Called to be a Blessing
Genesis 11:27-12:9
5 May 2024
From the beginning of Genesis we have seen the cascading effects of the Fall on the human race. But despite all that happens on this planet, God has given the world hope that through one woman - Eve, one family - Abraham’s, and from one nation - Israel, from whose lineage a Savior came and defeated death and evil once and for all. This Savior came through the lineage of Seth as we can see in Genesis 11:10-26. After the flood and the dispersion of the human race, the narrative focuses on one family who will end up being the source of blessing for the whole world.
If we follow the family stories in Genesis, first we had Adam and Eve, starting in Paradise and then the Fall and the heartbreak with their kids, Cain, and Abel. Then it was Noah and the drama that happened with him and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth after the flood. Now in Genesis 12 the story is focusing on a family that we will watch go through some incredible yet humanly impossible situations and come through on the other side. Let’s read: Gen 11:27- 12:9 (ESV)
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
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. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak[d] of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
At the end of chapter 11 we are introduced to Abram’s family:
? his father, Terah
? his brothers Nahor and Haran who died
? his nephew Lot
? his wife Sarai, and
? his brother Nahor’s wife Milcah and her sister Iscah
Abram's father decided to move from Ur to Canaan but stopped short in Haran. Like Ur, Haran was also a place where the moon god was worshiped, and we know that Abram’s father and his family were polytheistic. What’s sad is that this was the last recorded family that knew about the true God and now they had given themselves over to idol worship. And the fact that Sarai was barren made things look very bleak. Was this the end of the line? Was there no hope for the future?
Then God spoke to Abram, (12:1) disturbing his life and called Him to get out of Haran. God’s call was powerful, personal, and must have been challenging because Ur and Haran, according to archaeological finds, were at the height of prosperity. God didn’t call Abram to leave insignificant, little towns but cultured and sophisticated cities. God was saying get out of that place, the place of his birth, his family and relatives, his old way of worship, his trade, and a place of security. Even if your family is not willing to leave Haran, you need to get out.
Abram didn’t need a change of scenery or circumstance - Abram’s life needed to be transformed. He had to break his past cultural ties because they had such a powerful hold on him. To trust God for an unknown, uncertain future on his journey of faith was just beginning. Only as he continued to follow God’s calling would the promises unfold.
When we look at Abram’s life we see…
? The Promise of blessing
? The Plan for blessing
? The Purpose of blessing
If Abram didn’t step out of Haran and into the unknown, he would never had received:
1. The Promise of blessing
When I speak of blessing here it refers to:
something that God does or gives for the welfare or happiness of another.
God’s Promise of Blessing to Abram has 7 elements. God said:
1. I will make you a great nation
¦ your family will grow into a great nation.
2. I will bless you
¦ enrich you materially with agricultural success, livestock, and people.
3. I will make your name great
¦ Abram's name meant “Exalted Father.” According to scholars Abram already had a noble family and name - but what made Abram great was the call of God.
After the first 3 promises there is this transformation from what God will do to Abrams response.
4. You will be a blessing
¦ God called Abram to be his blessing bearer. Abram must be more than a recipient of the blessing. He is both a receptacle for the divine blessing and a transmitter of that blessing to others. Blessings were not meant to be an end in themselves - they were not meant to be kept but shared.
5. Those who bless you will be blessed
¦ God states that his relationship to others will be determined by their relationship to Abram. It was the same for Joseph later in Genesis. God blessed the household of Potipher because of Joseph (39:5). Joseph’s family was saved from starvation because of him but so was the whole country of Egypt and all of the surrounding countries saved.
6. Those who curse you (treat you lightly, declare you insignificant, or ridicule you) will be cursed.
7. In you and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed
? God never intended to bestow His love upon just one chosen group while shutting out all the others from his favor and barring them from his presence.
That blessing would go beyond Abram’s family, town, and tribe, across cultures and nationalities and for generations to come. Through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Jesus will not only be the greatest source of happiness to the Jews, He will be the ultimate blessing for the whole world. God had a:
2. Plan for the Blessing
As Abram’s life was transformed, each element of those seven promises would unfold in time. In other words, Abram will not be a blessing, nor will he experience God’s blessing if he stays in Haran. (vv. 4-5). Abram listened to God, took all that he owned, and left along with his nephew Lot. By faith, Abram left a good and noble life behind for something far better. He believed God’s promises, but he had no idea where God was leading him, when and how God was going to fulfill His promises, nor the process of transformation he would undergo in order to be prepared to receive the promise (Hebr 11).
Though often painful, personal growth and transformation as God’s image bearers brings a much greater blessing than the quest for personal success and recognition. Abram was on a journey with God, the road was long and challenging, not always glorious, with many temptations, sacrifices, suffering, and failures - all to get him to the place where God wanted him to be, to be a person of supreme character and deep faith. That would be when he could receive the blessing. God asked Abram to follow Him, that means listening and learning from Him and then the blessings would follow.
If we didn’t have a call from God, we would simply be idolators - worshiping our career, our families, our desires, and anything else in the pursuit of an identity, reputation, and security. When God calls us to Himself, He does a work in our hearts and radically transforms the way we see life. Being called out means letting go of the past, letting go of your old life. It means getting out of your comfort and security zones. He calls us out of something into something far greater, where He can use our lives to impact multitudes. For some it seems easier to be god than to trust, follow and love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life? Do we value results and success or do we place greater value on our relationship with God and others?
What things do you need to let go of in order to move forward, in order to follow God’s calling on our life? Paul tells us that if we are to move forward into maturity, to see things the way God does, if we are to grow up as men and women of God, we need to leave childish ways and thinking behind (I Cor 13:11). Is there something God is asking you to leave behind? What patterns and habits is God calling you out from so you can be transformed and truly thrive? The blessings that come from following God’s calling are not an end in themselves but serve a higher purpose. What is:
3. The Purpose of blessing
God certainly intended to bless Abraham and his descendants, but he never meant for his blessing to be exclusive. God singled out Abraham (and later his descendants, the nation of Israel) as a first strategic step for what He determined would be a world-embracing plan of salvation. God’s purpose of blessing Abram was to make him a blessing to others.
At first God spoke to Abram, now God appeared to Abram and showed him the land that would be for his family. When Abram received the blessing, he didn’t build a city or a monument to himself - he built an altar. It was to remember what God had done. He continued to live in a tent - he didn’t think “now I have arrived and can settle down,” he kept moving forward with God. Abram returned to the very place God had called him out from and was a different person. That world no longer had the power to pull him down. He was more prosperous than before, but he was free! You see, the call of God is radical, it reshapes you, redirects you, so transforms you that you no longer make your decisions based on what is most convenient, what is going to most benefit you, but based on where God has called you. Where God has called there you will be the greatest blessing.
God’s call of salvation is radical and to discover the life that God has for you, you have to let go of the old. Are you will to go through the process of being prepared for the blessing so that you will be a great blessing in your workplace, in your friendships, at your school, in your marriage and in your family. As with Abram your journey of faith will be challenging at times, it’s not always glorious, there will be times of temptations, failures, sacrifices, even times of unbearable suffering, all to form you and make you the person God created you to be - a person of superior character and deep faith so that your life will be blessed and a blessing to others. The question is:
Are you willing to trust God for the next steps in your life, even though you do not know what the future holds? Are you willing to follow Him or are you looking for the easy road? Are you willing to step out in faith? You can choose to keep a tidy, neat little comfortable life but you’ll miss the blessing, and you won’t be much of a blessing to anyone else.
Why do you think God has placed you in a certain position, why did God have you study certain subjects and get the education you have, why did God give you specific responsibilities, gifts or skills? Of course, it’s to bless you but everything we have received from God is ultimately to be used for the benefit and blessing of others, especially to those who do not yet know the Lord. When we surrender ourselves to an Almighty God, our Creator, He will bless us and we can be sure that we will be a blessing to others.
