S1:E4 - A Love-filled Promise to Abraham

The world was broken. All the families of the earth were supposed to be living on God’s holy mountain and flourishing in His life-giving presence, but now, after the great rebellion, they are scattered and confused – hopeless wanderers in the wilderness. Surely all is lost, God’s beautiful plan for creation has been abandoned by his own image bearers. His grand story seems to have ended in tragedy.

But, those who know God, know better.

The heavens hushed, the stars and the planets leaned in to listen. The God of creation was about to speak again.

With the power of a thousand falling mountains, God’s voice echoed over the face of the land, and on and on into forever. He was speaking fresh love-filled promises to a wilderness-wanderer named Abraham. Somehow, through this man’s family, God was going to bless all the scattered families of the world and draw them back into His presence once again.

My name is Kenneth Padgett and this is The Story of God Podcast - presented by Wolfbane Books.

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When we began this journey through the Bible the world was dark and the waters were wild, but God’s words brought light and order. He formed the heavens and earth, and then filled them with his life-giving goodness. He blessed the animals on the 5th day and they multiplied, on the 6th day he blessed his image bearers and they were fruitful, He blessed the Sabbath day and it was holy, In Genesis 5 His blessing on humanity is recounted and they bear children, and after the Flood God blesses Noah’s family and they fill the earth. Now, Bless or blessed is an interesting idea in our modern Christian vernacular. We usually use the word to communicate some sort of generic goodness or well-being that we are experiencing or wish on others. Hashtag blessed, or be blessed, or down south, where I live, it won’t take long for some sweet old lady to say “bless your heart” if she sees you doing something nice for her or someone else. Actually she might use the same phrase “bless your heart” as a form of consolation for some misfortune that has befallen you. But in Genesis 1-11 the word “barak/bless”appears five times, four of which are explicitly connected to fruitful multiplication in childbirth. God is a life-giving god a life-multiplying god. His blessing results in our flourishing and thriving. Like a growing garden in full bloom, is humanity experiencing the blessing of God. And the blessing of God is directly connected to living in his life-giving presence, delighting in his will, and walking in his ways.

But, as we discussed in the last episode, God and his abundant blessings were rejected by humanity. Adam and Eve heeded the voice of the serpent and broke God’s loving law concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A charge given by a loving father to his children. This five-fold blessing in Genesis 1-11 unravels before our very eyes – seen clearly in the five-fold usage of another word - “arar,” the Hebrew word for curse. Unlike barak, this word appears only after humans rebel. The serpent is cursed for his role in human rebellion. The very ground that Adam came from is cursed, and after that ground has tasted Able’s blood, the murderer Cain is cursed. Noah is meant to give rest from the curse, but after the flood his grandson, Canaan, inherits the curse due his father. When humans run against the grain of God’s good design, barak becomes arar, where there were blessings, now there are curses. Sin runs creation backwards, towards chaos.

The story of Genesis 3-11 is a heartbreaking tragedy. Humans were exiled from God’s mountaintop garden, and this is followed by murder and death. The whole world is filled with violence and destruction, and the heart of every human is “always evil only.” God washes the world with a global flood, but the brokenness of the human heart is preserved and passed on in Noah and his family. Eventually all the families of the earth come together, united in their prideful desire to build a city with a tower that would pierce the heart of heaven – a man-made mountain designed to make their name great.

But in Genesis 11 God judges the people at Bavel and does not let them continue in this unified rebellion. He confuses their language and scatters the families of the earth across the wild world. They have moved further down and further out - away from God’s presence, and outside of his blessings.

In the last episode I mentioned that if the story ended after the scattering judgment at Bavel the Bible would be what in classical literature is called a tragedy. Consider this, you and I are the descendants of these scattered rebels. We live outside of Eden. We experience the brokenness of the world everyday, we even participate in it. The Bible’s claim that something is radically wrong with our world is demonstrably, and undeniably true, no matter who you are or where you fall on the religious spectrum. If the story ended after Babel, we would be lost and doomed, we would be without the one thing we all desperately need in this wild world – hope.

(Music?)

In the beginning God spoke. We’ve seen how he tames the Tohu Vavohu, the wild and waste. By his word he beckons light out of darkness, order out of chaos, and hope out of despair. We’ve seen God’s goal for creation, that He desires to dwell with us, to bless us, to be our everlasting, all-satisfying source of life and light. Because of what the Bible has already told us about God, we know that the scattering judgment at Bavel is not the end of the story. Every reader of this ancient story has waited at this moment with baited breath for one thing – for the God of Genesis One to speak again. Can you feel it? The anticipation for the God of all creation to speak into this bleak, dark moment.

We’ve seen how God’s blessings bring new life, fruitful multiplication, so it’s no wonder that the first glimmer of hope, like a rare diamond deep in a cave, is tucked into a genealogy. The genealogy that appears right after the scattering at Bavel is the second genealogy in Genesis 1-11. The first is found in Genesis 5, this is where we heard the death drums in that rhythmic refrain, “and he died, and he died, and he died…” but in this genealogy, those drums have fallen silent. The author, intentionally leaving out the refrain, is perhaps giving us the first hint that a small ray of sun just might break through the gloom of Genesis 3-11. The Genealogy lands on three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Our focus will immediately fall on the firstborn, Abram.

Perhaps the most obvious fact to point out is that everyone in this genealogy was born outside of Eden, and Abram himself is a direct descendant of those scattered at Bavel. It is significant to note that right after the scattering judgment is a genealogy that leads to Abram.

And this leads us to Genesis 12:1. The triune voice that long ago lit up the universe, that slung the stars and planets into the night sky, that fashioned chaos into order, and that spoke life-giving blessings over creation, came like roaring thunder in the wilderness of Ur. The voice that called Abram may have only been heard by one man, but it cracked the crust of the earth and a covenantal spring of love and deliverance began to water the dry land outside of Eden. This was the voice of God, of YHWH. He is the God of all creation, and the words to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 are the first words of New Creation. The “and God said” that brought light in Genesis 1 is paralleled here with “and YHWH said” - again bringing hope to the exiles outside of Eden.

What exactly does YHWH say to this wilderness wanderer? The first thing he tells Abram to do is head west from Ur of the Chaldeans, a flat desert land in modern day Iraq, to the land of Canaan (what we now call Israel), a lush well-watered land, a land that would later be described as a land flowing with milk and honey. Now hopefully Abram’s westward trajectory here is sending up some theological flares for you. Remember that in Gen 3-11 the movement away from God is east. Adam and Eve are exiled east, after murdering his brother Cain heads east, Shinar, where Bavel is, is a desert wilderness is in the east - actually not that far from Ur. So the first thing YHWH tells Abram to do is head west. And this is our first indication that YHWH is reversing the movement away from God that we’ve experienced in the pervious chapters.

Let’s keep looking at the first three verses of Gen 12. So after Bavel YHWH speaks, he speaks to a lost and confused wilderness wanderer named Abram a descendant of the scattered rebels at Bavel, and he tells him to take his family west. Then he tells Abram that he will make him into a great nation and that he will make Abram’s name great. Ok, where have we seen a unified people seeking to make a name for themselves? Oh, in the previous chapter! At Bavel the people say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves…” This is the second clue that YHWH’s call of Abram is a direct response to the rebellion at Bavel. YHWH will make Abram’s name great, not because he has rebelled against God and chosen to live apart from God, but because Abram and his family will be the means by which God calls all of the scattered families of the earth back into his presence again!

I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that the term barak, the Hebrew word for bless, is used 5 times before the call of Abram. I noted that this word has to do with humans flourishing in abundant life, it is tied to life-giving fruitfulness and multiplication, and God’s blessings are meant to be experienced and enjoyed in his presence. However, I also mentioned that after Adam and Eve rebelled in Gen 3, we get another word used 5 times, arar, the Hebrew word for curse. The unravelling of God’s good design in Genesis 1-11 can be seen in the five-fold usage of these to words - bless and curse - barak and arar.

This leads us to our third observation. In English we tend to diversify our vocabulary to achieve a more sophisticated and esthetically pleasing form of communication. For example I could say I ran to the store, then bolted over to my friends house, before rushing home. Ran, bolted, and rushing could have all been the word drove. I drove to the store, then drove to my friends house, before I drove home. But, when we diversify the vocabulary it’s more engaging and exciting. But biblical Hebrew doesn’t work that. Repetition is a very common way to connecting big ideas. The five fold usage of barak/bless is countered by the five fold usage of arar/curse in Gen 1-11. So if the inspired author wants to show that the call of Abram is connecting to reversing the curse that came before it, he could do something like poor out 5 baraks in one sentence. It makes for clunky English, but in Hebrew it’s like underlining and highlighting the big idea. This is exactly what is happening in Genesis 12:1-3. YHWH says, “And 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. I will bless those who bless you…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Wow, this is awesome! The Bible is so cool! The call of Abram in Genesis 12 is a direct response to the tragedy of Genesis 3-11. The God of creation is a God of redemption and the redemption doesn’t start in the New Testament …it starts right here in Genesis 12! God speaks and mountains rise up to meet him in the heavens, he speaks and rebel wanderers leave the wilderness behind and head west to the lush land of God. I want you to see and savor the wonder of this moment. God wants to bless all the families of the earth. He wants to pour out life and light on the the very families that have just been confused and scattered at Bavel. What does blessing the families of the earth look like? Easy, if he’s reversing the eastward exile of Gen 3-11, as we’ve seen, then the blessing would be a westward call back up into his presence. God is calling Abram and pouring out blessings on him because he is going to bless the world through Abram and his family.

In Genesis 17 we learn that Abram’s name is changed to Abraham because he will be the father of many nations. The scope of God’s covenant with Abraham is global! Abraham walks westward because on the horizon he sees the glimmer of a distant city. Not Bavel, the desert city of man, but an eternal city, global garden city built by God himself. Hebrews 11 says, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.” It goes on to say that, “Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.”

In Genesis 3 we were exiled out of God’s presence and all hell broke loose. In genesis 11 the families of the earth are scattered and confused. But in Genesis 12 the God of creation speaks once again into the wild world, bringing blessings and launching a grand plan to draw all the scattered families of the earth into his presence for blessing. Somehow, through Abraham’s family we will dwell with God again! In the first sentence of the New Testament we read that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham. God is good. He has pursued us in wilderness. His great work of redemption has kicked off in the call of Abraham.

Hallejuah! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!