ABRAHAM

Chapter 12

We have reached a pivot point in Genesis and the Bible. We have closed out the Pre-History and move into a new section that can be dated, or at least rationally discussed dates. I personally like around 1600 BC, but many opt for 1900. But the pivot is not merely from pre-history to dated history. It is from all humanity to the family that eventually became Israel. It is about the fundamental idea of Scripture: the Covenant.

The Bible proclaims the Lord as a covenant-making God. In today's world, we think of today's categories, like omnipotent and omniscient, all powerful and all knowing. The Bible writers would agree, but that's not their primary categories. The Covenant is one. God makes covenants with his chosen people. In that society covenants that have been discovered are always from higher to lower powers. A king will offer a covenant to a people. If the people accept, both are bound by that covenant. That's how the people of that day would have read Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament. Later all Israel would enter covenant with Yahweh at Mount Sinai, and He would also offer a covenant to the House of David. Indeed, our ancestors chose poorly when they named the Old and New Testaments. Much better would have been Old Covenant and New Covenant. Testament today only means a will to most people.

The end of Chapter 11 has Abram's father moving his family from Iraq into Turkey, from Ur to Haran. Ur was an ancient civilization from which we got the Code of Hammurabi, possibly one of two or three oldest law codes we have. Haran was poised above Palestine, but well north.

Yahweh appears to Abram and offers a powerful covenant. “Look all around you – this land, your relatives, your parents and their home. I call you to leave it and follow where I lead you. If you do, your family of descendants will become a great nation, and that will be a blessing to you. Further, the whole world can be blessed through that nation descending from you.”

And Abraham does.

We take that for granted now. It's in the Bible, and we've read it many times since we were children. But suppose God came to you now and said, “I want you for missionary service?” How would you react? I have known many adults who have gone on short-term mission trips to all sorts of countries to work with established missionaries there. My own church sends youth and college groups both to the Caribbean and the US to serve during the summer and school breaks. Are you open to even simple ministries locally. I and my class are involved in a local ministry a lady in her late 50's began from scratch five years ago. We now see members of that group joining the church. What might the Lord say to you?

But consider those in “full-time” missionary service. They spend their lives in what at first is a foreign country, but later becomes home. I have a friend who raised his children in Jordan, later moved to Morocco, and completed his work in Turkey. Another pair of friends are currently in Kenya and think of it as home before they do Louisiana. How would you feel with that kind of call coming on your life or your children's lives? That's what Abram did, with no though of coming home on vacation.

Abraham took his nephew Lot, his wife Sarai, and their family and travelled south into Canaan. Genesis tells us he camped near Shechem, then further south to Bethel, and eventually during a drought into Egypt. Along the way, an angel appeared and invited him to look around. All the land he saw would one day belong to his descendants. Remember at this point he was already an old man and had no children. And the Lord promises him so many descendants they will form a nation!

Between Bethel and Ai (which means “ruin”) Abram built an altar. The altar would have been a simple crude stone affair, and it implies sacrifice, probably of a sheep. The altar was an act of devotion and thanksgiving. Planting that altar may also be compared to staking out a flag on the moon or other new territory. Henceforth we will know this land as God's land!

As a pastor I was occasionally invited to dedicate a home or a business to the Lord. From the beginning those families wanted to stake out their lives and their business as belonging to God.

How involved is He in your life?