Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9
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. 2 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. 3 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 shall be blessed.”
4 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. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 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. 8 From there he moved on 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 invoked the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Questions
- Who was Abram that God wanted him to be the founder of a distinct people group?
- How do you think you would respond to being asked to leave everything familiar to strike out in a foreign place by yourself?
- What does God mean that Abram’s name will be a blessing and that God will bless and curse people according to how they treat Abram?
Background
Related Scriptures: Romans 4:13-25, Hebrews 11:8-22
The language God uses of Abram in this passage is meant to elevate him to a king-like figure.
Abram is 75 when God calls him to leave his homeland, not a young man.
God’s promises to Abram contain seven elements, a perfect blessing.
Augustine: The right thing to do, brothers and sisters, is to believe God before he pays up anything, because just as he cannot possibly lie, so he cannot deceive. For he is God. That’s how our ancestors believed him. That’s how Abraham believed him. There’s a faith for you that really deserves to be admired and made widely known. He had received nothing from him, and he believed his promise. We do not yet believe him, though we have already received so much. Was Abraham ever in a position to say to him, “I will believe you, because you promised me that and paid up”? No, he believed from the very first command given, without having received anything else at all. “Go out from your country,” he was told, “and from your kindred, and go into a country which I will give you.” And he believed straightaway, and [God] didn’t give him that country but kept it for his seed[1]
Reflection
There was once a man named Abram who lived in a city named Ur. Stories differ on why he left home, some say he left when his father died. Other stories say that Abram confronted his father over the idols his father made. But all the stories agree that Abram left his homeland and moved 1,000 miles across a desert to Canaan. What would possess a man to walk that far with all of his possessions? Abram said he heard from a deity who claimed to be the one true God and that God told him to leave home and family to move to a new region where he would have his own inheritance. You may be thinking that such a person is crazy, but his descendants claimed it was because of his confidence in the promise that God made to him. Even though he did not know God and had no evidence to trust, he followed God’s lead and ended up in a new land with a new language and customs.
Abram demonstrates a high degree of faith in his journey to Canaan, which makes what happens next even more puzzling. He leaves the Canaan because of a famine. Now, God does not seem to mind this, it seems fair that Abram goes to a place with food temporarily. But in that land Abram lies to the king saying his wife is his sister and the king takes his wife. Now, how is it that Abram trusted God enough to move thousands of miles to a new home but did not trust God enough to protect him in a new place? This demonstrates that even for the faithful fear can prove powerful at times. A person can show great faith at one point but at other times they still can be overwhelmed. This demonstrates how much faith in another can be a learning process and even though it may be easy to trust sometimes other circumstances prove difficult. Now, God delivered Abram from this situation, gave him back his wife, and led him back to his new home. But how did would the people of that land and the king think about Abram, the liar, and Abram’s God who defended him? Abram’s inability to trust his God in the moment meant that others who did not know God had a very negative picture of God. They saw God as vengeful and partisan, punishing the righteous and supporting the one in the wrong.
This would not be the last time Abram would do something similar. He repeatedly took advantage of others while waiting for God to fulfill the promise that drove him to leave home. Yet, God never gave up on Abram. God appeared to the people Abram hurt and blessed them. God helped to try to undo the harm that had been done. And God gave Abram time to grow. God did not give up on Abram but held to the promise that had started the journey. God stays close to Abram, continues to speak to Abram, and eventually Abram learns to think more like God. As Abram’s story progresses he begins to look out for other people instead of taking advantage of them. He begins to be a rescuer instead of the source of harm. And even when God speaks to Abram of the destruction of Sodom, Abram responds with concern that there might be one righteous person that is wrongly destroyed. The implication of the passage is that Abram is finally beginning to look at people the way God does. And so in the final test of his journey when Abram is asked to give up his son to see if he trusts the promise and God to be faithful, he shows that he has grown to the point where he trusts God in all things.
The story of Abram is one of fits and starts, trusting God one day while doing his own thing the next. The consistency in the story comes from God staying with Abram allowing him to learn and grow. God is always present helping Abram, pushing him to trust more. This is how God works with us all. God calls each of us where we are, and asks each of us to join go somewhere new. God asks us to go in faith and live in faith, not knowing what will happen next. God works with us when we fail, rather than abandoning us. God continues to help develop us despite our failures God is faithful. And in the end if we are consistent with God we learn to trust God and move with God. We learn to be like Abram faithful to the calling that God gives us.
[1] Mark Sheridan, ed., Genesis 12–50, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 2.
Squinting in the Light 
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