GENESIS 12: THE CALL OF GOD

Abraham is a pretty important person. Do you know there are three major world faiths, the majority of the population of the world, that look to Abraham as their father in the faith? Do you think you’d ever be able to understand world civilization if you don’t understand this man’s story?

Today’s text introduces us to Abraham at a time when he was called Abram. Abram means father. Abraham means father of many. So Abram means daddy and Abraham means big daddy.

When you read the story of Abraham, you’ll see something very attractive. Abraham didn’t just live life. Life didn’t just happen to him. He didn’t just go with the flow of events. He happened to life. He lived a GREAT LIFE!

What made Abraham’s life great? THE CALL OF GOD. The call of God not only made Abraham’s life great but it is what makes your life special and distinct. The call of God is what makes you a Christian. You’re not a Christian unless you’ve heard and heeded the call.

Today’s text teaches us three truths about the call of God.

The first truth is THE CALL OF GOD IS POWERFUL. Most people begin Abraham’s story in Genesis 12 but his story actually begins at the end of Genesis 11. Genesis 11 gives us the context of Abraham’s call which further magnifies the power of the call.

Genesis 3-11 is the story of man’s downward slide into deep dark depravity. The human race is growing more corrupt, evil, and violent. However, God has preserved a ray of hope, and that one ray of hope is a single family tree, a single line. The line of Seth. Genealogies are glimpses into the Gospel. In the midst of this downward spiral we are given this verse of hope.

Genesis 4:26 ESV

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Called upon the name of the Lord, which is a Hebraism for talking about worship of God. In Seth’s family alone, the knowledge of the true God was preserved and passed on.

Genesis 11:27-32 tell us something disastrous. You might say “It doesn’t look disastrous”, except for the fact that “Sarah was barren and had no children”.

First of all, the word Terah means moon. Ur of the Chaldeans was a center of lunar worship. Terah’s family, Seth’s line, the last family that had a knowledge of God no longer worship the one true God but worship everything as god. This final family who carried with them knowledge of who, how, and why the world and inhabitants were created has become idol worshippers. The light of the gospel is being snuffed out.

At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua gets the people of Israel together and says

Joshua 24:2–3 ESV

And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.

Do you realize what has happened? The last place anybody knows about God is right there, and spiritually, the last family that knew anything about God has just lost it.

It’s not just true spiritually, but physically. Sarah is barren. What does that mean? It means not only has the last family that knew anything about God lost God spiritually, but it’s about to literally end physically. There’s not going to be any more family.

Walter Brueggemann, who wrote a good commentary on the book of Genesis, puts it like this: “The barrenness of Sarah is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. This text tells us there is no foreseeable future. There is no human power to invent a future. The human race and human history have just hit a dead end. It’s over. And then God speaks and there’s hope again.”

The power of the call means the call of God is absolutely necessary and absolutely gracious. Let me show you.

It’s absolutely necessary. Abram was in the best family on the earth, but if it weren’t for the call of God, he was spiritually dead. It doesn’t matter how good your family is. They’re going to live for something else unless the call of God comes into their lives.

It does not matter if you came from the family of Cain or Seth you’re in spiritual death sleep without the call. It is an absolute necessity. It has to come in. It has to disturb you. It has to disrupt you.

Secondly,

It’s absolutely gracious. Abram is unqualified. Abram is not a good guy. Abram is not a faithful man. The call comes to Abram because he’s unqualified. Let me put it this way. The call of God is an absolute act of grace. It doesn’t come because you’re qualified; you’re qualified because it has come. It qualifies you.

The 1964 movie Becket it’s based on a true story of Henry II and Thomas Becket. The movie is set in the 12th century AD. Henry and Thomas were drinking buddies. Thomas is a member of the clergy but just like the king he was corrupt, hotheaded, lived for sensuality. It was their common corruption that bonded them together.

Then one day the Archbishop of Canterbury died, and Henry II had a brainstorm. “I’ll make Thomas the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wow, what a brainstorm.” Why? “Because Thomas is just like a regular guy. He’s not going to be telling me how I have to live my life. He’s not going to be telling me not to oppress the poor. He’s not going to be telling me to stop whoring around. He’s not going to do any of that stuff. He’s just a regular guy. This is great. Finally we’ve solved the problem of church/state relations.” So he makes Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury.

Then something happens. Thomas is shaken, because he knows that even though it has come through Henry for all the wrong reasons, and even though he’s completely corrupt and completely unholy and completely unworthy and completely unqualified, he is now the bishop of England. He suddenly realizes a sense of the call of God in his heart. He realizes the grace of it. He realizes how unworthy he is of it, and it changes him.

He becomes a good person, and he becomes a man of integrity, and he begins to represent the gospel. He begins to represent Christ. He begins to represent the Word, and he begins to call Henry for the things he’s doing wrong, and Henry is going nuts. Finally, if you remember how the story goes, Henry is just all filled with conflict, you know, because he loves Thomas, yet now he’s so mad at Thomas because Thomas has become a good guy. Thomas is telling him the truth.

Finally one night. Henry II cries out to his knights, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?” He doesn’t have the guts to come right out and say it. The four knights look at each other, and they go to the cathedral and murder Thomas Becket right there. AD 1170. It really happened.

In the movie, as Richard Burton sees the knights of Henry killing him, he’s lying there, and what are his last words? He says, “Poor Henry.” The call had made him holy. The call had made him like Christ. He was completely unworthy, he was just as corrupt as anybody else, but the call had come into his life, and now he’s like Jesus. “Father, forgive Henry. He really doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

The call of God is so powerful it it also will transform you, no matter who you are. The call of God is not only powerful but radical.

The call of God is radical.

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

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

Now let me show you how radical this call is. First, it’s personally radical. The old King James is right when it translates it, “Get thee out,” because there are two Hebrew words there, not one. Literally, God says, “Go yourself out. Get yourself out. Get out yourself.” Do you know why?

Look at the little word but in verse 31. The whole group, Terah and Nahor and the children of Haran and Abram … They had all set out for Canaan. It says in verse 31, “… but when they came to Haran they settled there.” But they stopped at Haran. Why? They didn’t want to go any farther. They had been called to go to Canaan, but they stopped in Haran.

The call of God is radical because it demands that we leave everything to follow him. Jesus restated these terms to his Jewish audience in

Matthew 10:37–39 ESV

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Abraham’s family had brought to halt Abraham’s journey of salvation. There are many according to Jesus in Luke 14 who begin the journey to Canaan on to stop in Haran. Jesus says this of such people

Luke 14:33 ESV

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

There are many who come to Jesus but fail to follow Him. Only those who are called by Christ can follow Him fully.

Secondly it’s volitionally radical. Why do I use the word volition? At the heart, the call of God is a surrender of the will. We see this in verse 1

Genesis 12:1 ESV

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.

He does not give Abraham directions just a directive. He just says, “Get out, but I’m not going to tell you where you’re going to go.”

Many today are asking what will I lose or have to give up? What will I have to stop or start doing? What they are really saying in their question is, “I’ll get out if you’ll show me where you’re taking me, if you’ll show me exactly what you want me to do and exactly where you’re going to have me go.” Those who respond in such a way are not answering the call. They are staying in control of their life. They are not surrendering their will. They’re staying on the throne, as it were.

What you’re really saying is, “I’ll be happy to go if I know where you’re going and it makes sense to me.” God actually says to Abram, “Get out,” and Abram says, “Where?” and God says, “I’ll show you later; just go.” Later he’s going to say, “I’ll give you a son,” and Abram says, “How?” and God says, “I’ll show you later; just trust.” Finally he says, “Go to the top of the mountain and put your son to death,” and Abram says, “Why?” and God says, “I’ll show you later; just climb.” That’s Christianity.

Christianity is a quest. God says, “Get out. Don’t ask if it will fit into your agenda. Christianity is a whole new agenda. Don’t say, ‘How is this going to enrich my life?’ Christianity is a whole new life.” What does it mean to answer the call? It’s to get out, not knowing where you’re going.

Hebrews 11:8 ESV

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

summarizes Genesis 12. Unless you say to the Lord, “I will do whatever I discern as your will unconditionally from here on in,” you’re not a Christian. You haven’t answered the call. You’re not a Christian to say, “I will obey if … I will obey if it looks like it fits in.” You’re not a Christian until you’ve taken your hands off your life. It’s volitionally radical.

Thirdly, it’s missionally radical. Now why do I use the word missionally? Look at the third part. It’s personally radical. You have to meet him yourself. It’s volitionally radical. You have to surrender your will, take your hands off your life. But it’s missionally radical …

Genesis 12:2 ESV

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.

To become a Christian is to be changed so now you are not making your decisions on the basis of how can I be the most comfortable or secure. The call of God reshapes you so you’re asking yourself the question, “Where can I most be a blessing?”

The call of God goes like this. “If you seek to be blessed, you’ll be empty. If you seek to bless others, you’ll bless you. If you live for the blessing of others, if you live to fill others up, I’ll fill you.” God only blesses that you may be a blessing. You say, “Well then how can I be a blessing?” The answer is you have to get out. “Get out, and I will bless you that you may be a blessing and only that degree will I bless you.”

The call of God is culturally radical.

He is told, “Leave your people and your nation and your culture and go to another land where I will make you to be a nation, make you to be a new culture,” but Abraham himself never actually gets it. He lives his entire life in a huge gap between promise and reality.

What’s interesting is whenever Paul talks about what it means to be a Christian in Galatians and Romans, he’s continually referring to Abraham. When Paul began to win Greeks and Romans to Christ the Jewish Christians back in Jerusalem said, “Now that they’re Christians, they need to be culturally Jewish; they need to wear Jewish things and eat Jewish things,” Paul said, “No, no, no. They are changed; they’re Christian Greeks, they’re Christian Romans, ”

In the same way, Christians depart from their original culture. Christians can never first of all be Americans and then Christians. Christians are Christians first. Christians take a distance from the gods of their own culture because they give their ultimate allegiance to the God of all cultures and his promised future.

When Christians respond to the call of the gospel, they put one foot outside their culture while the other remains firmly planted in it. Christians’ distance is not flight from one’s original culture but a new way of living within it because of the new vision of peace and joy they have in Christ.”

See, it is vastly easier to leave your culture and say, “I’m a Christian now; I want nothing to do with you,” or to stay in your culture and say, “I’m this first, and Christianity is a hobby that helps me enrich my private life.” Neither of these beliefs match our Christian mandate.

The call of God makes you a cultural pilgrim. It says, “Stay with your people, but be a Christian member of that old society,” which means it’s very hard work. Like Abraham, you depart but you don’t arrive.

Somebody is out there saying, “I don’t understand how in the world I could bring myself to surrender like that, to make that kind of commitment.” Here’s the answer. Abraham had all of these promises, but there was one promise under all of the promises. There was one promise key to every other one.

He was going to be a nation, but first he had to have an offspring. Do you see that word? A son. He was going to have a nation of his people, but first he had to have a son. He was going to have a great name, he was going to bless all of the peoples of the earth, but first he had to have a son. Everything came to that. But Sarah was barren and Abraham was old. That meant the son was going to be an act of miraculous grace.

Here’s what God says. “Abraham, you can’t qualify yourself for this; you just have to live with faith in the son. You have to live out of faith in that, and if you just live as if I’m going to give you that, live on the basis of that, everything else will come true.” Now Isaac points us to the real Son, and we’re in the same position. Here’s what I mean. Look at Jesus. He got out. He had a call.

He left the ultimate Father’s house. He left the ultimate security. He had real security. Why did he do it? He did it so he could pay the penalty for our sins. He lost his Father so we could get his Father, so we could be brought into his family.

If you realize that he answered the original and ultimate call away from security so you could have the ultimate security of knowing you’re adopted into the family and you’re loved in me, then you’ll be able to live the Abrahamic big life. You’ll be able to move out into the world, you’ll be able to critique your culture, yet not be afraid to stay in it. You’ll be able to surrender your will. You’ll be able to handle any opposition.”

If you say, “I’ll never be able to handle this call,” you’re forgetting something. Somebody handled it for you. Somebody already heard the call in degrees and realms of depth beyond anything you’re going to be asked to do.

You may be asked to follow Christ, and your family thinks you’re a nut, just like Abraham’s. But Jesus Christ answered the call and lost his Father. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In other words, he went out for you so now you can go out for him. He lost the ultimate security for you; now you can certainly lose your little securities for him, because you have the ultimate security in him. Let the call of God come into your life. Hear it, surrender to it, and it’ll make you like him. It’ll make you great. It’ll qualify you.