The Story of Abraham

“God Is Building a Nation”

Genesis 12:1 – 15:21 (Message #2 in The STORY Series)

8 August 2021

INTRODUCTION:

Last Sunday we began a nine-month journey through the Bible. Our goal is to gain an overall understanding of the grand sweep of God’s plan for the ages. God is eternal, meaning that He is not bound by time or by space. He had no beginning, and He will have not end. Moreover, He is morally and ethically pure. There is no fault to be found in Him.

However, we, as His creation are a mess. For one thing, we are finite. We have all sorts of limitations. Compared to Him, we are weak, and fragile, and ignorant, and exasperating. In short, we are sinners. We did not start out that way, but sin entered the human story very early on when our seminal ancestors, Adam, and Eve, fell into sin and rebelled against God, and as it is stated in the Bible, “death passed upon all men.”

Our first parents were perfect at the start, but when they sinned the repercussions were felt in every corner of the galaxy, and even beyond. Now, at that point in the story God could have written us off as a failed experiment and gone back to whatever He did before He made the world. But He did not do that. Instead, He set His marvellous plan in motion to repair what was broken, to heal what had become diseased, and to save that which was lost.

The Bible gives us clues about what is in God’s mind and heart, although we are not capable of understanding it fully. But running through the Bible, all the way from Genesis through Revelation, there is a beautiful scarlet thread of God’s Salvation story. Years ago, some German theologians came up with the term “Heilsgeschichte,” which is an interpretation of history that emphasizes God’s saving acts and viewing Jesus Christ as central in the redemption story. And that is exactly what the Bible is, a wonderful Salvation Story.

TRANSITION:

This is the second study in a series of 31 in which we will seek to follow that scarlet thread all the way through the Canon of Scripture. By the end of this teaching series, we hope that you will have an even greater understanding and appreciation of the amazing grace of God, who, when He could have just written us off, decided to redeem us for Himself through the precious sacrifice of His own beloved Son.

This is the story of the Father’s great love for us.

This is the story of our great brokenness and inability to help ourselves.

This is the story of our great Saviour who sacrificed Himself to fix what we had destroyed.

It is God’s story.

It is our story.

It is a wonderful story!

MAIN BODY:

Last Sunday Pastor Kirk introduced the whole series, starting at the beginning of Genesis and giving an overview of Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and several other important things. Today we want to talk about Abraham, the father of the Jewish people and the father of all who come to God by faith, not depending on their own works to save them. He is the Father of the Jews, but according to God’s Word he is our father also in a spiritual sense.

Who was Abraham?

·         We first meet “Abram” [Hebrew, Avram] in Genesis 11, which gives us his family history. He was a native of the Babylonian region that many years later came to be called “Chaldea,” and was a descendant in the ninth generation from Shem, the son of Noah. His father’s name was Terah. He had two brothers, Nahor, and Haran. He was born in the great and prosperous city of Ur, a large and powerful commercial centre in Lower Mesopotamia (i.e., Southern Babylonia), just north of the Persian Gulf in what is today Southern Iraq. His name, Abram, meant “exalted father,” which for most of his life seemed like a cruel joke. He was born in approximately 2160 B.C. He married a beautiful girl by the name of Sarai who was the love of his life, but turned out to be barren, unable to give him children, which was a great disappointment to them both.

·         Abram was a pagan, an idol worshipper, along with his whole family. The people of Ur worshipped the moon god, Nannar, and his consort, Ningal, the mother goddess.

·         One day, Abram and his father, Terah, said to everybody, “Hey, how about a road trip?” So, they packed up the whole tribe and headed northwest to the land of the Assyrians in Upper Mesopotamia, settling near the city of Haran, which was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was there that Abram’s story really began to take off.

·         He was 70 years old at that point, and Sarai was 60. Living with them was Lot, Abram’s nephew, along with Abram’s brother Nahor’s whole family (cf. Gen. 22:20, 23; 24:29; and 27:43).

·         The reason for this move is given 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 He said to him, ‘Go from your country and your relatives, and come to the land which I will show you.’”

·         According to Gen. 12:1-3, at the death of Abram’s father, God renewed His call to Abram saying…

“Go from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you.

And I will make you into a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And [I will] make your name great,

And you shall be a blessing.

And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

·         WOW! So, in obedience Abram and Sarai set out, and departed, taking Lot with them. Abram probably regarded Lot as his heir. Abram packed up all his earthly goods and set out for Canaan. Hebrews 11:8 says this: “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going.” That is what I call real “faith.” In fact, that is big, hairy, macho faith!

·         Genesis 12:4-5 tells it this way: “So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the people [i.e., servants] which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; so, they came to the land of Canaan.”

·         Their first encampment was in the valley of Moreh, between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, where Abram’s strong faith was rewarded by a second promise from God that his seed should possess this land [i.e., Canaan]. Listen to Genesis 12:7-8, “And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants [lit. your seed] I will give this land.’ So, [Abram] built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸ Then he proceeded from there to the mountain 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.”

Why did God choose Abram?

·         Great question, thank you for asking. Maybe because he was handsome, or rich, or very smart, or had a beautiful, charming wife?

·         Or maybe because God is sovereign and can do whatever pleases Him. As humans we always like to ask the “Why” questions, but when we are dealing with God, those questions often go unanswered.

What was God’s plan?

·         From before the foundation of the world God was already working out his plan to redeem sinners. The Bible says that “Christ was slain before the foundation of the world.” That means that God had a plan to save sinners before there were any sinners. Amazing! What happened in the Garden did not take Him by surprise. He is all knowing (omniscient) after all. He knew that Adam and Eve would fold up like a cheap garden chair when Satan hit them with his big temptation spiel. God did not cause them to sin, but He knew that they would. Even before it happened, God was setting in motion His plan to send His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for man’s sin. 

·         It seems to me that God could have reached down and picked a million other guys and made His plan work, because it was never really about Abraham. He was nothing special. What was special was God’s sovereign plan to redeem mankind by one day sending His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice for our sins. He chose Abram as His instrument to bring the Saviour into the world and to prove that His love, mercy, and grace were strong enough to conquer any and every impediment.

What is a covenant?

·         So, what exactly is a covenant? It is an agreement or compact between individuals, nations, tribes, or as here in Genesis 12, between God and man. Most covenants are bi-lateral, meaning that there are responsibilities and conditions incumbent on all the parties. If either side reneges on their part or fails in their obligations, the covenant is broken, and therefore null and void. A bi-lateral agreement uses language like this: “I will do this, if you do that.”

·         There are several covenants mentioned in the Bible. For example, God made a covenant with Noah. God made a covenant with Israel at Sinai. Later, God made a covenant with King David. But today we want to focus our attention on Abraham because he was the instrument that God chose to Build a Nation, out of which would one day come the Saviour of the World.

·         The promises that God made to Abram comprise what we call “the Abrahamic Covenant.” But this covenant was not bi-lateral. It was not an agreement between equals. Rather, it was uni-lateral, meaning one-sided. The promises that God made in Genesis 12:1-3 did not require anything from Abraham except for faith and obedience. The only condition of this covenant was that Abraham was to leave his country, kindred, and father’s house and trust God to lead him to a new land, which He would show him. Apart from this requirement all the promises were made by God, and He bound Himself to fulfil them.

And exactly what did God tell Abraham He was planning to do? What were the promises He made to Abraham? In fact, the promises were strung out over about thirty (30) years in Genesis 12-22.

From Genesis 12:2-3

·         I will lead you to the land that I am giving to you. – i.e., step by step guidance to their new home

·         I will make you into a great nation. – i.e., increase into a numerous people

·         I will bless you. – i.e., material, and spiritual prosperity

·         I will make your name great. – i.e., the exaltation of Abraham’s name and fame

·         I will make you to become a blessing to all the families of the earth. – i.e., Abraham was not only to be blessed by God, but to be a blessing to others, implicitly by the coming of the Messiah through his descendants.

·         I will bless those who bless you. – i.e., secondary blessing on Israel’s friends

·         I will curse those who curse you. – i.e., retribution upon your enemies

From Genesis 12:7

·         I will give you this land [i.e., of Canaan, the Promised Land]

From Genesis 13:15-16

·         All the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. – vs. 15

·         I will make your descendants as plentiful as the dust of the earth. – vs. 16

From Genesis 15:1-5

·         Your reward shall be great. – vs. 1

·         One who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. – vs. 4

·         Your descendants shall be as numerous as the stars, too many to count. – vs. 5

From Genesis 17: (reaffirming the covenant)

·         I will establish My covenant between Me and you. – vs. 2

·         I will multiply you exceedingly. – vs. 2

·         You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. – vs. 4

·         Your name shall now be Abraham, “father of a multitude” instead of Abram (“exalted father”). – vs. 5

·         I will make you exceedingly fruitful. – vs. 6

·         I will make nations of you. – vs. 6

·         Kings shall come from you. – vs. 6

·         I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. – vs. 7

·         I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. – vs. 8

·         I will bless Sarah [name changed in verse 15] and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. – vs. 16

·         Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. – vs. 19

·         As for Ishmael, behold I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. – vs. 20

·         But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year [she was not even pregnant yet]. – vs. 21

CONCLUSION:

What resulted from Abraham’s faith and obedience?

·         Abraham believed God. Even though he did not understand the big picture, the grand plan, he was learning that this God who had spoken to him was trustworthy. He was willing to trust and obey, and for the moment that was enough. God did not reveal to him all the plans He had for Abraham. It would probably have terrified him if he had known all that would transpire in the future. I for one, am glad that God does not show us His whole plan at once. No, He chooses to lay it out for us story by story, piece by piece.

·         But God was good to His word. For reasons known only to Him, He began to reveal Himself to Abraham. They talked. They had a friendship. James 2:23 says, “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called a friend of God.” Likewise in Isaiah 41:8 the Lord says, “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham, my friend…”

·         Wow! Could there be a greater compliment than being called a “friend of God”? What an honour! So exactly what was it again that Abraham did that was so special? Nothing really. He just decided to trust God and to obey Him. He believed what God said. He trusted in God’s promises. He set out by faith to do exactly what God instructed him to do.

·         Was Abraham perfect? Was he a super-spiritual man? NO to both questions. In fact, he was a baby-believer. He was not a Christian (there were no Christians yet). He was not even a Jew. (Because the Jews didn’t exist yet. They would be descended from the children of his grandson, Jacob.) He never set foot in a church or synagogue (there were no such things yet). He never read the Scriptures (they had not yet been written). He had spent his whole life worshipping idols and bowing down to false gods and making sacrifices on pagan altars. He had never heard the name of Yahweh. And still, God chose him to a main character in the greatest story ever told.

·         To me the key takeaway from the story of Abraham is found in Genesis 15:6. One night after an especially interesting tête-à-tête with his friend, the LORD took Abraham outside and told him, “Now look up toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” And He said to Abraham, “So shall your descendants be.” Then comes verse 6: “Then he [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” That’s it! Abraham was a righteous man in God’s eyes not because of any intrinsic worth in him but rather, because Abraham believed in the LORD and was committed to obey, follow, and honour Him.

·         So, that is the good news for you and for me. We can do that! We can believe God, and we can obey Him. We can decide to follow Him wherever He leads us. We can be like Abraham. We too can become friends with the Living God of the Universe, the Creator and Sustainer of the galaxies. The same door is open for us to have a relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus.