The Beginning of the Promise

We are beginning a new series this morning that is going to take us through the next several months, so go ahead and put a bookmark in the book of Genesis, starting at chapter 12.

Although this puts us in the middle of the book of Genesis, it is at the beginning of a new and incredibly important section.

We are going to witness the birth of a nation, but not just any nation.

These chapters are going to tell us about how God called a unique group of people to himself to be his people in a unique way.

As we see right off the bat this morning, we will see God make astounding promises.

Through it all, we will see a clear contrast: the faithfulness of God and the flaws of his people.

So, why are we studying these chapters? It isn’t just so you can learn more history, although we will hopefully come out of this with a better understanding of how God worked in the past.

No, our goal in looking at this section of Scripture is that, as you and I look at these accounts and see our own failures and flaws in the lives of the people we read about, we will more importantly see the faithfulness of God that keeps his plan moving forward in spite of us.

If you were here last Sunday, you got a quick primer on one of the main people we will be talking about: Abraham.

It isn’t overstating the case to say that Abraham is one of the most important figures in history.

I say that because three of the world’s largest religions all trace their origin back to him: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

This morning, we are going to start at the beginning of Abraham’s story and see the promise God made.

From the very start, we are going to see the faithfulness of God even as he works through the flawed man, who at this point is named Abram.

To set the stage, let’s back up a bit to chapter 11:27-32.

We are at the end of a long list of names. It is a genealogy of the line that led to Abram.

Pick up with verse 27...

It starts with the phrase, “These are the family records…,” Which is a key phrase in Genesis that often marks a transition to a new section.

Although he is mentioned in the verse above this one, here we really begin the story of the family of Abram, who will later be called Abraham.

There are a few important facts to notice as we read this account:

Abram and his family were from Ur, near where God had confused the languages of everyone building the Tower of Babel.

After Abram’s brother died, his dad moved his family to a town called Haran.

Through all of this, though, there is no indication that Abram was following the Lord, the one true God.

In fact, Joshua makes it clear that Abram wasn’t worshiping the one true God:

Joshua 24:2–3 CSB

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,

That’s what is going to make these promises and events even more spectacular.

When God calls Abram and makes him promises, there is nothing the Bible that indicates that he was a devout follower of the one true God.

There was no reason for God to call Abram to himself besides the fact that God chose to do so.

Another vital element of what is happening is mentioned in verse 30...

Abram’s wife had not been able to have any children.

While we understand that there are any number of reasons why a husband and wife may not have children, in those days, childlessness was viewed as punishment from a god and brought shame on the couple.

We will see in just a minute that Abram was 75 years old when God spoke to him, so he and Sarah were well past the age of having children.

I want you to get this picture in your mind: an older couple with no children is following other gods, and suddenly everything changes.

The words God is about to speak to Abram are the foundation of a promise that changes not just he and Sarai’s lives, but every life for all eternity.

Let’s look at what God tells Abram and then briefly look at how he responds.

Through this, I want you to see again the faithfulness of God as he works in and through flawed people.

Start in 12:1-3...

Let’s break what God said into two main parts. First, we see that God:

1) Sent.

This is an absolutely incredible command that the Lord issues to Abram.

He tells him to pack up, leave his relatives, and go wherever God tells him to go.

Guys, how many of you think that would be a bit of a hard sell to your wife?

Think about what we have already said!

“Hey babe…you know that God we don’t worship? Well, he spoke to me today and told me we need to move. Yeah, not sure where.”

There are some aspects of this that would have been even more challenging for Abraham than it would be for us.

How many of you aren’t originally from the NRV? We have a lot of locals, but many of you have come for school or work and settled here, away from your family’s old homestead.

That is normal in our society, but it wasn’t in those days. You typically lived and died in the same area your entire life. You didn’t have planes and paved roads like we have and so many other things, so you didn’t just up and move and call your folks every so often once you got to your new home.

So, at 75 years old, God is calling Abram to move away from his family to somewhere he doesn’t even know where he is going.

Abram doesn’t know God well at this point, but many of you do.

Right off the bat, you and I are faced with the question of whether or not the God we know is worthy of our radical obedience.

How willing are you to do what God calls you to do, even if it makes your family think you are crazy?

How willing are you to follow God when you don’t know all the answers to what will happen next?

We will see in a moment how Abram responds to God’s call, but I want you to think for a moment about how you would respond if the God you know and claim to serve asked you to do something like this?

For Abraham, though, the call to go is coupled with a promise he could barely comprehend.

Not only did God send Abram out, he also...

2) Promised.

Read verses 2-3 again.

There is no way Abram fully comprehended what God was promising here.

However, we see the beginnings of a promise that changes the world forever.

As God calls Abram to step out into the unknown with him, he couples it with an incredible promise.

He promises to make Abram into a great nation.

Beyond that, he promises that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abram.

We will talk more about how God was going to fulfill this promise, but to an old, childless man and his old, barren wife, God promises that he will make them a great nation.

After Abram gets into the land God showed him, we see God flesh out the promise a bit more in verse 7...

Now, we see that this “great nation” idea is going to involve him having offspring who are going to be numerous enough to possess the land of Canaan.

There aren’t any details about how or what or when, but God is promising to do the impossible and bless the world through Abram’s family.

You know what is interesting about these promises God is making?

There isn’t an “if” here.

While God does make covenants that are conditional on the response of the other people, this one isn’t.

He simply tells Abram to go, and then he tells Abram what he is going to do.

We will see this even more clearly when we get to chapter 15, but God’s promise to bless the world through Abram’s descendants is something he is going to accomplish despite the flaws and failures of his people.

That’s why this study is going to focus us on the faithfulness of God.

Much later, one of Abraham’s distant descendants, the Apostle Paul, would write

2 Timothy 2:13 CSB

if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

God promised to do it, and he will accomplish it.

Here’s where we need to be careful, though: in applying this passage, we have to make sure we apply this correctly.

God isn’t teaching us that if we just do what he says, he is going to bless us with a big family and lots of influence or whatever we define as success.

God was making a unique promise to a unique person at a unique time in history.

However, we have the incredible privilege of knowing how God fulfilled this promise.

Not only did he make Abram into a great nation, he also fulfilled the promise of blessing all the nations through him.

How? By sending Jesus, God in the flesh, born to a physical descendant of Abram.

Through Abram’s line, the one who would one day be the Savior of all the world was born, lived, died on a cross, and rose from the grave to make forgiveness available to anyone who will call on him.

Now, he rules and reigns in heaven and one day will return to earth to rule over every kingdom, bringing peace and prosperity to the world like it has never seen since the Garden of Eden.

Don’t look at this account and cheapen it by thinking it means that God promises to give you money or influence or a big family.

No, look at this promise and realize that God’s plan was to take an idol-worshiping childless man and his wife and, through God’s own grace and mercy and faithfulness, save the world, including you.

His promise was to bring you salvation through Abram’s descendants, which is the greatest need you could ever have.

The radical call of God on your life is to leave behind living life your way, worshiping yourself or comfort or work or family or whatever is at the core of your heart and instead, come to the one who he has shown us.

Come to Christ, the one who died for us, was buried and raised for us.

Come to him and be saved. Enjoy the blessing of becoming one of Abram’s spiritual descendants through the life of his greatest Son.

Through God’s faithfulness, find life today.

Now, with that said, let’s look briefly at Abram’s response to God’s promise.

We see his response in three stages.

First, Abram:

1) Went.

Look at verse 4-5...

In the simple, direct language the Bible often uses, it simply says that he went.

He got Sarai and his nephew Lot, and they went.

Not knowing where he was going, Abram just went wherever God led and stopped when he got there.

I love the simple, understated way this is recorded.

In fact, when we see Abram obeying God in Genesis, it is often this way.

He just did what God told him to do.

Is that you this morning? Is your heart sensitive enough to the leading of the Holy Spirit that you will just do what he says?

When you get convicted that you are doing something sinful, do you stop, ask forgiveness, and seek to change by his strength?

When he calls you to do something that makes you uncomfortable, are you quick to do it?

We have said it before, but I like the phrase others have used of putting your “yes” on the table and letting God put it in on the map.

Have you done that?

For some of you, that might involve a literal map—God, I’m willing to go wherever you lead me to go, even if that means I have to move like Abram did.

For others, that means being willing to change jobs, change a relationship, get out of your comfort zone to tell someone about Christ or serve him in a way you haven’t before.

Abram just went. Are you?

As you do, don’t forget to do what else Abram did. He also...

2) Worshiped.

Pick back up at the end of verse 5-9...

Abram built altars as symbols of where he had heard from and met with God.

They were probably basically just piles of rocks to our eyes, but they were markers of what God had said.

These encounters with God led Abram to worship God and call on his name.

How good are you at doing that? Make sure in the hustle and bustle of life that you take time to notice when God is at work.

We don’t build altars like he did, but we need to make sure that we are looking for opportunities to worship.

Remember, we have defined worship as seeing God as he is, seeing ourselves as we are, and responding in repentance and obedience.

Are you doing that?

Now, so far, Abram is crushing it.

Here’s a man who is later in life who is suddenly walking with God, doing what God calls him to do, even if it’s hard. He is worshiping and following and obeying, and everything is great.

Here’s what we see, though: Abram was far from perfect.

Yes, he went, and yes, he worshiped, but he also...

3) Failed.

Let’s talk just a little bit about what happens net.

Read verses 10-14 with me...

We don’t know whether it was sinful or not for Abram to go to Egypt; the text doesn’t say.

We do know, however, that what happened next was wrong.

Now, here’s what’s interesting: the lie he concocted was actually a half-truth. Things were different back then, and Sarai was actually his half-sister.

However, he was trying to save his own life, not trusting God, and making up a lie.

He apparently wasn’t wrong—Sarai was beautiful enough that someone wanted to marry her. The problem was that someone was Pharoah.

She is taken into Pharaoh’s home, and God strikes Pharaoh and his family with plagues!

(By the way, keep in mind that Moses is writing this during the time in the wilderness, so he is reminding God’s people of the fact that God works in similar ways to how he has in the past).

Pharaoh figures out what is going on and they send Sarai and Abram away.

Here’s what’s incredible in all this: Abram fails to trust God, and he puts Sarai’s honor at risk by allowing another man to marry her.

God is so able to keep his promise, though, that he doesn’t allow the Egyptians or Abram’s failure to derail his plan.

In fact, it even seems to work out in Abram’s favor, doesn’t it?

Look at verse 16...

Abram got wealthy off Pharaoh’s generosity! Doesn’t that sound like a blessing?

Here’s what’s interesting, though. In the middle of all God’s faithfulness to keep his promise, we see that Abram’s failures are setting the stage for problems in the future.

One, his son will eventually try using this same lie later, so he is setting a poor example for his son.

More subtly, though, Abram is setting in motion events that will lead to one of his greatest failure.

Remember how the text said that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, gave Abram male and female slaves? Fast forward a few chapters to where Abram and Sarai decide to get ahead of God and take matters into their own hands...

Genesis 16:1 CSB

Abram’s wife, Sarai, had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar.

Abram ends up fathering a child with Hagar, and the descendants of that child are still at war with the descendants of Abram’s son who bore the promise.

While God in his graciousness did not allow his plan to be destroyed by Abram’s failure, he did allow that failure to sow seeds of painful consequences in the future.

That is why, as great as Abram was (and he really was), he cannot be the one who blesses the whole world.

It took his sinless great great great great great grandson to save us from our sins.

While Abram often got it right, only Jesus could save.

Have you trusted in the faithfulness of God today, or are you hoping you can make it?

Even Abram needed a Savior, and so do you.

Are you trusting him today? Are you going and worshiping? Are you seeking forgiveness and leaning on his faithfulness when you fail?

This story is the beginning of the promise, but from the very beginning, we see a faithful God and flawed people.