, all humanity would have the opportunity
to find blessing as Abram found blessing.
Now I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves as
Abram. Place yourself in his shoes. Out of the blue, God speaks to you. And
God’s message is simple and to the point: “I want you to leave all that you
have ever known behind and follow Me to the place that I will show you. You
just start walking in that direction until I tell you to stop”. God asks you to
leave your country, your culture, and the religious system that you have known
all your life to go to who knows where. You are Abram. What would you be
thinking? What would you be feeling? How would you respond?
You see, Abram has a decision
to make. And the decision that Abram had to make is the very same decision that
we have to make, isn’t it? The decision that Abraham faced, and that we face,
is this: Am I going to trust God? Am I going to obey God? Am I going to leave what I have known in the
past to follow God? Or am I going to stay far from God, focused on the
familiar, the comfortable?
Tomorrow, we will see Abram’s response…
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