The Call of Abram and the Promise of God

Abram and the Promise of God

We have now gotten to the life of Abram or Abraham and one of the first things we see is that God is going to bless him.

Abraham grows up in the Euphrates River town of Ur, in what is now southern Iraq.

It’s the New York City of its day—busy, wealthy, and bursting with culture: art, crafts, and the oldest written language on record, called cuneiform. Instead of using an alphabet, ink, and paper, writers use reed sticks to press pictures into soft clay.

For reasons unknown, Abraham’s father, Terah, decides to move his entire extended family to the boonies of Canaan.

Terah dies at 205 years old in Haran and then chapter 13 begins with God speaking to Abram.

Remember that the call of Abram is based solely on God’s grace and not Abram’s righteousness.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Abram and who he is and what he has done. it all has to do with who is with him: God is with him.

Like we just took Judah to the zoo so he could dress us as Iron Man and go around and get candy.

I reached into His bag and went to eat a Reese's and he said no, that's mine.

Oh really? Boy, How did you get to the zoo? Who paid for you to get in the zoo? Who bought you the costume to wear to the zoo? Who bought the little bag to have to get the candy?

Its his candy because I let it be his candy. Every good thing that happened that evening, every little piece of candy he received, all came through his father that loves him.

It had nothing to do with anything he did. It had everything to do with who he was to his Father.

God is going to use Abram, not because Abram is awesome but because His Father in heaven is awesome, to continue the progression to the cross.

God’s purposes in his call to Abram are made clear in this passage: God will bless the whole world through Abram and his descendants.

The latter includes not only the man’s biological descendants but “all the peoples on earth” who will unite to him through placing faith in his ultimate descendant, Jesus of Nazareth.

Genesis 12:1–9 (ESV)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

2 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.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,

12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”

14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”

20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

The Promise of a New Place

The call of Abram marks one of the most important moments in God’s plan for redemption. But interestingly, Abram stands in contrast to Noah.

Whereas Noah is introduced as a “righteous” person (6:9), Abram is introduced simply as the son “of Terah” (11:27).

So there is nothing to commend Abram to God when God calls him.

After all, he comes from a pagan household.

Moreover, he is an old man (12:4)

Abraham was 75 years old when God called him, so age doesn’t need to be an obstacle to faith.

Warren W. Wiersbe

who has spent his years experiencing nothing unusual but rather the brokenness of the curse. He has seen family members die. His wife is barren.

And Haran, where he is living at the time, is an undesirable place.

It may seem to Abram that his life has no promise.

Nevertheless, God chooses him to receive the greatest promise in history.

The calling of Abram is one of the weightiest moments between Eden and the cross.

Yet as Moses records, God simply visits Abram—who is living in a land of idolatry—and chooses him on this simple basis: God’s own favor and choice.

This pattern will be repeated throughout the Old Testament (Exod 20:2; Deut 4:37; 7:6–8).

While the doctrine of God’s electing purposes strikes a blow at human pride, it lays bare the fact that God takes initiative to rescue undeserving people.

What is the nature of Abram’s calling from God, and how does it relate to us today?

The brokenness that comes from sin makes it difficult for us to have clarity on God’s vision for our lives as believers, but Genesis 12 is a game changer in this regard.

In the calling of Abram, we see God break through the brokenness to give us a helpful insight into his vision for our lives.

First, the blessing of Abram begins with a geographical dimension as God calls him to a new place.

We live in a mobile world where moving is common.

So the danger is that a calling to a new land like what Abram experienced seems normal to us.

But it wasn’t normal during that time period.

True, when God tells Abram to “go from your land” (v. 1), it is a calling to do just that. But it is also a call to leave everything behind—from his native people to his house to his heritage—for the sake of following God.

As Hebrews 11:8 confirms, Abram walks by faith, not by sight, to an unknown future in an unknown place.

The New Testament helps us recognize there is even more going on with this calling to a new place than meets the eye in Genesis 12.

When the martyr Stephen recounts this moment in Acts 7:4–5, he shows how the promise of a place and a people was never fulfilled during the time of Abram.

Instead, the promise of a place only comes true through the son of Abraham, Jesus himself, who fulfills the covenant commitments and receives the covenant promise of a new place.

What is this new place Jesus will receive in fulfillment of this calling on Abraham?

Romans 4:13 explains that it is not ultimately limited to a parcel of land in Canaan but that Abraham would “inherit the world.”

What a stunning expansion of this promise of a place!

The offspring of Abram will receive not only the land of Canaan but eventually the whole world.

This promise of a new place finds its fulfillment in Christ through the restoration of Eden that arrives through the coming of a new creation.

As a result, the gospel is a call to come home. God doesn’t just promise to bring us into a new creation.

He also brings a new creation into us (2 Cor 5:17). Like the prodigal who leaves a far country to return to his father’s house, our heavenly Father welcomes us into a new place to belong through Jesus, the son of Abraham.

The Promise of a New People

Second, the blessing of Abram continues with a genealogical dimension as God calls him to a new people. In obedience to God’s call, Abram and his entire household set out from Haran (Gen 12:4).

The household of Abram includes his wife, his nephew Lot, and his servants and herdsmen.

According to a later chapter, Abram’s household numbers at least 318 men, besides women and children (14:14). Moreover, Lot is no poor relation tagging along but a wealthy individual with his own servants and herds (12:5).

Genesis 12:2 refers to a genealogical blessing linked to the call.

God promises to make Abram “into a great nation.”

The language indicates not only that Abram will become a father but something like a king over a kingdom.

Here, shortly after the Table of Nations in chapter 10, we see God calling Abram to establish a new kingdom, a “holy nation” (Exod 19:6).

These will be people for God’s own “possession,” which is a theme that carries throughout the New Testament (1 Pet 2:9).

In a previous chapter, we saw that the people of Babylon failed in their attempts to make their own name great (Gen 11:4).

But here God gives a promise to Abram to “make [his] name great” (12:2).

The same verse supplies the why. God will make Abram’s name great not so that he can turn inward in pride (like the tower builders) but outward in humility by being “a blessing” to others.

In verse 7, in a new scene set within the boundaries of Canaan, the text reveals that Abram doesn’t just experience the promise of God but also the presence of God.

With this first appearance of God made to a man since the flood, a biblical pattern is set in place: the presence of God brings the promise of God.

He says, “To your offspring I will give this land.” The term translated offspring is the exact same word used in the first messianic promise in Genesis 3:15.

But God’s latest promise, with its exciting link to what God said to Eve, comes with a problem.

How can Abram’s offspring inherit the place where he stands when he has no offspring?

After all, Abram is already seventy-five when he leaves Haran, and his wife is barren.

Well, in another twenty-five years a son, Isaac, will be born to this couple.

But Galatians 3:16 provides the real answer to Abram’s conundrum as it quotes Genesis 12:7: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say ‘and to seeds,’ as though referring to many, but referring to one, ‘and to your seed,’ who is Christ.”

Who is the offspring in view within the promise, then?

Ultimately, not Isaac or his son Jacob or any other mere human from Israel.

Why?

Because they failed to keep the covenant commitments.

Perfect, sinless Jesus Christ, descended from Abraham, is the offspring intended here. One day soon, he will enter the promised land of salvation and usher a new people into a new creation.

The Promise of a New Purpose

Third, God’s blessing of Abram culminates with a generational dimension as the Lord calls him to a new purpose.

What is it? That “all the peoples on earth will be blessed through [him]” (12:3). The nations need a blessing because they are under the curse linked to the fall that happened in Eden. Within the promise of a global blessing is a call to a global mission. God is commissioning Abram and his offspring to advance his kingdom purposes in the world.

In verse 8, Abram celebrates his amazing encounter with God by building an altar for worship. Knowledge of God’s purpose for him combines with the experience of God’s presence to empower this expression of Abram’s praise.

This moment establishes another biblical pattern that continues through the construction of the tabernacle and the temple to mark the faithfulness of God toward his people.

What God speaks to Abram in Genesis 12:3 radiates down through the ages to Christ followers, the people of God today. The apostle Paul’s explanation is helpful here:

Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed through you.’

Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith. (Gal 3:8–9)

So Paul points out that when God speaks to Abram about a blessing coming to the nations through him, he is not only calling him to a new purpose. He is actually proclaiming the gospel, far in advance of Jesus’s arrival on the world stage.

The gift of grace God offers humanity through the death and resurrection of this descendant of Abraham is the way all the nations are blessed, as individuals from all over the world are made right with God through faith.

This reframing of Genesis 12 by Paul in Galatians 3 has everything to do with the purpose God has called us believers to live out today. The Great Commission of Matthew 28:18–20 is grounded in this Genesis 12 promise that the nations will be blessed through the offspring of Abraham. All of us who are Abraham’s spiritual offspring in Christ get to share the good news about him, thus joining in the mission of being a blessing to the world.

The calling of Abram is a paradigm for God’s calling on our own lives. A new place; a new people; a new purpose. This is the essence of God’s calling to Abram. But it is also the essence of his kingdom.

The kingdom of God, after all, is about God’s people in God’s place living for God’s purpose. As sure as God is giving Abram a kingdom-sized calling in chapter 12 of Genesis, God has a kingdom-oriented calling for us. God calls us to a new place to belong; so we should ask ourselves the question, “Where can I make the most impact?”

God calls us to a new people to invest in; so we should ask ourselves the question, “Whom can I make the most impact on?” God calls us to a new purpose to live out; so we should ask ourselves the question, “How can I make the most impact?” We will find our calling in Christ at the same place Abram did all those years ago: at the intersection of our place, our people, and our purpose.

Abram’s is not a simple, happily-ever-after story.

In fact, the giving of his calling is followed quickly by the testing of his calling. Abram immediately faces several big causes of concern. How he deals with them reinforces the truth that Abram was chosen not because of his perfection but because of God’s grace. As we are about to see he is more worried about his own skin, lies, gives his wife, all because he does not trust in the Lord.

Abram’s Calling Is Tested by Adversity (12:10–20)

Just as Abram’s obedience to God’s calling gets underway, crisis comes. While we might assume God’s calling would be followed by God’s comfort, the next section of Genesis reveals that the calling of Abram is followed by several challenges each of us might still face today.

The first challenge takes the form of adversity. In it the grandeur of Abram’s calling collides with the hardship of Abram’s circumstances: famine is sweeping the land of promise.

There is not just a physical famine in Abram’s new homeland; there is also a spiritual famine in Abram’s new heart. Adversity tempts Abram to try to secure the blessing of God apart from the design of God.

In fact, what happens in verse 10 is that the famine of food fuels anxiety leading to a famine of faith, resulting in Abram leaving Canaan behind.

In going to Egypt, Abram seeks to meet his own needs through means of earthly protection rather than by asking for and expecting the eternal protection of God. Abram seeks protection not only from the danger of the famine but also from the danger of his own family.

He asks Sarai to misrepresent their relationship (vv. 11–12).

This theme of deception for the sake of self-protection shows up repeatedly in Genesis—from Adam to Abraham to Jacob to Joseph’s brothers.

Though God’s promise of making Abram a father would naturally include his wife, Abram’s fear leads him to see his spouse only as a risk to be managed, as a means to an end, as a matter of convenience rather than commitment.

In different ways, that same temptation can show up in our relationships today.

Adversity doesn’t just test Abram’s trust in God’s protection but also his trust in God’s provision.

This particular inclusion in the narrative is important because just as Adam failed to protect Eve from the serpent’s lies, Abram fails to protect Sarai from Egypt and and lies during the process.

For a moment, it seems as if Abram will have to receive the blessing God promised apart from God’s prescribed design. Sarai is taken into Pharaoh’s “household.” But thinking him only her adored brother, the king treats “Abram well because of her” and greatly enriches him (vv. 14–16). In the end, however, this messy situation compromises Abram’s reputation.

Nevertheless, the incident introduces another theme that’s repeated in Scripture, that of pagan Egypt being a means of provision. Several times, in fact, the chosen people of God plunder these enemies of God because of the providence of God (Exod 12:36).

Egypt serves this way again in chapter 43, when Joseph’s brothers (descendants of Abraham) face another famine and Egypt meets their needs.

It also happens in the time of the exodus, when the whole infant nation of Israel leaves their enslavement in Egypt to head back toward the promised land. Adversity compromises Abram’s authenticity.

Abram believed the path to the good life was through his own deception rather than God’s design. The same danger faces us today. We are pulled to pretend for our provision.

Starting in Genesis 12:17, in fact, the text foreshadows that coming time of the exodus when another pharaoh will experience the many plagues on Egypt.

At the root of Abram’s travel to Egypt and the deception he initiates there is doubt. But even though Abram doesn’t trust in God’s plan, at least not yet in a way that drives his decision making, he still receives the protection and provision he seeks.

Why? Because in spite of him, God remains faithful to his promises.

Though things might have turned out far differently for Abram once the truth about Sarai came out, Pharaoh just sends Abram away with “all he [has]” (v. 20).

Throughout history, humanity has repeatedly failed testing by adversity as Abram did. And he is certainly not the only believer to do so. But the New Testament shows us a profound parallel with what happens in Genesis 12.

It suggests a day is coming when failure to walk by faith will no longer be the norm.

When Jesus’s life is in danger because Herod seeks to kill Jewish babies, his family doesn’t flee from God’s protection by escaping to Egypt on their own initiative. Rather, they flee to God’s protection in Egypt out of obedience to his stated will (Matt 2:13–15).

Just as God calls his son Abram out of Egypt in Genesis 12, God also calls his son Israel out of Egypt in the exodus.

Ultimately, God calls his Son Jesus out of Egypt as a fulfillment of the promise in Hosea 11 that is built on the pattern that begins here in Genesis 12. But the test of adversity is not the only challenge Abram faces.