The Call of Abraham

- Primeval History

We have come to the close of what most theologians call the the first eleven chapters of Genesis,

Primeval History

Through it we’ve covered the beginning of life, death and everything in the universe.

We’ve uncovered the introduction of sin, murder, and even paganism and the beginning of religion.

Religion!

Religion is defined by Merriam-Websters dictionary as:

a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion)

But, I prefer Greg Laurie’s definition best.

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Religion is man’s attempt to reach God. Christianity is God’s attempt to reach man. Religion says, “Do”. Christianity says, “DONE!”. Jesus did all the heavy-lifting for you at the cross. (https://twitter.com/greglaurie/status/1388628332825047043?lang=en)

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This is the paradigm we see that God begins to unfold for us as we travel together, now from the first eleven chapters of the book Genesis called Primeval History, to the Narrative of scripture.

Basically, up to this point, we have covered everything in a collective sense, incorporating everything, including many different people groups, or nations and even how they became to be nations.

By way of review, lets take a quick peek back in time to

- The First Prophecy

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Genesis 3:15 (CSB)

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

If you recall, this is in the Garden of Eden after the fall of Man, (Adam & Eve,) and God gave us the very first prediction of the future, or Prophecy in this sense, of how He was going to handle the issue of sin, death, and reconciliation to mankind

Well, from Genesis 12 and on, the scriptures begin to unravel the story of how God accomplished this extraordinary task.

But before we unravel this, lets take a quick view at the beginning of the story.

- When the Earth was divided

We’ll pick it up at the birth of Peleg’s son.

If you’ll remember from the story of the tower of Babel, that God separated the languages, and scattered the nations because they didn’t scatter instead finding a plain in the land of Shinar,

They settled there and began building the Tower of Babel and make a name for themselves.

Which upset God, and He confused their languages, and scattered them.

Also, we discovered that most scholars believe this is what occured in the time of Peleg, when the earth was divided?

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Genesis 11:18–32 (CSB)

18 Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. 19 After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 20 Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. 21 After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 22 Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. 23 After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 24 Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah. 25 After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. 26 Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.

So, from the all of the offspring of Noah creating the Table of Nations, then to their building of the tower of Babel,

He focuses on the development of one man, and his offspring.

Abram,

We know this because the author veers off to focus on the Abram and his wife Sarai.

The problem to the reader at this beginning, is the fact that Scripture tells us his wife, is barren.

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30 Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.”

Now, it is generally assumed that Abram was born around 2166 BC.

- The Birth of Abram

It is also possible that he may or may not have been a contemporary of Nimrod.

Some old rabbinic traditions actually have him conversing with Nimrod himself.

That is not scripture, that is only conjecture, traditions, etc.

We have no way of proving that.

The name Abram means = Exalted Father.

Remember that for when we come to his name being changed by God later on in his life.

Abram is the great grandson, 4th removed, from Peleg, in whose time the Bible tells us, the earth was divided.

It is also possible that he lived in the time of Ur-Nammu- Sumerian King, (The early history law maker.) or Hammurabi- King of the Babylonians.

What we do know from Scripture is, that Abram was in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

The location of Ur, of the Chaldeans is debated,

Most favor the archeological site, that has been established as a town having the name Ur in the land of Chaldea

Others for varied reasons, prefer to place the Biblical birthplace of Abram at a site with a similar name in the north, closer the town of Haran, where Abram’s father died.

Regardless, we know that which ever town it was in, He was called out from it by God.

Genesis 12:1-3 (CSB)

1 The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

It is an interesting parallel here that the reason God confused the language of Abrams forefathers, was because they didn’t scatter and they wanted to make a name for themselves,

But here, with Abram, we see God did the exact opposite thing.

Leave your house, and Go to a Place I will show you.

a. Don't scatter, I’ll show you exactly where to go.

b. Don’t try to make a name for yourself, because, if you do this, I will make a great name for you.

But then things change,

God goes on to say, “Not only will I bless you, I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you

Actually, He said I will 5 times here in the opening of chapter 12 call of Abram.

A theme that gets repeated as we go along

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4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord. 9 Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

Negev = meaning the south or dessert.

- Called Out Of Your Comfort Zone

When Yadi and I were first married, we lived in a very small apartment.

When I say small, I mean, no bigger than 400 sq. ft.

It was tiny.

Save a some family members that left the city, my whole life was in Chicago.

Everyone, and everything I knew was centered in that city. I knew every inch of it by memory.

Yadi, being recently arrived from Mexico, all she knew about the US was in Chicago.

So, naturally we tried to purchase a house there and make a home for ourselves.

But, God quickly showed us, that Chicago was not going to be our permanent home.

When we discerned that whatever obstacle to staying in Chicago was Supernatural,

Meaning, If I told the story, you would also conclude it was supernatural,

Well when we figured it out, we let God lead.

He immediately moved us to southern Illinois, just east of St. Louis, Mo.

It wasn’t until after I answered the Lord’s calling, and entered into ministry, that we realized, it was God all along that had plans for us in a different place.

Then I realized, It all made sense.

God knew not only the kind of person I was then, but also the kind of people and influences that were around me then as well

And also around Yadi.

People came out of the woodwork when they found out Yadi was coming out of the religion of her youth into protestantism.

Saying things like, “Don’t forget where you come from,” etc.

As if she would lose her Mexican card by giving her life to Jesus.

But, because of “where, location, and who, people’s influence, and what we had come to believe, Faith

God couldn’t use us as He planned until he moved us from our comfort zone.

He had to separate us from our comfort zone or our environment in order to place us where He wanted us.

Maybe God is calling you?

Maybe He is calling you right now, and that’s why you find yourself here right now.

Maybe that’s why you are watching this service right now, because God is calling you out from your comfort zone.

Maybe away from your own people, or what you are used to.

Maybe He’ calling you to be more

generous financially,

Maybe to dedicate more time to volunteering at church,

Maybe to leave an unholy relationship

or even maybe to make your relationship holy.

Maybe He’s calling you to the mission field.

What ever it is, I’m sure it’s out of your comfort zone.

It’s not something you would have dreamed up yourself.

But I can guarantee you this on the authority of scripture,

If you give into that calling, God will bless you!

He will bless you in more ways than you can think of.

Because there’s no greater place to be other than in the will of God.

- Trading Food For Wife

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10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live. 13 Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household.

No one said it was going to be all roses.

God never told Abram, not anywhere in scripture that everything was going to be ideal.

Or that it would go just as Abram wanted it to go.

To the contrary,

Here we are told, that once Abram obeyed and answered the call, and making that long journey to the land of Canaan,

They had to face a famine.

Abram was called out from the belief in multiple gods.

He was probably used to praying to this god for rain, that god for crops, etc.

The Bible tells us they were pagan.

He had to endure these trials in order for Abram to begin to trust God for his life.

After all, he was coming out of a pagan world, it must have been super difficult for him to change everything about himself, In order to be obedient to the true God, Yahweh.

Now, we have all experienced hunger before,

We have even faced shortages of necessities before,

Remember not long ago as we all went through the worst pandemic in modern history,

Of all things to run out of, this country went crazy for toilet paper.

Think about it, if we went that nuts over toilet paper, how much more do you think we would have for real essential items like, food, or medicine?

We would kill each other for them.

Well, that’s what Biblical famine was like.

It was so bad, people had to pack up their lives and leave town in search of food.

Then, on top of that, his wife was snatched away and put in the harem of the most power man in the region.

The ruler of Egypt, the Pharoah.

For a man, that has to be worse than death,

But, we see Abram is just like any other human being.

He want’s to live.

We know because to escape death from hunger, he heads to Egypt.

Then, in order that they don’t kill him for his wife, he has hem both lie

Passing her off as his sister instead of his wife.

Agh, but he wasn’t completely lying.

You see, Sarai really was his sister, but she was in fact his half sister, being the daughter of his father, but not his mother.

- Patriarch

They call Abram the Patriarch of the Faith.

The rest of the book of Genesis details the lives of these early Patriarchs of the faith.

We start to understand why God had to confuse the languages, and separate them

Because, all along, God had a plan to redeem mankind.

But in order for that plan to work out, he had to make himself a nation that would honor Him only

The first eleven chapters of Genesis tell us how the world got to this point.

The rest of the book tell us about the person He chose to bring about this nation,

The patriarch Abram.

But, as only God can, He had to create a nation of people from a man whose wife was barren,

Child-less.

That is the God I believe in,

Is He the God you believe in?

Invitation.