It's Time To Move

Good morning from the Panhandle. Well I think we have skipped Spring and gone right into summer - it could be near 100 by Friday. I know it's been a couple of weeks since the last Genesis post, I pray this hasn't been to inconvenient. Of all the people He could have called God called Abram. Was it because of his family line or was he more righteous than anyone of his day? We are not told why, just that he was called by God. Abram was no spring chicken when God told him to up move to a land that God would show him.

I have often wondered how his conversation with Sari must have gone.

Abram – Sari, God told me to take my family and move.

Sari – Which god would that be Abram

Abram – The one and only God, oh yea I'm not sure where we are moving to.

Sari – WHAT! God told you an 75 year old man to just pack up and move to God knows where.

Abram – Yes.

Sari – What?

Abram – Yes, God told me to pack up everything we own even though I am 75 years old and to move to where only He knows.

So here we have the call of Abram:

Gen 12:1-3

12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

2 "I will make you into a great nation

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you."

The Call Of Abram (vv. 1-3)

This revelation was not as one writer has reported, to be only `the newly increased light of his inner consciousness,' or as another said, that the `Lord' of Abram `was as much a creature of human imagination, as a Jupiter or an Apollo.' His was a call from the Most High God .

In whatever way it was made known to Abram - whether in a dream, by a vision, or by a visible manifestation. Perhaps like the supernatural light and words that suddenly converted Paul - Abram was thoroughly persuaded that it was a divine communication.

He had probably been brought to the knowledge and worship of the true God a considerable time before this. It was Yahweh, the Lord, who appeared (Acts 7:2) to Abram. From this point on we read of frequent divine appearances being made to the patriarchs.

The call of Abram consists of a command and a promise. The command is to leave the place of all his old friends and his family, for a land, which he had not yet seen, and therefore did not know.

The Biblical account makes it clear that before migrating to Palestine, Abram had two homes. He spent his early years in Ur and then quite awhile in Haran. Each community became his home. He had to leave friends, neighbors, and family behind him when he left Ur and still others when he departed from Haran. In each case, the threefold tie of land, people, and family was severed.

Jehovah did not name the land at this time nor describe it. Thus, Abram was to meet a new test of faith. The Lord had found the man for his purpose, one he could subject to heavy strains, a man who would regard the doing of God's will as the one important thing in his life.

Verse 2,3. The promise corresponds to the command. Abram was told he would gain more in the end than he could ever have if he did not move. The promise contains a lower and higher blessing.

The lower blessing has three parts: "First, I will make of thee a great nation." This would more than compensate for the loss of his country. The nation to which he had belonged to was fast sinking into polytheism and idolatry. To escape from it and its defiling influence was itself a benefit; but to be made himself the head of a chosen nation was a double blessing.

Secondly, "And bless you." The place of his birth and family was the scene of all his past earthly joys. But the Lord would more than make up the loss to him.

Thirdly, "And make your name great." This was to compensate him for his father's house. He was to be the patriarch of a new house, on account of which he would be known and venerated all over the world.

The higher blessing is expressed in these remarkable terms:

"And you will be a blessing." He is not merely going to be a subject of blessing, but a blessing to others. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And the Lord here bestowed on Abram the delightful privilege of dispensing good to others.

The next verse expands this higher element of the divine promise. "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those that curse you." Here the Lord identifies the cause of Abram with His own, and declares him to be essentially connected Him.

“And blessed in you will be all the families of the ground." The ground was cursed for the sake of Adam, who fell by transgression. But now shall the ground again participate in the blessing. "In you." In Abram is this blessing laid up as a treasure hid in a field to be realized in due time. "All the families" of mankind shall ultimately enter into the enjoyment of this unbounded blessing. - (From Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)