GOD’S CHOICE & CALL OF ABRAM

GENESIS 11:27-12:1

INTRODUCTION

In chapters 1-8 of Genesis, we saw the creation of the heavens and earth, man’s fall into sin, God’s promise of a Redeemer; and the destruction of mankind, except for Noah and his family, by a world-wide flood.

In chapters 9-11 we saw that a great number of the descendants of Noah disobeyed God’s command to disperse and fill the earth. Instead, they attempted to unite at Babel and make a name for themselves by building a tower to the heavens. God sovereignly and powerfully thwarted their plans by confusing their language and forcing them to disperse throughout the world.

Chapters 12-50 begin a new section in the book of Genesis. This section tell us about how God will further His redemptive plans through the great ancestral fathers of the Hebrew nation, “Israel” (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons).

THE GENERATIONS OF TERAH

11:27Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 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. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

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. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

1. A major turning point in human history.

Adam stands out as the original head of the human race. Noah is presented as the head of a new beginning after the Flood. Now God is seen acting to fulfill His promises through Terah’s family.

From this point forward, instead of looking at universal, worldwide events, we will be brought to consider one family and how it interacts with other nations. It will be through this family that God’s redemptive purposes will continue to be fulfilled.

2. The head of a special family.

Terah is the head of various branches of the family mentioned in the chapters that follow. He is not only the father of Abram and Sarai, but He is also the grandfather of Lot, the great-grandfather of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, and the great-great grandfather of Leah and Rachel, the wives of Jacob. The roots of the nation of Israel revolve around  Terah’s offspring.

Though Terah’s death is recorded in 11:32, he might well have lived to see the birth of Isaac. It would appear from Genesis that Terah died two years before Sarah, when Abraham was 135 years old. If this is the case, then he was indeed the father figure for most of the period covered in this section.

3. The major characters of this period of history.

▪ It is believed by scholars that Abram was the eldest son of Terah. Lot, whose father, Haran, died young, before his father Terah, is the subject of a number of incidents in the life of Abram. It will become clear that Abram took responsibility for Lot after his brother Haran died.

Sarai, later called “Sarah”, occupies a very prominent place as Abram’s wife. It is interesting that her ancestry is omitted; the name of her father is not revealed. The author obviously does not want to disclose so early what we will discover later—namely, that Sarai is Abram’s half-sister (20:12) Abraham said, Sarah is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

The importance of Nahor and his wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, will become clear in connection with finding a wife for Abram’s future son Isaac. Milcah was Terah’s granddaughter and Nahor was Terah’s son. This means that Nahor married his niece.

4. The historic setting for Abram’s call.

▪Terah and his family planned to go to Canaan (the promised land) but they stopped at Haran and there they settled.

Terah lost sight of God’s promises. Sometimes as we travel through life, we lose sight of God’s promises. The cares and influence of this world and others often sidetrack us from accomplishing God’s purpose for our lives. We become complacent or self-satisfied and do not travel in the direction God wants us to go.

GOD’S CHOICE AND CALL OF ABRAM 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.”

1. God’s choice of Abram

Although Abram, like the rest of his family, was a sinner deserving of God’s wrath, God chose to set him (a moon god worshiper) apart to serve His redemptive purposes.

God chose Abram because in love he chose to do so. It was completely undeserved. This is true of everyone who belongs to Christ. There is nothing in any of us to commend us to God, yet God set His love upon us and chose us to the praise and glory of His grace.

Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

2. God’s call to Abram.

Abram’s call was a life-changing call to renounce all and follow the Lord. This same call is heard in the New Testament.

Jesus put it bluntly in Matthew 10:37 that whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Abram’s call surely has the gospel in view and the believer’s call to follow Christ. Obeying such a call comes with its costs and with its rewards. And the rewards far outweigh the costs:

Jesus said, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29).

In Philippians 3:7-9 Paul said: But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.