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7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. ~ Genesis 12:7-9
Today, we return to our study of Genesis 12 which is about the development of the faith of the believer in the God of the Bible. We have already considered the first two principles regarding the growth of our faith in this chapter including: The Word of God creates faith in the believer in v.1-3, and according to v.4-6, authentic faith in the God of the Bible leads to obedience to the God of the Bible. Today, we will consider the third principle involved in the development of our faith in the God of the Bible.
In v.7 of today's passage we read, "Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him."
In the phrase, "Then the Lord appeared to Abram" we discover the next step in the development of our faith in the God of the Bible. It is: Obedience leads to reassurance. This is the first time the phrase, "the Lord appeared to," occurs in the Bible. With this phrase God gave to Abram an unconditional promise, "To your descendants I will give this land."
In Galatians 3:16-18 we read, "16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise."
Paul clearly points out that the promise was to the Lord Jesus who shared it with Abram and the Jewish people. Of course, it is the Lord Jesus who earned all of the blessings that God gives us. In response to this promise from God, Abram built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. In building the altar, Abram made an open profession of his growing reassurance in the God of the Bible. The altar is always a declaration of one's allegiance throughout the Bible.
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east."
After leaving the shade of the Terebinth tree, Abram moved to a mountain east of Bethel and west of Ai. Bethel means "House of God" and it was there that Jacob saw the ladder reaching up into heaven. In the Gospel according to John, the Lord Jesus claimed that the ladder was analogous of Him. At every turn God was giving Abram the reassurance he needed to move forward in a trusting relationship with Him. And, as Abram responded in the affirmative, God gave Him further revelation.
Ai, which was east of where Abram pitched his tent, means "heap of ruins." The spot where Abram was in this passage is a picture of everyday life for us on this earth everyday. The house of God, Bethel, is a picture of being defined by God and the heap of ruins, Ai, is a picture of being defined by anything other than God which will always lead us to ruin. When we pitch our tent, we are saying this world is not our home. Like Abram we are passing through this world; our true home is in heaven. We will either be servants of the Lord and step onto the ladder, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus, and go to heaven, or, will we be servants to sin and be destroyed in the heap of ruins.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South."
After meeting with the Lord, Abram traveled toward the South. As we will see this will lead to the further testing of Abram's faith. A faith that cannot be tested is no faith at all. The first nine verses of this chapter provide for us the testimony of Abram and that will be followed up by the testing of his faith. We do not have a testimony without the tests. Though Abram had finally made it to the promised land and he trusted in the promises of God, he had yet to learn of the substance of the Promise Giver. He stood in the same place as any new Christian finds himself, "in the Spirit," having not yet learned to "walk in the Spirit." This is where we will pick up this most interesting story in our next study.
