When God Calls Your Name: Abraham Series

When God Calls Your Name… Twice: Abraham

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 7/17/2016

How many of you are familiar with the gameshow The Price is Right? I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I grew up watching The Price is Right back when Bob Barker still hosted the show. Even as a kid I got pretty good at guessing the retail price of a can of Campbell’s Soup or a side by side refrigerator and freezer. The most exciting part of that show, however, was when they would call out the name of someone in the audience and say “Come on down, you’re the next contestant on The Price is Right.” I’ve never seen people respond so enthusiastically to hearing their name called. Those contestants would jump up and down, scream, and flail their arms. Some of the women would grab Bob Barker and give him a kiss on the cheek. Some of men may have too!

Hearing your name called can be a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, there is the rush of exhilaration you feel when you’re sitting on the bench with your fingers crossed hoping that the coach calls your name. On the other hand, there is the feeling of dread that washes over you, when you’re sitting in the back of the classroom, trying to avoid eye contact, hoping that the teacher doesn’t call your name.

My question for you this morning is—how would you respond if God called your name not once, but twice? In the Bible, God calls plenty of people often by name, but I’ve only found seven times where God calls out someone’s name twice in a row—Martha, Martha! Saul, Saul! Moses, Moses!

In each instance, God wants—even demands—the attention of the person He’s calling. What follows is almost always a life-changing encounter with the God of creation. For the next several weeks, I want to invite you to join as we explore some of these stories and see what happens when God calls your name twice.

The first person God calls is Abraham.

Chosen by God to become the spiritual and physical father of a new nation, Abraham’s holds a completely unique and unapproachable place in the annals of history. His name means “father of many,” and that’s just what he has become—regarded as the patriarch, or father, not just of Christianity, but Judaism and even Islam as well.

Abraham never spoke a prophetic word. He didn’t write any of the books of the Bible. He never recorded a psalm, nor gave any laws. He wasn’t a priest, a prophet or a prince—yet Abraham was called a “friend of God,” and he alone holds that honor in all of Scripture.

The events leading up to God calling Abraham’s name are probably familiar to most of you. And it all starts off with a couple of crazy things. The first one is when God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you” (Genesis 22:2 NLT).

Anybody reading this for the first time would have to shocked. I mean what kind of God would demand a human sacrifice!? This is barbaric, crazy stuff, isn’t it!? But the really crazy thing is that Abraham went along with it! In the next verse, we read: “The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about” (Genesis 22:3 NLT).

Now you and I have the benefit of knowing how this story ends. In fact, we know that God never intended for Abraham to sacrifice his son because God hates human sacrifice. For example, Moses warned the Israelites, “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering…Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12). The Old Testament is riddled with similar commands against child sacrifice.

However, Abraham didn’t know that. Abraham’s story takes place before any that stuff was written down. He came from a corrupt pagan culture where human sacrifice was fairly common. So there weren’t any warning bells going off in Abraham’s head telling him this was crazy.

Even so, knowing Abraham’s background and the fact that God literally spoke out of heaven commanding him to do this—can you imagine what Abraham must have been going through? This is the most gut-wrenching request God could have made. Abraham has given up everything to follow God. He already left his home in the land of Ur. He packed up his family and everything he owned because this God, whom he never knew before, spoke to him and told him to move to the land of Canaan. God promised to bless Abraham and assured him that he and Sarai would have a son and eventually Abraham would have more descendants than there are stars in the sky or sand on the seashore.