God's Big Picture: Genesis 11:10-12:20

CIT: God is working all of history together to accomplish his plan of redemption.

Three Aspects of Redemption

God is orchestrating redemption

God can choose whomever he wants

God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines

God is orchestrating redemption Gen. 11:10-32

Genealogies show us God’s sovereign plan

Many times when we come to a genealogy passage our tendency is to skim through the names because we think that they don’t mean much to us, but these names show that God is protecting a family so that he can accomplish his plan of redemption.

This genealogy ends with Abram and Sarai being childless

The genealogy end in Gen. 11:30 with us learning that Abram’s wife Sarai is barren and has no children. This leads us to a problem, if God is going to accomplish his plan of redemption through this family why can’t Sarai have children? She needs to be able to in order to continue this family line.

Their childlessness sets up God’s incredible work in Gen. 12

God can choose whomever he wants Gen. 12:1-9

After reading this genealogy that is seemingly going to end with a family who is unable to have children we see that God is setting up something beautiful with this unassuming family.

This section is God’s first call and covenant with Abram

We see that this is the first call and covenant that God makes with Abram (soon to be Abraham). So, let’s breakdown this call from God.

Go from your country… to a land that I will show you.

God has chosen a place where Abraham will settle and that God will bring redemption from. This is not a place chosen by Abram but has been chosen by God.

And I will make of you a great nation

The command to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28) has now changed. It used to be a command that Adam and then Noah had to follow by their own effort, but God is changing the game by doing it for Abram because God knew that Abram couldn’t.

I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing

God is giving Abram a purpose here. He tells Abram that he will bless him so that he can bless other people. This is continuing what Adam and Eve were supposed to do before the fall.

Adam and eve were supposed to fill the earth with image bearers of God, now Abram is being given the same mission to fill the earth with image bearers, to fill the earth with people who are being blessed by God in his grace.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse

God is promising Abram that he will protect him because he is the means by which God is accomplishing redemption.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

God has now shown why he has chosen Abram. God didn’t choose Abram because he was the most prominent or capable person to accomplish this task. He chose Abram so that all families, or in our context people groups, could be blessed by God in redemption.

God chose Abram out of his Grace Alone

This is grace, God has taken someone who isn’t deserving of blessing and honor and creates something new in them so that they may be blessed and can bless others.

God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines Gen. 12:10-20

This last section of chapter 12 shows that is it God who is in control of redemption.

Romans 9:16 “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.”

Abraham is a broken person, but God is committed to redeeming lost people.

Gen. 12:5 tells us that Abram made it to the land that God had promised to him and his descendants. he had made it because of God’ grace, but Gen. 12:10 shows us that Abram still doesn’t trust God’s plan.

There is a famine in the land that God had chosen for Abram, and instead of staying there and trusting that God will provide for him he decides to go down to Egypt to provide for himself, showing that he does not trust in God.

Once they get to Egypt he realizes that his wife is super attractive and Pharaoh will want to take her, so Abram concocts a scheme to protect himself but will leave Sarai, his wife, out to dry. Instead of owning up and telling Pharaoh that this is his wife he lies and says that she is actually his sister.

But God intervenes and protects Sarai and Abram, he afflicts Pharaoh and tells him to return Sarai to Abram and to send him back to the promised land, where God had told Abram to go in the first place.

This shows us that God is committed to his plan of bringing redemption to humanity, and no matter who tries to get in his way God will accomplish his purposes. God is so committed to this plan that he uses broken crooked people to make a straight line pointing directly to Jesus. God called Abram not because he was perfect, but because God is perfect in his choosing. God called Moses not because he was perfect, but because he is perfect in his choosing. God called David not because he was perfect, but because he is perfect in his choosing. God called Peter not because he was perfect, but because he is perfect in his choosing. God calls us to faith in him not because we are perfect or have done enough to earn his favor, but because he is perfect in his choosing.

It may come as a shocker to y’all but I’m not perfect, in fact I would even say that I’m far from perfect echoing what Paul said, I’m the chief of sinners. When I was in Afghanistan God worked through me, not because I was a superstar Christian who could tackle the forces of darkness with a single word - in fact my depression and anxiety was at its worst while I was in Afghanistan and it got so bad that I almost had thought seriously about coming home - but because he chose to work through me. At the end of may stay my liaison who I worked very closely with and because good friends with sat down with me and told me something that I will never forget. He said, Gabe I see you reading your Bible and praying and it brings you joy. But when I try to read the Quran and pray it does nothing. I see fruit in your life and I want that fruit. Now after years of being around people like me, my teammate Joe, and the missionaries over there, he has been blessed by God in redemption and is setting out to bless others around him by unashamedly preaching the gospel to his peers. Not because me and the other missionaries are so good, but because God is so good and gracious.

Head: Know that before the foundations of the world, God in his grace and mercy has chosen a people to redeem for himself for his glory. Eph. 1:5-6

Heart: Believe that by God’s grace we may place our faith in the only one who was perfect in his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:8-9

Hands: Go and obey God’s mission of being a blessing to others around you through loving them as God would love them and preaching the gospel to them. Matt. 28:19-20