Transcript

Two friends, Bill and Tom, were up late discussing the difference between irritation, anger, and rage. At about midnight, Bill said, “Look, Tom, I’ll show you an example of irritation.”

He took his phone and dialed a number at random. The phone rang and rang and rang. Finally, when a sleepy voice at the other end answered, Bill said, “I’d like to speak to Jones.”

“There’s no one here named Jones,” the disgruntled man replied as he hung up. “That,” Bill said to Tom, “is a man who is irritated.”

An hour later, at 1 A.M., Bill said, “Now I’ll show you a man who is angry.” He took his phone, dialed the same number, and let it ring. Eventually, the same sleepy voice answered the phone.

Bill asked, “May I please speak with Jones?” “There’s no one here named Jones,” came the angry reply, this time louder. And the man hung up.

An hour later, at 2 A.M., Bill said, “Now I’ll show you an example of rage.” He took his phone, dialed the same number, and let it ring. When the sleepy man finally answered, Bill said, “Hi, this is Jones. Have there been any calls for me?”

Speaking of getting calls, Abraham was called to leave his home and family. And he answered this call without any irritation, anger, or rage, but instead with faith.

Genesis 12:1: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.”

The term “watershed” means a crucial dividing point, line, or factor, a turning point. We have a watershed moment in Genesis 12.

It is a crucial dividing line in how God dealt with mankind. There is great dispensational significance here. So as we look at major events of the Bible in this series, it’s very important for us to look at the call of Abraham.

In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, God had been dealing with the whole earth. You see that by the accounts of the creation, the family and generations of Adam, the flood in Noah’s day, and the tower of Babel.

These 11 chapters clearly demonstrate that after sin entered the world, the whole earth spiraled downward and was bent toward corruption, wickedness and destruction. Starting in Genesis 12, however, God launched a brilliant plan to provide salvation for mankind.

With this passage, the focus of Genesis narrows from the wider history of the human race to that of one family. And the story of that family, Israel, continues in and through much of the rest of your Bible. Abraham is the founder of that one family, the nation of Israel.

When God saw the wickedness of man in the days of Noah and He determined to bring the worldwide flood, God chose one faithful man to reestablish His plan with mankind.

After the tower of Babel, and the judgment of God in confusing man’s language and dispersing man all over the world, God then chose one man, Abraham, to create a new nation to reach all the other nations of the world.

And beginning in Genesis 12 we see God choose a man and a nation to be a blessing to the world, to give knowledge of the living God and show the way to Him, and then from that nation would come the Redeemer who would provide salvation from sin for the world.

In Genesis 3:15, God had made it clear that the Redeemer would be of the seed of the woman, born into the human family. And now it becomes clear that this would be accomplished more specifically through Abraham’s family.

In the closing verses of Genesis 11, we learn the following: “And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.”

Abraham had been living in the city of Ur in the land of the Chaldees, with his father Terah, his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot.

Ur of the Chaldeans was in southern Mesopotamia. It was a significant and prosperous city in that day, situated on the banks of the Euphrates River, close to the Persian Gulf, and near Basra in modern-day Iraq.

Ur was also a center of pagan idolatry. And God called Abram out of this pagan world and its idolatry. In the Book of Joshua, we read this:

“And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood [or the River Euphrates], in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods” (24:2).

Abraham’s father, Terah, was not a believer, who brought up his son, Abram, to believe in the one true God. Instead, Joshua reminded Israel that their forefathers came from Ur on the Euphrates, where Abraham’s father and family worshipped pagan gods.

The reason Abraham, with his family, left the city of Ur in the land of the Chaldees, was because as Genesis 12:1 says, “Now the Lord HAD said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country…”

As you read Genesis 12:1, the context of a couple of verses earlier teaches that Abraham and his family had already left Ur and were in Haran at that time.

But the past tense, “had,” here means that this verse is a flashback to when Abram was living in Ur of the Chaldees. There God appeared to Abraham and spoke to him.

We know this by Stephen’s discourse in Acts 7 about Israel’s history. Here Stephen said: “…The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran [or Haran], And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee” (7:2-3).

Abraham’s life changed forever when the God of glory unexpectedly appeared to him and spoke to him in Ur. When God appeared to Abraham, God called him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s household.

These are three levels of increasing demands on Abraham’s life in this. It goes from broad to narrow. The country was the region of his dwelling, the kindred were his relatives, kinfolk, and broader family, and his father’s house was his immediate family and home.

God’s call to Abraham was also a call to separate himself FROM the corruption and idolatry around him and in his family in Ur, and to separate himself TO God completely.

There is a principle in this for our Christian lives, to separate from false beliefs and things that will corrupt our lives and lead us away from Christ, and to separate ourselves to Christ and give our lives over to following and living for Him by faith.

As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

God called Abraham to leave his homeland and to move to a different country, “unto a land that I will shew thee.” God told Abraham to leave Ur, and at first, God didn’t tell him where he was going! He gave him no map, no directions, and no location.

Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place…he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

God was requiring faith from Abraham, and desired that he uproot his whole life and just follow His leading by faith, and He would later show him the place he was to go.

With this call, it’s been said well that “Abraham was being asked to forsake everything in order to follow God’s call. What would you do? You’re in the prime of life, you’ve got a good job, a nice nest egg, a home you like, friends you admire, neighbors who respect you.

“You’re an upstanding, valuable part of the community. You’ve got a good future ahead of you. The last thing you want to do is move. And now God—Whom you’ve just met—wants you to leave everything. Your family…your friends…your country…your home…your business…your security.” What would you do?

Is God calling you to the ministry? Or the mission field? Maybe He’s calling you to go to Bible school? Or to serve as a teacher at your local church? Or to lead a Bible study? Or to become an elder or deacon?

If your first thought is that I can’t or I’m not qualified, that’s a great first step. Because then you have to rely on the Lord to go forward.

Like Abraham could have done, there were legitimate objections to raise and real obstacles to overcome when God called. But he looked beyond those things, and he just responded to God’s call and went forward by faith, and as a result, he was blessed and he became a blessing to others. Just like we can in life when we serve the Lord.

Staying in Ur where he was comfortable was the easiest thing to do for Abraham. But Abraham left his home, and the great metropolis and advanced culture in Ur.

He was called by God to a land he knew nothing about, and he obediently went by faith. And then he found that the sacrifices he made did not compare to the blessings he received.

It’s like that in the transformation of our lives too in how God takes us from where we were and where we were comfortable, and by His Word as we follow and live it by faith in God, He takes and moves us to a new place in our lives, a place of blessing, as by His grace, He transforms us into someone we did not know we could be, in being more like Christ.

Genesis 12:2-3: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

God made 3 promises of blessing to Abraham when He called him to leave Ur.

First, I will make of thee a great nation; second, I will make thy name great; and third, I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Now Genesis 11:30 states that in Ur, before they left the city, “Sarai was barren; she had no child.” Abraham was childless. And when God appeared to Abraham, he knew his wife was barren, and yet God promised He would make Abram a father of many nations.

It took faith for Abraham to believe that God would make a great nation from him, that he would have children, grandchildren, and that his multiplied seed would be a great nation. That great nation that came from him was the nation of Israel.

God also promised to make his name great. The promise of a great name reminds us of the tower of Babel and how they said, “and let us make us a name.”

This connection shows us that relationship between the call of Abraham in chapter 12 and the tower of Babel in chapter 11 should be noted and compared.

Babel is about the plans of man and them repeatedly saying, “Let us.” The call of Abraham is about the plans of God, and God repeatedly saying, “I will.”

At Babel, men chose to disregard the command of God to replenish and fill the earth. They strove to find security and renown by banding together and building a great city. They sought blessing as a result of their own labors, rather than by faith in God’s promise. And so God judged and scattered them.

Whereas, Abraham was secure and comfortable in a great city of Ur. But God called him to leave that city, to follow His leading by faith, and to live as a pilgrim in a strange land. And when Abraham did so, God blessed him.

The people at Babel wanted to make “a name” for themselves and they failed. God promised Abraham “a great name” as a result of leaving Ur, leaving the security of his family and home, and trusting God, and when Abraham did that, God did for Abraham what those at Babel tried so selfishly to do themselves and made his name great.

In Genesis 11 and 12, you see a contrast between man’s ways and God’s ways, between faith and unbelief, between pride and humility, obedience and disobedience. And Abraham teaches us that when you follow God and you trust Him, there is blessing.

God also promised protection for Abraham, saying that He would bless those that bless Abraham, and curse those that curse him.

This promise was made specifically to Abraham, but it also applied in the broader sense to his descendants, the Jewish nation. And we see examples of this in Scripture. Such as when Potiphar’s house and all of Egypt was blessed because of Joseph. And then later, how Egypt was cursed because of them cursing the children of Israel in their bondage.

Not only was Abraham promised personal blessing, but God also promised to make him a blessing, even to the point where all the families of the earth would be blessed in Abraham and through his seed.

In Genesis 18:18, the Lord also said, “…Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.”

Matthew 1:1 reminds us that Jesus Christ is “the son of Abraham.” Ultimately, all the nations of the earth will be blessed by Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham, through the worldwide kingdom of peace He will establish on the earth. And the Messiah one day will make Israel be all that God intended her to be in fulfillment of this promise.

Genesis 12:2-3 is God’s stated purpose for the nation of Israel: for Israel to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

This was God’s plan all the way through early Acts, and it will pick up again after the Rapture of the Church: that one nation would be a light to all the other nations, one family to be a blessing to all other families of the earth.

This was for the purpose of the perpetuation and preservation of God’s truth, and for reaching and leading the nations to the one true God and the proper worship of Him.

The call of Abraham helps us to understand our Bibles when we understand this plan of God and His purpose for the nation of Israel.

Moses ministered under this plan. And the law was given to Israel that she might be a blessing to the nations by being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, who lived and ministered according to God’s standard of righteousness in the law.

The kings of Israel ministered under this plan. The glory of Israel in the days of David and Solomon made Israel God’s intended blessing to the families of the earth.

All the prophets ministered under this plan. God sent the prophets to Israel to call her back to God and to His law, that through faith and obedience she might be blessed by God and be that blessing to the nations.

The Lord Jesus Christ ministered in His earthly ministry according to this plan, to make Israel a blessing, and make her a light for the nations. That’s why He taught His disciples that He was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and told Israel that “Ye are the light of the world.”

After Christ’s ascension, Peter and the apostles ministered according to this plan. After healing the lame man, Peter preached to those in Jerusalem and told them,

“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

And after the Rapture, this will be the plan for the Tribulation period and the Millennial Kingdom, for Israel to be a blessing that she might lead the nations to Jesus Christ, the true God, to find salvation and life in His name and to worship Him alone.

But Israel fell in her unbelief of Jesus Christ, and God has temporarily set her aside until after the Rapture. So Genesis 12:2-3 is not God’s plan today.

Instead, God’s plan is for the Church, the Body of Christ, made up of individual, believing Gentiles and Jews, to be His light and ambassadors for Christ.

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation and are called by God to go out to the world with the gospel of grace, and to make known the good news that Christ died for our sins and rose again, and that we are saved from all our sins by faith ALONE in Christ.

Genesis 12:4-8: “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

“And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

“And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.”

God called and Abraham obeyed by faith. After God appeared to Abraham in Ur, with his family, he left his city, home, familiar surroundings, family, and friends and went out by faith to an unknown destination and future.

He left Ur because he fully believed the promises that God had made to him. And fully believing the promises of God can move us as well in life to respond to the Lord and to obey and live out His Word and for eternal things.

Abraham and his family traveled out of Ur in Mesopotamia over 600 miles northwest to Haran. However, the patriarch of the family, Terah, Abraham’s father, stopped short of Canaan, settling down and dwelling in Haran.

Haran was another prosperous city which was located on an important trade route in what is modern-day northern Syria, and it was a city, like Ur, that was known for its idol worship, so it’s not surprising that Terah decided to dwell there.

Abraham and his family stayed in Haran for a time until his father, Terah, died. After Terah’s death, Abraham immediately acted in faith and was out of there like a shot to continue the journey to the land as God had instructed him.

As Acts 7:4 puts it, “Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran [Haran]: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land….”

Abraham departed Haran with his wife, Sarah, and his nephew, Lot. They, with their servants, all then set out for Canaan, which was another long journey of around 400-500 miles to the southwest.

As Abraham entered Canaan, he stopped for a time at Shechem, near the center of the land. Here “the Lord appeared unto Abram.” And this was a Christophany, or a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Lord blessed him and told him at this appearance, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” Abraham was now 75 years old, his wife was still barren, and they were still childless, yet God told him that his “seed” would be given this land. This again took faith by Abraham to believe this promise.

Verse 6 states that “the Canaanite was then in the land,” or they were the present possessors of the land, but the Lord appeared to Abraham to promise and assure him that this land belonged not to the Canaanites, but to Abraham’s posterity.

His promise to Abraham was of a FUTURE possession of the land through descendants to come. Acts 7 reminds us that Abraham was not personally given any of the land:

“And He [or God] gave him [Abraham] none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.”

Abraham was promised both a great nation and the land for his seed, but he had no outward proof of either. He could only trust God for the fulfillment of these things.

Also, Abraham was called to this unknown land, but he was not told until later AFTER he arrived there, that his seed would be given this land. It wasn’t the promise that his descendants would inherit the land that brought him to Canaan, but just his faith in God.

After he arrived in the land, then God blessed him and promised the land to his seed, the land that we call “The Promised Land.”

It’s important to remember, too, that Moses wrote the book of Genesis. And those who first read this book, the children of Israel in Moses’s day, were about to take possession of the land which was promised Abraham’s seed.

The account of strong faith by their father Abraham would’ve been a great encouragement for them to act in faith to go forward and take possession of it as God promised.

After the Lord’s appearance and promise to him, Abraham built an altar to the Lord. Then Abraham continued traveling further south into Canaan 20 miles and came to Bethel, which is about 7 miles north of where Jerusalem would later be.

There he pitched his tent and he built another altar to the Lord. The altar and the tent symbolize two features of Abraham’s character and faith.

The altar shows us that he was a worshiper of the true God and the tent that he was a pilgrim and stranger in this world. He had nothing on earth, but he had his all in God.

When we met him, Abraham was in Ur in the middle of all its idol worship. As we leave him, we find Abraham worshipping the true God in Canaan.

God called, he obeyed and stepped out in faith. When he arrived, he worshipped God.

Abraham is a powerful and great example, if not the greatest example, of a man of faith within Scripture. It’s been said well that “If you ever carved the Mt. Rushmore of faith, you would have to start with Abraham.”