Genesis 12

We leave behind the days of Noah and the flood. We are ready to see God's saving work in a nation from which will one day come the Savior. But before Jesus can come, and before the Hebrews can be saved out of Egypt, the special chosen nation of Israel must come into existence. That all starts with God's saving work with one man, Abram, the chosen son of Terah, who had died in Haran.

God called Abram. It is our privilege to listen to that call recorded for us in the Scriptures. God spoke audibly and decisively to this one man. He told Abram to go. God gave Adam a mandate that was worldwide. That mandate was renewed with Noah. Jesus gave a worldwide mandate to His disciples. We have needed more than a little push in order to get going. Many of us would just rather stay. That's not all bad. The desire for a home that would be stable and exist for many generations sounds like heaven on earth in some ways.

Yet the Lord will oblige us and give His servants a push if need be, both for the worldwide creation mandate of having dominion over the earth and the worldwide gospel mandate of making disciples of all nations. Abram hears the Word of God calling him to go, and he goes. That is commendable, and a sign of unusual special grace from heaven. A new day in the history of salvation is born.

To be sure, we are still in the day of death that began when Adam sinned. Yet a new day has been superimposed on that day of death, the day of promise. It is this day of promise that Peter will refer to in the early life of the New Testament church when He says, “The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”

The call to Abram is just a start, but it is a powerful start that will not be completed until the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ are raised. What did God promise in Genesis 12? He promised to give a land, descendants, and many other blessings. The immediate point of greatest extravagance is that the Lord promises to make this one seemingly inconsequential man a conduit of blessing to all the people groups of the earth. This makes Abraham not only a father to the Jews, but through the Jews, a blessing to the world. Also, those who bless Abram and the people of God will be blessed by God. Those who dishonor him will face trouble.

Abram and his wife Sarai went out according to the command of God, and they took Abram's nephew Lot with him who would figure into this story later. They did not know where they were going. They were following the voice of God, and they were looking for a city that only God could lead them to.

God brought them to Canaan, a land that He intended to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob well beyond the span of Abram's life. God gave Abram a tour of that land, and Abram built altars as touchstones of God's promise.

An altar is a place of sacrifice. The sacrifice of animals to the Lord requires the shedding of blood and adds to the growing story of the cost of the Lord's promises. The best land will be given to the people of God at the expense of a Substitute.

The multi-generational journey of the people of God will eventually lead to the greatest Promised Land, a reunited Paradise of heaven and earth. That journey will cause them to pass through many dangerous places before they arrive at their settled home. All men do not call upon the Name of the Lord. Everyone did not agree with the determination of God to give Canaan to the Israelites, and everyone did not agree with the plan of the Lord to grant the blessings of heaven to mankind through the death of the Son of God. That may bring trouble.

In the world we will have tribulation, but God has overcome the world, and He can bless us even when those in positions of power stand against us. Not only do we face enemies outside us, our own hearts may be captivated by fear, causing us to make foolish choices that are inconsistent with the requirement that we walk with God.

Famine and fear can persuade us to take refuge in half truths, yet God will not abandon His project of blessing those who are the true offspring of Abraham. We should be a blessing to the nations, yet even faithful Abram lied about Sarai and put her in danger to protect himself. He was afraid that he might be killed, but what was he willing to do in placing her in such a compromising situation? We cannot second guess the patriarch from a distance of many thousands of years, but what we can observe is that despite Abram's weakness, the Lord turned everything into a blessing. Was this God's reward for Abram's good behavior? No, but it was an expression of the Lord's plan to bless Abram and Sarai according to His own good pleasure.

Whatever the Lord's and Abram's reasons may have been for this strange series of dangerous events, there can be no doubt about this: God preserved His chosen one from a very precarious mess and brought much fruitful increase in his substance as a result of the unusual danger and hostility that he and his wife faced in the world. A distinction would be made between the people of the promise and those who were not of the elect nation.

The Lord will bless all who are in Christ with more than we can even imagine. We still must travel dangerous roads as we proclaim the gospel. But since Christ has taken the worst trouble upon Himself for our sake, we are assured that we are more than safe in Him. We are blessed in Christ, and Christ is in us. We are children of Abraham, Greater is He who is in us now than all the dangers that we face in this troubled world.