Genesis 21
You know much of the book of Genesis is like a thousand piece puzzle that’s just been dumped out on the table. All the pieces are there but they just haven’t been put together yet. We can see the picture on the box of what the completed puzzle looks like, but we just have to put all the pieces together in their right place. So far in the book of Genesis we’ve only put a few pieces of the puzzle together. Chapter eleven and twelve help us put some more in place.
Last week we left off in the middle of Genesis chapter eleven where the pride of the people caused the Lord to scatter them by languages across the face of the earth. But all hope wasn’t lost. God would still accomplish His plan through the line of Shem. Verses ten through thirty two record the family line of Shem all the way down to Abram and his wife Sarai. We pick up the story of them as they lived with Abram’s father Terah in the region of Haran.
Here life seemed to be going along pretty well for Abram. His dad lived to be 205 years old. Abram had married. The family business was going well. They’re living in a nice area. Life is going well. But then something happened – God shows up.
[Read Genesis 12:1-3.]
God shows up in Abram’s life and gives him a new direction. Everything would now change. Everything! The comfort zone that Abram lived in would not be available for him any more. God told him to leave three things, three things that can give a man great comfort. He was to leave:
- His country
- His family
- His father’s household, (family business since Terah had just died)
- His paganism
[Read Joshua 24:2.]
Could you imagine how tough this must have been? Abram was a different man when he
set out on this journey for the Lord. His father had just died. He left his country. He left much of his family. He uprooted the location of the family business. He left his paganism to follow only Yahweh. And this God had told him to go on a journey.
Where exactly was he going? At this point he really didn’t know.
[Read Genesis 12:1.]
God told him to go and that later He would fill in the details.
This journey is one amazing event in history. When you look at it within the scope of God’s redemptive plan for humanity, it’s a pivotal moment for man. You see, Abram’s journey was about more than just him. This was:
I. A journey of covenant
This is where God begins to define the Abrahamic covenant between Himself, the nation of Israel and even the world. Now this isn’t the actual covenant, but this is God’s promise to Abram and the world about his plan of redemption.
Now since this is a covenant to bring about a nation that would bring forth the Savior of mankind, I believe this idea of worldwide redemption was first introduced to us in the Garden of Eden. Let’s look at a few passages and the progression of God explaining the covenant.
[Read Genesis 3:15, 12:1-3, 15:18-21, 17:1-5.]
(The covenant is also later renewed with Isaac and Jacob later in the book of Genesis.)
Now when you look at all of these passages its an amazing thing that the Lord is promising to do. He promises four things in the covenant:
1. Seed, (that would bring forth the Savior)
[Read Galatians 3:8, 16.]
2. Land
3. Nation
4. Blessing
Now this covenant is unconditional is its ultimate fulfillment of a kingdom and salvation
for Israel and the world. But it’s also a conditional covenant within its immediate fulfillment.
[Read Genesis 12:2-3.]
And we’ll see this played out over and over again throughout the book of Genesis. But I think that often times Israel didn’t understand what the covenant was all about. They thought it was all about them. But it was really all about others. The blessings of God upon them were to enable them to be a blessing to others.
[Sponge vs. hose illustration.]
So you see, this journey is more than just something that Abram had to do to demonstrate his love for God. This was something that God was doing to demonstrate His love for man. This was a journey of covenant. But for Abram, it was:
II. A journey of faith
[Read Genesis 12:4-5.]
So Abram, his nephew, their wives, and their workers pack up the U-haul and head to Canaan. I wonder if they were as stressed out back then as people are today when they move.
I tell you what, people get crazy when they’re moving!
[Lady accusing me of tampering with the mileage on a truck story.]
It’s hard moving everything you have and starting over in a new place. There’s so many ‘unknowns’ that you have to deal with. And here’s Abram going to a new place with everything that he’s got and starting over. And remember, he couldn’t look at what the place would be like before he moved. He couldn’t hop on a plane and go scout the area out ahead of time. He just had to load up and go waiting on more instructions from the Lord. And he was traveling some three to four hundred miles away from home. This was definitely a journey of faith.
Now remember, Abram was brought up in a pagan household. Listening and obeying the one true God wasn’t something that he was accustomed to doing. But when the Lord spoke to him he listened and it changed his life. He was now a man of faith instead of a man of superstition. He was a man of purpose instead of a man of pride. And his purpose was to by faith obey the one true God.
[Read Hebrews 11:8-10.]
I love that phrase, “by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise”. That means even though he didn’t quite fit in with the surroundings; even though he was out of his element; even though he was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole; even though he was an alien in the land – it was the land of promise. Why did the land have promise? Because God had said so and Abram believed God.
That’s what faith is – believing God even when the circumstances are simply unbelievable. Believing God even when the outcome is inconceivable. Believing God based entirely upon His Word even when His Word doesn’t make sense at the time. That’s faith.
You know when it comes to our church this is something that we really need to remember. I mean, it takes faith to trust that God will take our efforts here and build our church into a ministry that’s making a difference in the world. And it doesn’t just take my faith, it takes everyone’s faith because the church is made up of us all and we all play a part here.
But there are things that surround us here that can make us feel like when it comes to building a church, we’re aliens in a land of promise.
- The world is against us
- satan is against us
- The cost of ministry
- Changing demographics
- People dying
- The human element
All of these things and more can make us feel like aliens in a land of promise. And what
is that promise? Jesus said it in Matthew 16:18. “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not overpower it.” If Jesus wants us to build this church, and we all believe He does, than nothing can stop it. We just need to trust Him and keep moving forward with our efforts. And you know what the cool thing is – despite all the cards stacked against us, we can see God building His church right here at Bay Ridge! Isn’t that great? But it is a journey of faith.
And while we journey forward in faith, we must never forget to worship the Lord all along the way and give Him the glory for what He’s doing. That’s what Abram did. He made it:
III. A journey of worship
[Read Genesis 12:6-9.]
So throughout his journey Abram would stop, build an altar, and worship the Lord for what He was doing in his life.
It’s interesting to note where he was doing this. It says he stopped in Shechem at the oak of Moreh. This was a land inhabited by the Canaanites who would often erect shrines to their pagan gods in groves of oak trees. This might have been an area of where their cult-like rituals would take place.
Also remember that Abram was raised in paganism. There’s no doubt that when he would see the Canaanites involved in their false religions he would be able to relate to what they were doing.
But that’s not what Abram was about any more. Yahweh had spoken to him and that’s who he now served. So he built an altar there where he would worship the Lord publicly. And where it says that at his second location “He called on the name of the Lord”, that means he made proclamation of Yahweh by name. There would be no doubt that Abram wasn’t a pagan any more. He now served the God of Noah, the one true God, the Creator of Heaven and earth.
And remember, he feels like an alien in the land at this time. Things may be a little harder than he expected. Here God is telling him that through him a nation will be born but there’s already people down there in Canaan. But nevertheless, God should be and would be praised.
As we journey forward as a church we must continue to worship the Lord for who He is and for what He’s doing. We can see the evidence of His hand all around this place. We can see the evidence of His power in the lives of the people here. And we know His Word and understand that He is God and should be worshipped as such. He deserves all the glory and we will worship Him.
But worshipping the Lord as a church starts with the people of the church worshipping Him as individuals. If we won’t worship the Lord when we’re alone and away from the church, then our worship while we’re at the church can become pretentious and down right phony.
Is that what God wants? For us to be all down in the mouth all week long but when we step through those back doors all of a sudden we’re full of praise and positivity! No!
As individuals we should praise God all week and every day for who is and for what He’s done. Then when we come together for corporate worship it’s a crescendo of worship that’s been building up in us all week. Sunday worship is the expression of the week’s worship, not a substitute for the week’s lack of worship. So as we journey through life, we need to journey in the spirit of worship – wherever the trail leads us.
Well this is an amazing journey that Abram is on. It’s a journey of covenant, a journey of faith, and a journey of worship.
But this journey wouldn’t be without some difficulties, and next week we’ll see some of them come into play. But until then, let us journey well wherever God leads us.
[TNT camping trip hike illustration.]
Let us journey well wherever God leads us.
