Genesis 5:24
Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Genesis 6:9
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty ; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.
God had done it before, but not quite like this. Moved in alongside someone and invited them into relationship. He brought order out of chaos through Adam. Enoch walked with God. What must that have been like? Are you envious at all? Wouldn’t you love to have been privy to those conversations? Then Noah: he built the ark that preserved mankind at the behest of the God of Heaven. Noah built the ark for a rainstorm that was inconceivable to his contemporaries. They scoffed and mocked him as he built it, but he obeyed God and by doing so he preserved all life on earth. But God selected Abram for greatness. We don’t celebrate Adam, Enoch or Noah, but we revere Abram. God promised Abram we would. The very fact that we do so tells us a lot about who we are in God. We identify him as the father of the faithful. We hold fast to the promise he was given. We are the ‘blessed’ of Abram. Subsequently, we identify with the calling of Abram. Abram was called out to come in. Called out of the familiar surroundings of family and locale into relationship; Covenant actually, with God. We, the Church, trace our beginnings to this day: the day that God called Abram.
Talmudic Rabbi’s taught that the call of Abram included a seven fold blessing (God’s number for completion).
God promised:
To make Abram a great nation. (heritage)
To personally bless him (relationship).
To make Abram’s name great. (authority)
To make Abram a blessing to others. (prosperity).
To bless those who blessed Abram. (community)
To curse those who cursed him. (protection)
To bless all people of the earth through him. (dominion)
Beloved, these are the blessing of Abram and they are ours through Christ, our Lord. Be encouraged. What God accomplished for Abram, He will accomplish for you. He promised.
Blessings,
.wb
Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Romans 4:18
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Romans 4:3
What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
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