“Abram’s Call: the Good, the Bad & the Promise” (Genesis 11:10 - 12:20) | 5/24/20
Genesis 11:10 - 12:20 | 5/24/20 | Will DuVal
This morning, we continue our study in the book of Genesis. And we’ve come to a bit of a turning point in the story. The Bible tells the greatest story that’s ever been told. It’s the TRUE story, of the fight for the heart and the fate of humanity. And one of the things that makes ours such a fascinating story is that WE, humankind, are the villains. It’s the story of God working to save us from OURSELVES. We’ve seen it time and time again, as Adam’s sin spreads to Cain and his line, Lamech... through Seth’s line, to the Nephilim. Bringing about God’s righteous judgment of sin in the form of the FLOOD, but also his merciful rescue through the family of NOAH. But we discovered last week, that the Flood did NOT cleanse the world of sin; sin was riding in the ark, in the hearts of Noah and his family. Noah became a drunkard, Ham a gossip, Canaan a rebel, and Nimrod a tyrant. And every time we THINK we’ve found a good candidate for Eve’s long-awaited “serpent-crushing offspring”, the Protoeuangelion, Genesis 3:15’s promised one who is prophesied to be the CURE for our sin problem, that character inevitably slips up, and falls WAAAY short. And we’re gonna be introduced to yet another such character this morning.
But this guy is special. If Adam brought about a CURSE for all people (Rom 5:12), and Noah brought about a generic blessing of common grace for all people in Genesis 9, then Abram today is going to inaugurate God’s new project of SPECIAL grace - offered to all people; everyone will either be blessed OR cursed through Abram, depending on whether you receive or you REJECT him, or to be more precise, whether we receive or reject Abram’s offspring of ch.12, v7 - God’s grace now flows through a particular people, GOD’S people, his chosen nation, who God will BLESS so as to be a bless-ING to all nations. AbraHAM, as he will be renamed in ch.17 is arguably the second most important human who ever lived. The three big monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a combined ½ of the world’s population - all trace our roots back to Abraham. Just consider his importance to the story of Genesis alone: so far, we’ve covered 2,000+ years of prehistory in just 11 chapters; God will spend the next 14 chapters of Genesis, spanning just one HUNDRED years, devoted solely to the story of Abram.
And the CALL of Abram, in ch.12 for today, marks perhaps THE MOST decisive, defining moment in his life. Here’s how I’ve outlined the passage for us; my wording is a bit strained, but I tried to alliterate for you: most significantly, Abram is going to receive 3 callings followed by 3 covenant promises from God, to which he will respond to with 3 successful obediences of faith or “causes for celebration”, but as the story unfolds, Abram finds himself faced with 3 continued challenges, which ultimately bring about 3 collapses, 3 failures on Abram’s part, all of which should leave US, you and ME today with 3 concerns, which when understood in their holistic biblical context, become glorious CONFIDENCES in our now-realized hope of a BETTER covenant and better covenant-keeper, Jesus.
Okay, so, you’re all THOROUGHLY confused now, so let’s just dive into the text, and we’ll try and clarify my clunky, complicated configuring of it as we go along (see, I got STUCK on the “C”s there…).
Genesis 11:10 - 12:20
These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he fathered Shelah. 13 And Arpachshad lived after he fathered Shelah 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber. 15 And Shelah lived after he fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Peleg. 17 And Eber lived after he fathered Peleg 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu. 19 And Peleg lived after he fathered Reu 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug. 21 And Reu lived after he fathered Serug 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he fathered Nahor. 23 And Serug lived after he fathered Nahor 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he fathered Terah. 25 And Nahor lived after he fathered Terah 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
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.
Ch.12 - Now the Lord said[a] to Abram, “Go from your country[b] 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.”[c]
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.
10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.”
This is the word of the Lord (LET’S PRAY...)
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Now, I left vv10-26 of ch.11 in there for you as a historical bridge from the tower of Babel story we left off with last week; we’re not gonna examine it in depth, not because genealogies aren’t important, they ARE. That was our very first sermon in the new year, you remember, back in January, in the “Tough Texts” series. Genealogies were in the ancient world, and still ARE, VERY important. But for sake of time, I just want you to notice one important TREND here, in the family tree. This graphic ought to highlight it for you. Do you notice anything about that chart? Especially in those last 10 generations from Shem up to Abram, here in chapter 11’s genealogy… notice the SHRINKING lifespans of the post-Flood patriarchs. Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is DEATH”, and this genealogical record is case in point.
-the average life expectancy before the Flood was 858 years
-AFTER the Flood: 300 years
-And of course today, worldwide it’s 72.6 years… The farther we get from the FALL, the more this VIRUS we call “sin” has spread, and sin brings with it, DEATH.
But into that BLEAK situation, God steps in and acts, by CALLING this descendant of Shem named Abram, here in ch.12, v1. And what does God CALL Abram… to DO?
In a word, God calls him to “GO”! To “go FROM”, to “Leave”, in Hebrew.
Leave WHAT? 3 things, and follow this, because these are your 3 recurring themes for the entire passage: Abram is called to leave 1) his LAND, 2) his FAMILY, and 3) his BLESSING. His “country”, his “kindred”, and his “father’s house”, his home, that he had been blessed with, essentially everything he has ever known and loved.
Okay, so where’s he headed? End of v1: “he’s not sure”. “To the land that I will show you”, God says; “I’ll let you know when we get there”. This is the ULTIMATE step of faith into the unknown. And to understand JUST how radical this step of faith would have been for Abram, we have to understand a bit more of his background. We read in ch.11, v31 that he was originally from “Ur of the Chaldeans”. Ur was the capital city of Sumeria, in southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, and it was basically the HEIGHT of human civilization at that time, 21st c. BC. It was right at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the sweet spot of the Fertile Crescent; some speculate it was built near or even ON the ruins of the Tower of Babel from ch.11. Sumerian is the first language that shows up in our archaeological records today. So Ur was the epicenter of human innovation. And God says, I want you to leave THAT land, and all its comforts you’ve grown accustomed to; our first idol from last week.
But God called Abram to leave more than just his LAND behind. 700 years later, Joshua will lead the Israelites BACK into the promised land, and he renews their covenant with God, and includes this interesting detail for us: “Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates,[a] Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.” (Joshua 24:2) That is the context for every Christian family’s favorite doorway plaque verse: “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”, Joshua 24:15. In context, Joshua is recognizing that the Israelites actually had OPTIONS, competing, rival gods! And up to this point, Abram had been a polytheistic PAGAN. Before Yahweh called him, Abram served other gods, probably the moon god in particular, whose center of worship was located in the city of Ur, and who was aptly named “Sin”. When Archaeologist Leonard Woolley unearthed the remains of Ur in 1927, he discovered the temple ziggurat where SIN was worshipped, remnants of human sacrifices offered to appease him. THAT’S what Abram was leaving behind.
But NOW note what God promises Abram if he ANSWERS this call: LAND… FAMILY… and BLESSING!
1) LAND: v1: “go… to the land I will show you”; v5 identifies it as “the land of Canaan”. Ch.10, v19 has already laid out its boundaries. Centuries later, just before Joshua’s reclaiming of the land, he sends out spies who give us even more detail about it: it’s a GOOD land. A land flowing with milk and honey. We call it the “Promised Land”, because God includes it here as Abram’s inheritance in v7: “To your offspring I will give this land”. Secondly...
2) FAMILY: God promises Abram in v2: “I will make of you a great nation”, people, family. A promise once again supported by God’s pledge of “offspring” in v7. What a WONDERFUL promise, for this 75 year old man, whose 65 year old wife Sarai, we found out in ch.11, v30 “was barren; she had no child.” Children were EVERYTHING in the ancient world! No children meant no domestic work force, no retirement plan; these were the days before nursing homes and social safety nets. Not to mention the social stigma of being barren; in the ancient world they considered you cursed by God. And lastly, God promises Abram...
3) BLESSING: notice the 4-fold PROGRESSION of blessing through vv2-3: “I will bless you [personally] and make your name great, [but I’ll go BEYOND that and I’ll make you…] a blessing [to others]. 3 [In FACT, I’ll even myself directly…] bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and [fourthly, ULTIMATELY…] in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
That sounds like a pretty amazing promise, right? But the big question for Abram is: “Can I TRUST it?” Can I TRUST this God, this NEW God, Yahweh, to follow through? And I think we’ve got to assume that the fact that Yahweh is actually SPEAKING to him must have given Abram confidence. After 75 years of sacrificing human beings to his conspicuously SILENT moon god, Sin, Abram was longing for something more, something REAL. And this God SPEAKS. So without so much as a QUESTION, we hear in v4: “Abram went, as the Lord had told him”. And thus begins Abram’s successes, his “causes for celebration”:
1) He trusted God, left his old life behind, and WENT TO the land, to which God had called him. V5: “they set out to go to the land of Canaan...” And who’s the “they”
2) v5: “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”. Now, it’s one thing to trust God for yourself; it’s another thing to risk your entire FAMILY’S life on it! In fact, commentators think that “the people that they had acquired in Haran” weren’t slaves, as we might assume from the phrasing, but rather proselytes. They were CONVERTS, to Abram’s new monotheistic faith. He had been evangelizing en route to Canaan, and won other Yahweh followers, who joined his new spiritual family.
3) And thirdly, to round out the triumphs, what does Abram do when he arrives IN the land? V7: “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.” This is MASSIVELY significant. This is the first time God has visibly appeared to anyone since Adam & Eve thousands of years ago, back in the Garden. So Abram commemorates this sacred moment by building an altar, and then a second altar in v8, so he can offer sacrifices, the default mode of worship in the ancient world.
Now, before we get to the BAD news, we ought to just take another moment to appreciate just how monumental this step of FAITH was for Abram. There is a reason he is mentioned more than almost ANY other character in the Bible. That he’s the ONLY person to be called a “friend of God”, 3x in Scripture! (James 2:23; 2 Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8). There’s a reason Abram was uniquely celebrated by the people of Israel in the book of Nehemiah, at THEIR covenant renewal ceremony, they shout: “God chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and… found his heart faithful before you” (Neh 9:7-8)
But there’s just one problem, for anyone wondering if maybe, just MAYBE, Abram is Eve’s promised offspring who will finally break the curse of sin: as LAUDABLE as his faith is, he’s seen as a PILLAR of faith throughout the rest of the Bible; Hebrews 11, the so-called “Hall of Faith” chapter, devotes more verses to Abraham than any other figure from the OT… he is the Michael Jordan of faith. But we discover in the SECOND half of Genesis 12, that he’s actually more like the LeBron James, because when things get tough, Abraham crumbles under the pressure. 1 Peter 1 says God let’s us face “various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory” (vv6-7), but in ABRAM’S case, when the heat gets cranked up, the impurities in his faith get exposed.
Specifically, he faces 3 Challenges, that crank the heat up:
1) The challenge to Abram’s LAND: Namely, he never actually gets to LIVE in it. Heb 11:9 notes of Abram, that “he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob”. Abram eventually builds FOUR different altars for God, but never a single HOME for himself. God had promised him the land as his inheritance, but remember v7: “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram left the comforts of Ur to become a wandering, homeless NOMAD. And he ENDS his meandering tour of the land somewhat forebodingly in v9: “still going toward the Negeb.” The desert. The wilderness. The same wilderness where the ISRAELITES’ faith would be tested and FAIL, 700 years later on their way BACK to the Promised Land, after their exodus from Egypt.
2) Challenge to his FAMILY: Over time, God’s promise of offspring, we hear in ch.15: “descendants as numerous as the STARS”, that’s got to start to sting for Abram, as the years go by, it’s a painful reminder that he still doesn’t HAVE any offspring. He’s already 75 years old when he leaves home, but Isaac won’t be born to him for another 25 years! Meanwhile, God just keeps reminding him, ch12, ch15, ch17, of ALL the kids he’s gonna have. Abram eventually LAUGHS at God, in frustration, in ch.17 - like, “God, would you EITHER make it happen already and finally give me a child, or quit rubbing it IN please?!” And finally...
3) There’s the challenge to Abram’s BLESSING: v.10, we hear: “Now there was a famine in the land… the famine was severe”
So here’s poor Abram, wandering through the DESERT, not exactly flowing with milk and honey, STILL no kids, it’s unclear how many years have passed at this point, but likely quite a few, when a severe FAMINE hits! And Abram’s got to be thinking to himself: “Umm, God, remember all those great promises you made… That sounded so WONDERFUL…?!”
So what does Abram do? 3 Collapses in his Faith:
First, the Failure with regard to his LAND: he LEAVES it. V10: “There was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there”. Did God TELL him to go to Egypt? This is the first time in the story that Abram acts of his OWN accord, doesn’t follow God’s lead. Pastor Kent Hughes comments: “Abram did the natural thing, and herein the problem lies. There is no mention that he sought God’s will in the matter. The famine had created the fear of starvation, and Abram then instinctively moved to allay his fear, without reference to God’s will. Given what then befell him, it is apparent that if he had solicited God’s will, the story would have been quite different. Abram’s going to Egypt was not so much an intentional sin as it was a reflexive turn to his own devices. He did not deny God; he simply forgot him.” (Genesis, 189) And I’m trying to save our personal application for the end, but it’s so hard…! I HOPE that resonates with someone else: doing the “natural thing... reflexive turn to my own devices… trusting in my own instincts, myself instead of God, FORGETTING God… Anyone else?
This famine-induced sojourn to Egypt foreshadows the migration of Jacob’s family there at the END of the book of Genesis, and most of us are familiar with how THAT trip turned out for the Israelites. 400 years in slavery!
But the fact is, Abram had actually failed the test of faith LONG before this trip to Egypt. Look back again at ch.11, v31: “Terah took Abram his son… 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.” Ironically enough, the place-name Haran means “DELAY”. Now, we’re not told how LONG Abram “delayed” in Haran, but it was at least long enough to witness and win those converts we heard about in v5. It was long enough that Abram’s FATHER, Teran, decided in v32 he’d just settle down and eventually DIE there. Remember: the Bible isn’t always concerned with chronology in its story-telling, so even though God’s call of Abram at the beginning of ch.12 reads like a new event, some of your Bibles have a little footnote by the verb there: “Now the Lord SAID to Abram”... to inform you of the alternate reading, “the Lord HAD said to Abram”... because as Stephen makes clear in Acts ch.7: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’” (Acts 7:2-3). So here’s your map: Now, admittedly, Abram’s detour wasn’t as bad as JONAH’S, when God called him to go to Ninevah to the East, and instead Jonah boards a ship headed for Tarshish, the exact OPPOSITE direction, to the West. In Abram’s case, Haran is… KIND OF… on the way to Canaan. I mean, it’s like on the way in the same way that me swinging by Chick-Fil-A in the Valley is “on the way” from my house at Ladue and 141, “on my way” to work here at the church at 40 and Mason; you know, I’ve got to get on the highway ANYWAY, it’s just a couple exits over…
So that kind of puts Abram’s “faithful obedience” to leave his home in Ur to go to Canaan in perspective… he made it there… eventually… took the scenic route, right? I mean, who wants to travel across that Syrian Desert, after all. Friends, are you reading yourself into the character of Abram yet? Justifying your OWN partial obedience. Defending the detours YOU take from God’s calling on your life...
2) The Collapse of Abram’s FAMILY: What happens when they GET to Egypt? Vv11-16: “When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, [Now remember: Sarai is 65 years old at this point, but HEY - when you got it, you got it; am I right… 65 is the new 35… maybe when you live to be 175! So he says...] 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.”
Abram’s FEAR prevailed over his FAITH, and he sells his wife out to save his own skin; Abram asks Sarai to literally become, pardon the expression, a “lying whore”, she gets taken as a concubine in Pharaoh's harem, so that Abram can be NOT ONLY SPARED, but he actually PROFITS, he gets RICH off the whole scheme. It’s absolutely reprehensible. Worst of all, Abram doesn’t even learn from this mistake; he’s gonna do the exact same thing again in ch.20 when they sojourn in Gerar; in fact, Abram confesses that he hatched this plan back when they first LEFT Ur, and they’ve been pulling this stunt at “every place to which they’ve come”! Perhaps THAT’S how he REALLY “acquired” all the people and possessions we heard about back in v5. Prostituting his WIFE out.
3) Third is the Collapse of Abram’s BLESSING: This man, who was supposed to be a “blessing to all families of the earth” has become a PLAGUE to the Egyptians. v17: “But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.” Once AGAIN foreshadowing the Egyptian plagues 650 years later with Moses.
But even ABRAM’s OWN alleged blessings - his dowry gifts from Pharaoh - weren’t so blessed after all; Kent Hughes notes: “The ill-gotten gain caused huge trouble in the following years, first in the strife with Lot’s herdsmen (ch.13 for next week), and then through a young Egyptian woman named Hagar, who was likely one of the maidservants given to Abram by Pharaoh (that’ll be ch16 a few weeks from now).” (Genesis, 192)
But let’s try and bring all this TOGETHER now: What IS the application in all of this, for us, today? What’s our takeaway? That we should “be an Abram”? People of bold faith, willing to leave everything behind for God?
-I can’t help but hear the words of Matt Chandler’s now-famous sermon echoing through my mind: “YOU’RE NOT DAVID!” If you haven’t listened to that sermon, I URGE you, just Google for Matt Chandler’s 7-minute “The Bible is not about you” sermon clip on youtube. But here’s the point: you’re NOT Abram. Listen: I don’t care HOW strong you think YOU’RE faith is, I guarantee you haven’t left behind HALF of what Abram gave up, for God’s sake. To step out into the unknown in faith. It’s no contest. YOU’RE NOT ABRAM. Even WITH his collapses. You wanna judge Abram for his failures in vv10-20 here? Go ahead and read James 1:2-4 and try and tell me that YOU pass the test of faith with flying colors: “Count it all joy, my brothers,[b] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Is YOUR faith “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”? Do YOU “count it all joy” when YOUR faith is tested? Has it just been a non-stop Coronavirus party at YOUR house for the past 2 months of quarantine? “Praise GOD for this test of faith!”
Friends, you and I are no better than Abram. That’s why we need a “better Abram”. Did you hear me? You’re no better than Abram; and that’s exactly why you NEED a better Abram. A better covenant, that doesn’t factor in your faithlessness to it, cuz you’ll break it every chance you GET! You and I need a better covenant-KEEPER, than us.
And listen to how JESUS described himself and HIS promise to us in John ch.8: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? ...Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”” (John 8:51-58) “I am”, by the way, was how Yahweh had revealed HIMSELF to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus ch.3. Make no mistake: Jesus just claimed to be GOD.
HE is the long-awaited offspring of the woman who will bear and break the curse of sin.
He is ABRAM’S promised offspring: the apostle Paul explains: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.” (3:16)
Friends: JESUS is the better Abram, who left his GLORIOUS home in heaven, everything HE knew and loved, and sacrificed it ALL in perfect obedience to God the Father. He is the one of whom Galatians 3:8 says, “the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify[c] the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”” Jesus is Abram’s offspring, 42 generations down the family line, who FINALLY makes good on God’s promise to bless all the NATIONS through him.
You want LAND? How about HEAVEN for a home?!
You want FAMILY? How about GOD for a Father, JESUS for a brother; his church - his people, an whole new family of brothers and sisters, who have also been ADOPTED into this beautiful new spiritual family, by faith.
You want BLESSING? How does SALVATION & ETERNAL LIFE sound?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him - Abraham BELIEVED God, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness; we’ll get to that more 2 weeks from now; God’s plan has ALWAYS been justification by faith alone in God’s grace alone - whoever BELIEVES shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
-But friends: like Abram, God is CALLING you this morning. He’s calling you to “GO”! To LEAVE your old life behind, in order to find NEW life in Christ. Jesus said, “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his SOUL?” (Luke 9:24-25)
So I ask you this morning: have YOU taken that step of faith, and left it ALL, for JESUS? All other ground is sinking sand. Trust him today. Let’s pray...