LESSONS FROM THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS
GENESIS PART 2 – POSTDILUVIAN/PATRIARCHAL HISTORY
ABRAHAM: OBEYING THE CALL OF GOD
GENESIS 12:1-9
INTRODUCTION
- Early in his career, someone said that Vince Lombardi, the Hall of Fame football coach of the Green Bay Packers, knew very little about the game of football. Thomas Edison’s teachers gave up on him and said that “He was too stupid to accomplish anything.” Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before inventing the Model T. Beethoven’s music teacher once said that he had no chance of ever being a successful composer. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time, was cut from his high school varsity basketball team. Albert Einstein performed so poorly in his high school courses that his teachers actually encouraged his parents to pull him out of school. Sometimes the greatest success stories come from the oddest of places.
- Those are all earthly examples of what we see happen on a spiritual level in today’s passage. In Genesis 12 God calls a man that was as unqualified to the earthly eye as anyone could be. He calls this man out of his home and makes a promise to him that would change the world forever. Now it’s been said that God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. One of the most amazing aspects of God’s relationship with mankind is that he uses imperfect people to accomplish his eternally perfect will. God is not interested in using people who think they have it all together, but rather is interested in using people that he can transform for his glory. Such is the story of Abram in Genesis 12.
- We’ve come to the point in our study of Genesis where we are beginning to look at postdiluvian history or history that occurred after the flood. This time period is also called patriarchal history because it is during this time that the patriarchs (or the male “fathers”) of the Jewish nation lived. Remember that Moses, the author of Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch, is writing to the nation of Israel to explain to them where they came from, how God formed them, and how God expects them to live. And what a story of origins did Israel have! Let’s look at Genesis 12:1-9:
[READ GENESIS 12:1-9]
- In order to get us up to speed on where we are in the Genesis account, let me summarize what has happened between when the flood ended until now. After the flood, God makes a covenant promise to Noah saying that he will never again destroy the earth with a flood and he assigns the rainbow as the sign of that covenant. Then Moses tells us about Noah’s descendants, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. After that there is a short account of the incident at the Tower of Babel, where mankind once again rebels against God, but God keeps his promise not to destroy mankind and instead confuses the one language that everyone was speaking and scatters mankind across the globe. Then the narrative focuses in on Shem’s descendants because Abram, the subject of our story today, comes from the line of Shem.
- The Bible says that Terah, Abram’s father had three sons: Nahor, Haran, and Abram. One of those sons, Haran, dies while Terah is still alive. And to this point the family is living in a city called Ur. But after Haran dies, Terah take his family, leaves Ur, and eventually settles in a city named Haran (not to be confused with his son of the same name.) Scripture then says that Terah died at the age of 205. That is where we pick up the story in Genesis 12:1.
- Now when the Bible says in v.1: Now the LORD said to Abram; that is probably best translated as: Now the LORD had said to Abram because of what Stephen says in Acts 7:2-3. There Stephen tells us that God had called Abram before he and his family moved from Ur to Haran. In fact, that is probably the reason they left Ur. Abram likely shared this call with his family, and together they left their home. But they ended up settling in Haran instead of going to the land of Canaan, where God called Abram to go. (We’ll talk more about why they stopped in a moment) So now that Terah is dead, Abram observes his responsibility to heed his call.
- Let’s talk about what Abram’s life looked like when God called him and see what we can learn from it. To do so we are going to bring in some other Scriptures to get a full picture of the situation. First of all, I want us to notice that:
GOD CALLED ABRAM OUT OF A PAGAN RELIGION
- It is natural for us to assume when God comes to Abram with the command to leave his family and his homeland, that Abram was worshiping other gods. However, Scripture tells us this plainly so that we don’t have to assume it. In Joshua 24, Joshua is speaking to the nation of Israel and he says: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many.’”
- So Abraham, then known as Abram, was entrenched in polytheism when he heard this call from God. History and archaeology tell us some of the specifics of what Abram’s religious life might have looked like. In the ancient city of Ur, where Abram was from, there was a giant temple complex dedicated to the Sumerian moon god Nanna. (I know that sounds like someone’s grandmother, but it’s not.) Nanna was the city’s chief god. In fact, some scholars suggest that Abram’s whole family was named after the moon, the mood god, or his associates.
- We are talking about a family that is as far from worshiping the true God as you can get. And there is an interesting part of this narrative that I think clues us in to just how entrenched this family was in the worship of Nanna. In chapter 11 of Genesis, Moses writes this in v.31: Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
- Since we know that God called Abram while he was still in Ur, we know that he called Abram before the events of 11:31 occur. The details of why the family left Ur and ended up in Haran are left out. But I think this is a safe-bet scenario: God comes to Abram and tells him that he is to leave his family and his city and go to a land that God will show to him. So he tells this to his wife Sarai and his father Terah. And Terah makes up his mind that he is going to pack up the whole family and go to the land of Canaan.
- But during their journey they arrive at the city of Haran. The Bible says they settled there. Why did they stop? Haran was about half way between Ur and Canaan. In order to get to the land of Canaan from Ur you traveled northwest around what is now known as the Arabian Desert. Why stop when you are half way there? Here is why I think they stopped.
- There was another moon god of Semitic origin named Sin (pronounced “seen”). Originally, Sin was a different god than Nanna, but right around the time of Abram the two gods were syncretized. In other words, they were brought together; and they came to be known as the same god.
- So here is the picture I get when I read Genesis 11:31. Terah and his family arrive in Haran. And wouldn’t you know it, Haran is the chief home of the moon god Sin (who by that time was syncretized with Nanna). Terah gets comfortable, looks around at the city that looks very similar to Ur his home, and decides he is going to settle there. He just can’t leave his pagan roots behind.
- Now, I don’t know for sure that this is indeed what happened. But for some reason the family stops in Haran; and Abram doesn’t leave until after Terah dies. That scenario makes a lot of sense in my mind, especially considering that Haran would have been a surrogate Ur for Terah. It would have been the perfect replacement. It even had a temple to the same moon god. But whatever the situation was, they didn’t complete the journey to Canaan – and that is very telling.
- So God called Abram out of a pagan religious mess. However, that’s not all that Abram was called to leave. The second thing to notice here is that:
GOD CALLED ABRAM OUT OF A THRIVING CITY
- Ancient Ur was at the peak of its existence during Abram’s time. In fact, one resource estimates that Ur was the largest city in the world from 2030 – 1980 B.C. That is very close to, if not exactly, when Abram would have lived there. Armed with that knowledge, let’s put God’s call to Abram in perspective: “Abram, I want you to leave this city and follow me to a land that I have prepared for you.” In essence, God is asking Abram to leave the greatest city in the world and go to some place he’s never seen and he’s probably not even sure exists.
- This is an amazing testimony to Abram’s faith. Hebrews 11:8-9 says: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. God told him to leave his city home and didn’t even tell him exactly where he was going. And when he got there he lived in tents. Living in tents was not uncommon in this day, but living in a tent in Canaan sure didn’t measure up to living in the largest city in the world.
- It’s understandable now, knowing what we know about Ur, that Terah had such a hard time leaving Haran. Haran was a miniature Ur. It would have reminded him of the grandiose temple of Nanna and the banks of the Euphrates river by which the city of Ur sat. It was no small thing that God asked Abram to do.
- There was the religious component to this call. There was what we might call the regional component to this call. And thirdly, there was a biological component to this call:
GOD CALLED ABRAM WHEN HE HAD NOTHING TO OFFER
- What do I mean by saying that Abram had nothing to offer? Listen to the promise that God makes to Abram, then listen to Abram’s life circumstances. In Genesis 12:2: I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. That’s the promise. Here is what was going on in Abram’s life – Genesis 11:30: Now Sarai [Abram’s wife] was barren; she had no child.
- Does anyone see the problem here? God is promising to make Abram’s descendants a great nation...only he doesn’t have any descendants. It would be one thing if he had a half a dozen sons or so to work with. For that matter, even one son would have made the situation more believable. But Sarai had been unable to bear children. And even if she happened to get pregnant, what was the guarantee it would be a boy?
- Was Abram an unqualified candidate for a call from God or what? He was worshiping the wrong gods; and he was a city boy with no children. If God were accepting resumes for the position of national patriarch, Abram’s would have been on the bottom of the pile. Abram was not looking for God, but God came looking for Abram. And what was Abram’s response to this call from God?
ABRAM OBEYED BECAUSE HE TRUSTED IN GOD
- In v.4 the wording is simple but the meaning is profound: So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot [his nephew] went with him. He believed that God would do what he said he was going to do. And Hebrews 11 again accents this story in v.10: For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
- Not only did Abram believe that God was going to give him a great earthly inheritance, he also believed that God would give him an eternal inheritance. As great as Ur was, its foundations were not heavenly ones. And as great at Haran was, its designer and builder was not God.
- What a change a call of God makes in a person’s life! Abram had an encounter with the glorious true God; and he left an awful lot to follow him in faith.
- Now let’s see how Abram’s life can impact ours. Just as God called Abram out of a pagan religion:
GOD CALLS US OUT OF OUR WORSHIP OF IDOLS
- Certainly if we are to follow Abram’s example we must first cast aside all of our false gods and commit ourselves to the true God through faith in Jesus Christ. But it goes far beyond that. We must continually kill all traces of idolatry in our lives. Some of the most famous words of Scripture read: You shall not make for yourself an idol.
- Absolutely nothing is to take the place of Jesus in your life. He has called you out to worship him alone. Do not go crawling back to your moon gods. You serve the one, true King. Don’t allow money to have your highest affections. Don’t allow your job to consume your life. Don’t allow your family to be your ultimate source of satisfaction. All of those things are good, but all of those things are not God.
- Idolatry is one of the easiest traps for us to fall into. It’s so easy to slide something into God’s place in our hearts. And sometimes we don’t even recognize that it is happening. We have to be so very careful not to bow before the altars of our televisions, or our computers, or our smart phones, or our cars with iPod connectivity and turn-by-turn navigation systems. (If anyone has that particular idol, let me know – I’d be glad to take that off of your hands!) Abram teaches us through his obedience to this call that all idols are worthless and they are to be set aside in order to follow hard after Christ.
- Now also; even as God called Abram out of a thriving city:
GOD CALLS US OUT OF OUR RELIANCE ON EARTHLY COMFORTS
- Hebrews 11:15-16 says: If they [the Patriarchs] had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. If Abram kept his mind focused on where he came from, he could have gone back to the big city and back to his former life. But he desired a better country. He desired a kingdom that God would give to him that was not limited to this world.
- It would have been more comfortable for Abram to stay where he was, or go back to where he came from. There would have been no risk involved. He was wealthy and could have made a good life in Haran or Ur. But he followed God away from sure comforts because he was confident that God would bless him.
- When Jesus sent out his disciples to minister he told them in Matthew 10: Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff. And when a scribe told Jesus he would follow him wherever he went, Jesus told him in Matthew 8: Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
- The point is not that you can’t have resources or comforts, but that you must be willing to give them up if Christ asks you to. Comfort is just as much an idol as anything else we set up as a false god. Like Abram, we must be willing to leave comfort behind if we are called to.
- And lastly:
GOD CALLS US DESPITE OUR LACK OF CREDENTIALS
- God does not call us to salvation because we are good enough to be a part of his family. And once a part of his family, he does not call us to service and ministry because we are adequate in and of ourselves to perform what he asks. He calls us to do things we cannot do without him, so that we and everyone who sees us recognizes that the glory belongs to God.
- 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says: For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
- God loves to save those whom the world rejects. And he loves to use those whom the world would not expect. So if you think you don’t have what it takes to serve God, you’re right. But that’s exactly where he wants you. So the only question is this:
WILL WE OBEY BECAUSE WE TRUST FULLY IN GOD?
- Will we set aside our idols and our earthly comforts in pursuit of God’s calling on our lives?
- Now, let’s not forget the point of this passage. The meaning here is that God chose Abram in order to bless the world through him. This is the beginning of the nation of Israel, through which Jesus Christ our Savior would come into this world. But just as Abram obeyed God’s call, we are called to obedience as a result of our faith.
- So what is it that God has called you to do? Have you heeded his call to salvation through faith in Christ? And if so, to what sort of ministry has he called you? Whatever it is, trust him and follow him; and you, like Abram, will have his blessing on your life.
