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1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." ~ Genesis 12:1-3
Today, we transition into Genesis 12 where we are introduced to the next section of the book. Having consider Creation in Genesis 1-2, the Fall of Man in Genesis 3-5, the Flood in Genesis 6-9 and the Tower of Babel in Genesis 10-11, today we begin our study of the first of four men in Genesis 12-50. The first of these four men of faith in the God of the Bible is Abram who is covered in Genesis 12-25. One-fourth of the book of Genesis is devoted to the life of Abraham whose name appears 234 times in the Old Testament and 74 times in the New Testament.
Abram was the second son of Terah and he left Haran to go to the Promised Land when he was 75 years old. His father Terah would have been 130 when he had Abram in the year 2009. But Terah was 70 when he had his first child. That means that Haran, the oldest son, was 60 years older than Abram. According to Acts 7, it was after Terah died that God called Abram to move to the Promised Land. The book of Genesis covers more than 2,000 years and more than 20 generations; yet, it spends almost a third of its text on the life of this one man, Abraham.
As we transition into Genesis 12, we go from studying four great events to studying four great people for the next 39 chapters. Those four people will dominate the landscape in the book of Genesis. Interestingly, the first eleven chapters of Genesis cover some 2,000 plus years historically. The next 39 chapters only cover 350 years. Abraham's name was originally Abram, and it was not until years later that it was changed to Abraham. The reason for this change was highly significant, and we shall examine it later in the narrative.
In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Now the Lord had said to Abram: 'Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.'"
This is the first time God spoke to Abram. With this initial communication, we see the first step involved in the development of faith in the life of the believer. It illustrates that it is the Word of God that creates faith in the believer. In Romans 10:17 we read, "So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God." This means that our faith in the God of the Bible is born in our hearts once God has spoken to us and we have heard Him with our hearts. The Greek word translated "word" in Romans 10:17 means the spoken word of God. Although we do not hear God's voice with our ears, we do hear it with our hearts. And, when we respond to God's spoken word, we experience the birth and/or the continued growth of our faith in Him.
In this call, Abram was asked to cut three specific ties; the first was to his country, the second was to cut his ties with his family, and the third was that he was to leave his father’s house. Abram was being called to cut all these ties and to move to a place that he had never seen before and it was a call that was without even an explanation as to why. But, as we will see, as Abram learned to obey the voice of God, he was given the life that he truly wanted.
In v.2 of today's passage we read, "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing."
Abram was told by God to leave his country and in place of it he would be made into a great nation. Abram was told to leave his family and in place of this he was promised to be blessed. And he was told to leave his father’s house and in place of it he was promised that his name would be made great. When we look at what Abram gave up and what he received, the difference was immense. He gave up a land of idolatry to inherit the covenant land from God. He left his family and he would become the father of many nations. He left his father’s house and he became the man of faith, renown throughout history.
This is the way God works in the life of those who are wise enough to allow Him to define them. What we give up for the sake of Christ is to be counted as trash in comparison to the incredible blessings that God grants. Nothing which is left behind can compare to the beauty of what lies ahead. And, as always, when God defines someone, that person will know his best life while here on this earth.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Although the Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional covenant from God to Abraham, Abraham had to hear the instructions from God and then obey the call of God on his life in order to realize the many blessings that were included in the covenant. As this verse suggests, we have all been created with two basic yet profound needs: to be blessed by God and to be a blessing to others.
The first fruit of the Spirit listed is love. The one crucial link between our being loved by Christ and our loving others is the Holy Spirit. Love for others is a fruit that grows in our lives by His doing. Our ability to love others comes from being loved ourselves. And, to the degree that we are love ourselves will be the degree which we can love others. This does not happen without the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us. The Christian life of love is a supernatural life. It is not produced by merely human forces. It takes resources that we do not have. Left to ourselves we cannot love.
