Unit 1: The Word: God Calls Abraham’s Family
Key Verse:
Genesis 12:7 NLT
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.[a]” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
There is no random act with God. If you are called, God has a reason.
What you need to know
Isaiah 42::6-9 NLT
6
“I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
7
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8
I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images.
9
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
As we begin a new year of blogging based on the Standard Lesson Commentary International Sunday School Lesson, a few thoughts come to mind. Last year’s commentary closed with an outstanding review of the last two chapters of the last book of the Bible: Revelation 21 and 22. Let’s use the final lessons of the previous lessons as a springboard into the new lesson year. Fresh eyes to see what God is doing. Fresh ears to hear what thus saith the Lord. A fresh, new beginning, invigorated by the crescendo of the Revelation of God’s divine launch into eternity. Let’s get started. Be encouraged.
The Lesson
Genesis 12:1 NLT
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.
Abram. Why Abram? The Bible doesn’t say much about his beginnings, but it does tell something of his background and his surroundings. He was from Ur, a major metropolitan city/state built along the coast of the Euphrates river. As such, Ur was a major trade route and a major religious center. To leave Ur would mean that Abram would leave his inheritance and his religious moorings to start over in a place entirely unknown to him.
Genesis 11:31-32 NLT
31 One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. 32 Terah lived for 205 years[f] and died while still in Haran.
A further note: Ur and Haran were both worship centers for the primary god in a pantheon of deities that were worshipped in Ur (unnamed in this writing). Indications are that Abram was not only wealthy but also tied in some way to the priesthood of the religion of Ur. In essence, he left wealth and power to follow the true and living God into the unknown. What would you abandon for a greater presence of God in your life?
Philippians 3:7-8 NLT
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ
Genesis 12:2 NLT
2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
In the very same breath, God promises to bless Abram for his obedience. He promises to make Abram the head of a nation, not a city/state. He promises to make Abram a blessing… to others. Beloved, this may be, perhaps, the greatest blessing that God has to give: to make one a blessing. Why, because it is the one thing that best reflects God’s active character; to be a giver. From the beginning, all that we know about God is that He is a giver. In His very first encounter with Abram, God promises to make Abram after His own likeness spiritually. He will make Abram a ‘blessing to others’.
2 Corinthians 9:6-10 NLT
6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”[c] 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say,
“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”[d]
10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity[e] in you.
Genesis 12:3 NLT
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
In fact, God intends to bless Abram far above anything that can be imagined. In these modern times, we have the benefit of seeing all that has resulted from God’s blessing upon Abram, yet it still defies our natural mind’s ability to fully comprehend what God has created as…the Church. That’s right. What God began in Abram resulted in what we know today as the Church. The Church; glorious and magnificent, built firmly on the Rock that is Christ. Beloved, this is the promise to Abram. What we know of the Church to this day only scratches the surface of its impact in the earth from its inception to the present.
1 Corinthians 2:6-10 NLT
8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”[a]
10 But[b] it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
Genesis 12:4-5 NLT
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan,
Ad so Abram gathers his family, all of his possessions, his livestock, and his servants, and wanders into the unknown, having placed his faith in the unknown God, who has called him from greatness to greatness. Beloved, Abram was seventy-five years old when God called him. Most people are retired at seventy-five. Abram was starting over. Thus was the faith, the great faith of Abram.
Genesis 12:7 NLT
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.[a]” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
And in this new place, Abram began to worship God. Abram left an inheritance for a calling.
Genesis 13:14-18 NLT
14 After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. 15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants[a] as a permanent possession. 16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! 17 Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. There he built another altar to the Lord.
Between chapters 12 and 15, we see a trend continue. Abram brought Lot with him. I suspect that since Abram was childless, he may have deduced that God would bless him by allowing lot to be the descendant through whom God would bless. However, that was not God’s plan, so God stirred Lot’s heart in such a way that Lot desired to leave Abram’s household and lay claim to his own inheritance. In this way, God further separated Abram from the logical avenues by which God might bless him. God continued to lead Abram into the unknown. Accordingly, Abram built an altar and continued to worship. Thus the continuing pattern. God leads Abram to a new place in faith. Abram builds an altar in response.
Genesis 15:1 NLT
1 Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
So then, after Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek, God comes to Abram in a vision and encourages him. “Do not be afraid, Abram”. Thus far, Abram had seen every avenue for blessing cut off. He left Ur with family in tow. Tehran stayed behind in Haran, only half of the journey to Canaan. Then Lot left for the, seemingly, greener pastures of Sodom and Gomorrah. Thus, two vital avenues by which Abram’s family line might be continued were now closed to him, yet God remains faithful. Beloved, we can trust God. We can leave the thinking to Him.
Genesis 15:2-3 NLT
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
You can see here that Abram is struggling with what seem to be his diminishing options. Separated from his family, he now has to consider that his heir will be a servant, Eliezer. Though Abram loves his servant and treats him as a member of his household, the thought of leaving his inheritance to Eliezer leaves Abram feeling unsatisfied and incomplete. Beloved, life presents us with doubts throughout. We have to trust God in spite of the circumstances by which we are surrounded.
Genesis 15:4-5 NLT
4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
Hmmm! But God! Amen! Beloved, God does not forget His promises. He does not forsake His children. His plan may not seem to make sense, but rest assured, His plans for you are greater than you can imagine. Sometimes, you can quite put your finger on it. That is by design. God cannot be cubby-holed; put in a box. He will always operate outside of reason. He abides in the environment of faith. He invites us to join Him there.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
8
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Genesis 15:6 NLT
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
And each time God reached out to Abram, Abram took His hand and took the next step…of faith. With every challenge, Abram eventually sided with God, and God rewarded him accordingly. Beloved, in order to do the impossible, we must believe in the impossible.
Amos 3:3 NLT
3
Can two people walk together
without agreeing on the direction?
Genesis 15:7 NLT
7 Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
And when God, by His Holy Spirit, reminds you of where He brought you from, just know that elevation is available. It’s not about living in the past. It’s about using the memories of the past to recharge your spirit to strengthen you for the next place in the glory that God has prepared for you. I briefly shared some of my testimony with a family member whom my wife and I visited over the past week. We are about the same age and share similar life experiences, both before salvation and since we’ve come to the knowledge of Christ. That time of sharing certainly encouraged me to press forward with the undeniable assurance that in the same way that God has brought me this far, He will yet carry me forward. Thus, there is only joy to look toward as we advance one glory to glory in Christ.
Selah
wb
Hebrews 11:8-10 NLT
8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.
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