Genesis 12-14

If it weren’t for the chapter dividers that have been added to the text the narrative of Genesis might, at times, seem very abrupt. Chapter 12 is one of those occasions. The story moves from the death of Terah to the call of Abram (Abraham). Though no time frame is given there is no reason to speculate that a great deal of time passed. God’s call to Abram also seems startling. Seemingly out of nowhere God calls Abram to leave everything he has known and go to Canaan. What I find most interesting about this is the message it would have conveyed to Moses’ first audience. Isn’t that the same message the God gave to captive Israel? So what about me? Is God’s call in my life the same message? I think the message is the same even if the details aren’t. God called Abram to give up what he knew so that he could experience what God had planned. For Abram that wasn’t going to leave a house, or tent, in Haran. It was a call to leave his old way of thinking. That message was equally true for the former slaves; quit thinking like a slave to the Egyptians you are free. God’s message to me is the same; stop thinking like the world, I give you a new way of thinking (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:22-24). Abram was called to leave all of his past. I know I have been tempted to live in some of the “good times” of my past. The past is comfortable. It may not have been positive at the time but we’ve either survived it or celebrated it. Those freed slaves dealt with the same struggle. The work was hard, relentless, and thankless but they had a roof over their heads and at least they knew they would have some food. The past also doesn’t surprise us. Since it is behind us there is nothing in our past that will catch us off guard. God’s message to Abram was also about what he was going to do to the world through Abram. Surely Abram knew about how God had created the world. He had probably also heard the story of how God’s flood had destroyed all things living in the world. So why would such a powerful creator God want to use a nobody from Haran to be a blessing to everybody? That was a message that had to have struck a chord of similarity with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai; What would God want to do with a nation that only knows slavery? I have struggled with the exact same question; What does God expect that this middle-aged single man can accomplish? God’s message to all three of us (Abram, Israel, and me) is identical. It is not what you can do that is important. What is important is what I can do through your obedience. Go where God leads you and see what he can do to the world.

 

Stuart