The Call and Commission - Genesis 11:27-12:9

Genesis 11:27-12:9 The Call and Commission 20210725 Respond in faith to God’s good call This morning we are starting a new section of Genesis. In the first 11 chapters we covered a lot of history, as Moses moved quite rapidly through creation, the Fall, the flood, and the dispersion of the nations and confusion of languages. Thousands of years in the first 11 chapters. Now, as we come to the end of chapter 11, the pace slows down. We’ll spend the next 14 chapters, not covering thousands of years, but looking at the life of one man, Abram. This fact alone should tell us a great deal about the significance of this man and his life. Do you experience days in your life when the mountains seem too tall, the obstacles are too complicated, the trials too difficult? Maybe in your Christian life your growth and maturity, your sanctification, seems so much slower than you think it should be. You want to be closer to the Lord, stronger in your faith, and you know you’re getting there, it’s just taking a long time. The life of Abram should be a great encouragement to you. Or maybe you’re not a Christian, and you’re on the outside looking in. You think you want to be, but that first step seems humungous. You know who you are and what you are like, and you don’t believe that God would have anything to do with you. Your life has so much baggage attached to it, and you don’t know how to be freed from it. The life of Abram should be a great encouragement to you. Perhaps you’re a mature Christian, with years and years of walking with the Lord behind you. You’ve taken steps of faith, you’ve pursued righteousness, and maybe you think you can coast for a while. Not that you retire spiritually, but that you’ve done a lot of work and that you can let off the gas, shift into neutral, and see how far your momentum takes you. The life of Abram should be a glorious challenge to your thinking. Scripture Passage: Genesis 11:27-12:9 Abram’s Radical Call (12:1-3) 1. v.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.’” - This is a radical call. It’s a huge move for Abram, to leave his family and everything familiar, and to go somewhere that the Lord would reveal to him once he was underway. But that’s not the radical nature of the call. When I say the call was radical, I mean that it was a radical move by God; my focus isn’t so much on what Abram was called to do, but it’s radical that God called Abram. The family history at the end of Gen. 11 helps tremendously in understanding the radical nature of God’s call. 1. Gen. 11:28 tells us that Abram’s hometown was Ur of the Chaldeans. This was the epicenter of moon worship. If you want world famous pears, where do you go? If you want cheesesteak, where do you find them? In fact, Joshua 24:2 tells us that Abram didn’t only come from an idolatrous place, but that he himself was an idolater. “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.” Even more, archaeological excavations turned up evidence of human sacrifice at the royal cemetery. Stephen, evangelizing the Sanhedrin, says in Acts 7:2–3 “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’” 2. This is a radical call because God calls a moon worshiping idolater from an inbred family to follow him. Not after Abram recognized the error of his ways and started seeking God, but while Abram was still up to his elbows in idolatry. Even while Abram was dead in false religion and sin, God called him and made him alive. Does this sound familiar? The names and places may change, but the radical call of Abram is the same radical call that comes to every believer. It was the call to Noah, who found favor in God’s sight. It was the call to Moses, who murdered an Egyptian and fled to the wilderness. The call to Levi the tax collector, and Saul the zealous persecutor of the church. The call to me and the call to you. While we were enemies we were reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10). While we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). 1. The Radical Call is first and foremost to God himself. Abram, three times in Scripture, is called the friend of God. 1. 2 Chronicles 20:7 “Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” Isaiah 41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;” James 2:23 “and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.” 2. But secondly, consequently, the Radical Call is a commission to “go”. That’s the first word of the call. Along with being a friend of God, Abram had great faith in God. 1. Hebrews 11:8-10 Abram obeyed (though imperfectly I believe), going by faith to a land promised to him, and living as a pilgrim in tents while he looked forward to a permanent city whose designer and builder is God. 2. God’s call is a commission to “go”. Where are you called to “go”? Doesn’t require leaving (Matt 28:18-20) 2. v.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.” - Remember our study of Babel last week, and how the people wanted to make a name for themselves, and went about doing so by disobeying God’s commands? Here we see that the way to true greatness is in obedience to God’s commands. 1. This is the beginning of God’s covenant with Abram. Over the course of our study of Abram we’ll see this expanded on and filled out further. But what I want you to notice with me this morning is the onesidedness of this covenant. This is what God will do; he promises. This is God’s purpose, not only for Abram, but for all people on the earth, for every generation that would follow. Notice as well that Abram is told a great nation would come from him, but what did we read about his wife, Sarai, in 11:30? She was barren. 3. v.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.” - This is another of those golden gospel threads that are stitching together the story of redemption - in Abram would all the families of the earth be blessed. How would this be accomplished? Not an agricultural breakthrough that Abram would accomplish, or even the establishment of a nation in and of itself. Abram would be a blessing to all the families of the earth because through him, and through the nation that would be formed, would come the Redeemer who would bring salvation for all the families of the earth. Abram’s Obedience (12:4-6) 1. v.4 “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him…” - Moses records this with such simplicity: God called Abram, gave him something to do, and he did it. The reality of Abram’s obedience is a little more complicated. 1. As we read earlier, it was in Ur that Abram was initially called. Then there was this long layover in Haran. Then we read in 12:1 about the calling, which may have been repeated to Abram while he was in Haran. We don’t know for sure. But what we do know is that it took some time for God’s call to come to fruition in Abram’s life. 1. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness before going back to Egypt. Joseph was in prison after receiving a vision from God about his place of authority. David was hiding in caves after God anointed him to be King of Israel. Even Paul the Apostle spent time in Arabia after his call. Natalie and I knew for years that God was calling us to plant a church, but it took time for the details of that to be revealed. But God’s timing is perfect, and his patience is enduring. Is there a call of God in your life that is still germinating, still progressing but not yet accomplished? Abram’s Worship (12:7-9) 1. v.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.” - Notice that, as Abram moves forward in obedience to this radical call, and we said that this radical call is first and foremost a call to God himself, Abram grows in closeness and relationship with God. Earlier it was the Lord saying (12:1), but now it’s the Lord appearing. 1. This is true about the life of faith, that as you walk it out, as you live in obedience, the closeness and relationship and intimacy with God grows. 2. v.8b “And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.” - At Shechem Abram builds an altar, and now between Bethel and Ai he builds a second altar. We have here the addition of calling upon the name of the LORD, showing more growth/progression in his walk of faith. Conclusion Abram is no longer a moon worshiping idolater, but one who has received the radical call of God, responded in faith, and is growing in relationship with the Lord. It’s my hope that wherever you are in relation to the Christian faith, from non-believer to mature Christian, that you’ve been challenged and encouraged by this introduction to Abram today. If you’re not yet a Christian, step in faith like Abram did, leaving his false worship to follow the true God. If you’re a believer today and desiring more growth in your faith, be encouraged by God’s work in Abram’s life, the time that it took, but the good fruit that came. God’s call is good, for our good and his glory. Respond in faith to it.