Genesis 12

Leave Your Country, Relatives, and Father’s House

The Lord told Abraham to leave his country, relatives, and father’s house. God wanted to build a nation that would serve as a lighthouse to the world the greatness of God. In order for this to happen Abram had to leave everything he knew behind. Everything he knew was not what God desired. He had been shaped by a pagan culture, family, and father. Joshua 24:2

Joshua 24:2 NASB95

Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Abram lived among a people that served foreign gods. Everything he knew would serve as a distraction for what God wanted to accomplish through Abram. He had to leave in order to receive the blessing of God. He could not hang around and try to change himself in the environment he was in. Their were to many distractions and temptations that would prevent Abram from following the Lord.

We too must flee

There are distractions in all of our lives that we too must make a clean break from if we are going to experience the blessings of God. This may mean we have to change a friend group. This may mean you have to stay off social media. This may mean you have to give up alcohol. This may mean you have to change the pace of your life. Whatever we have in our lives that prevent us from following God, we must make a clean break from

This means that we must purge them from our lives. They cannot hang around. If we allow them to hang around then the propensity for us to return to them increases substantially.

What are the the things in your life that are preventing you from following Christ?

Are you willing to leave them behind?

Go To the Land Which I Will Show You

Not only did Abram have to leave his old life behind, he had to start a new one following the instruction of God. Abram did not know where he was going, he only knew that the Lord would show him where to go. It required a tremendous amount of faith in the Lord to follow Him.

First to leave everything he knew was not easy. He was probably comfortable in his country, with his relatives, and in his father’s house. To leave all of this would be uncomfortable. Especially not knowing where he was going.

Our daughter Tatum seemed to be living her best life, when God called her to follow Him on a different path. You see she graduated from Auburn with her bachelors in social work, then got her masters in medical social work, passed her LMSW exam and got a fantastic job helping those in need. It seemed like the perfect set up. She was living in a posh neighborhood in Cahaba Heights right next to the Summit. She was earning enough money to sustain a comfortable lifestyle that allowed her to eat out whenever she wanted, buy the clothes she desired, drive a new car, and live comfortable. For all practical purposes one would say she was living her best life.

However, none of this brought her peace and contentment. Though there was nothing wrong with the life she was living, it was not the life or path God had for her. God called her to leave all of this behind and go to a foreign land and tell people about Jesus.

Now God may not call you to do something that he called Tatum to do, but He will often call us out of those things that we are comfortable with to follow Him. These can be area’s of sin in our lives. They can be good things that are not part of God’s wonderful divine plan for your life.

Are you willing to go where the Lord leads?

Following God Leads To Blessings

God promised Abram that if he would leave and go to the land He showed him he would make Abram’s name great, make him a blessing to others, and bless all families on the earth through him.

God made Abram’s name great

Genesis 17:5 NASB95

“No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.

He took Abram’s name which means exalted father and changed it to Abraham which means father of a multitude of nations. Abram was the father of Ishmael at the time and was an exalted father. However Ishmael was not the promised child. Isaac was the promised child that had not yet been born when God changed Aram’s name. It would be through Isaac that Abraham would become a father of a multitude of nations.

What makes a person’s name great is not the accomplishments they achieve in their life, it is the purpose of God fulfilled in their life.

Abram was a blessing to others

As Abram prospered he shared his prosperity with others. We see how he shared with Lot in Gen 13:2-6

Genesis 13:2–6 NASB95

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.

Abram’s wealth exceeded the lands ability to sustain it. Abram and Lot had to part ways in order to maintain their wealth

Secondly, Abram blessed others by his faith. We see the example of this when he was called to sacrifice his son Isaac in Gen. 22:5-8

Genesis 22:5–8 NASB95

Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Abraham knew that the Lord would provide a way to fulfill His promise. Abraham had enough faith to know even if he had to slay Isaac, God could bring him back to life. We see this in Heb. 11:17-19

Hebrews 11:17–19 NASB95

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

Abraham’s faith is a testimony to us that God is faithful to his promises. We can have faith in the promises of God, because even though Abraham didn’t live to see the fulfillment of the promise, God was faithful to His promise.

Abraham is a blessing to all nations

It is through Abraham’s lineage that Jesus was born. It is through Jesus that we can be saved.

Abram left his country, relatives, and fathers house when he was seventy-five years old. He took his wife, nephew, and his personal belongings with him. As he was traveling the Lord appeared to Abram. Gen 12:7

Genesis 12:7 NASB95

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

God’s Promise To Us

John 3:16 NASB95

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9 NASB95

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Philippians 1:6 NASB95

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

1 John 5:14–15 NASB95

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

John 14:3 NASB95

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

So I ask you this morning Are you willing to leave behind those things that keep you from following Jesus, follow him by faith where he leads you, and receive the blessing that God promises you?