After reading the first eleven chapters of Genesis, you might begin to wonder if God will give up on the human race. After a perfect creation in chapters one and two, you read about the first sin in Genesis 3 and the first murder in Genesis 4. In Genesis 6, we see that sin is so bad among humanity that God starts all over with a man named Noah. Then in chapter 11, we see the pride of mankind in the Tower of Babel incident.
If I were God, I would have run completely out of patience by that point.
Genesis 12, though, shows us that God still has plans for mankind. Instead of giving up on humans, God intends to create a people for himself, a people who will in turn be a source of blessing to all of humanity.
God starts this process by speaking to a man named Abram, whose name means “exalted father,” and he gives Abram one command — “Go.”
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 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. 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.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
God tells Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household, and go to an unknown, unfamiliar place. Suddenly, Abram asks himself the same question The Clash asked way back in 1982, “Should I stay or should I go?”
Abram lives in a place called Haran, where he is well-known and respected. He has lots of contacts in Haran. He has a great network of friends and business associates. Haran is comfortable. It’s safe.
Suddenly he’s told to go away to a place he doesn’t know, where there is no network, no family, no contacts, where no one knows or respects him.
I can relate to this, having uprooted and moved to a different state twice now. It isn’t easy to start over in a new place where you know no one.
But the entire story of the nation of Israel is based on what happens in Genesis 12:4 — “So Abram went.” At 75 years old, Abram so trusted God that he left everything he knew and followed God in faith.
More on that in a moment, but first ponder with me those first three verses of Genesis 12. These verses are vitally important in our understanding of the Bible and of God’s plan for his people. Here we find the Abrahamic Covenant, a binding agreement between God and Abram. God promises to make Abram’s descendants into a great nation, to bless Abram, to make him a great name, and to make him a blessing to all nations.
What does God get in return? God gets someone to bless. God gets people who will bring God the glory he is due (see Isaiah 49:3 and Jeremiah 13:11).
God chose to save a people for himself, and through them to bring his light to the rest of the world in order to bring glory to himself, which is the ultimate goal of all creation. God is going to create the nation of Israel from Abram, but he is not promising to bless Israel for Israel’s sake. He promises to bless his people so that through them all the world will be blessed. His people are to be a witness of God to the whole world.
But let’s move from the grandness of God’s plan back to the reality of the moment for Abram. The fact is that he is really old, and so is his wife Sarai, and they have no children. How in the world can his descendants become a great nation when he has no descendants? God knows this is on Abram’s mind, so he gives Abram a little confidence boost.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6)
Genesis 15:6 is so important that it’s quoted four times in the New Testament (Romans 4:3, 22; Galatians 3:6, and James 2:23). Abram’s faith was so strong, his complete trust in God so real, that he was willing to obey God in every area of his life. But even before he can prove himself to be righteous by the things he does, he’s considered to be righteous because of his faith.
Look again at the covenant that God made with Abram back in Genesis 12:1-3. In Abram’s day, when two people made a covenant, they would take animals and cut them into two pieces and set the two pieces next to each other, side by side. Then they would walk between the pieces of the animal as if to say, “May I be just like this animal if I break this covenant.” This was called “cutting a covenant,” and, unlike signing a contract, when you cut a covenant blood was shed. It was a very serious thing to do.
God is now going to show Abram just how serious he is by cutting the covenant himself.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. (Genesis 15:17)
God had previously told Abram to gather the necessary animals and to cut them in two. Now God himself passed between the pieces of the dead animals that Abram had prepared, in essence saying, “I will keep my covenant with you, and if I don’t, may I be like these dead animals.” This is God signing the contract himself because his promise to Abram is unconditional, it’s one-sided. Abram didn’t have to sign, because it’s God who is making the promise. It was God’s way of reminding Abram, and us, that God always keeps his promises. He is the God of the covenant, the great promise keeper, the One who can always be trusted.
God has called Abram to follow him, he has made an incredible promise to him, and he has signed that promise by cutting the covenant. And it was all possible because when he was called, “Abram went.”
How are you at “going”?
What is God calling you to? What is he calling you to walk away from? Maybe a fear, or a sin? Or comfort and safety? God is calling you right now to follow him wherever he leads you. It may or may not involve a physical move, but he’s calling you to follow him completely.
Are you ready to trust the great promise keeper? Are you ready to follow?