Today we start the story of faith and redemption.
It was part of God’s redemptive plan to use Abram and his ancestors to bring salvation to the world.
As we see from Abram’s story—the leaving of his father’s house, childlessness, and other difficulties—sometimes following God’s plan is filled with uncertainty, suffering, and pain.
A big question of those both inside and outside the faith is “Why Israel?”
Text: 12:1–9
This text follows the story of redemption by revealing the origins of God’s “chosen people”.
On the path to fulfilling His promise of redemption in Genesis 3, God chose a man named Abram to be the ancestor of a great nation.
This nation would change the course of the entire world.
God’s promise: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
Israel would be a lighthouse of God’s love to the entire world, and eventually, the Messiah would come from this chosen nation.
Their story is the story of God preparing the world for His Son.
Like Abram, we can’t always see a wide-angle view of God’s plan.
Still, we must trust God even during times of uncertainty, suffering, and pain.
This seemingly unremarkable man hears the call of God, and the Scriptures give us no indication that Abram has heard of God before.
And in response to this call to leave everything he knows, Abram goes (12:4).
He set out in faith, not knowing where he was going, or even why he was going, except that God had commanded him.
He defied both the inner propensities of human nature and the outer pressures of cultural conformity that call us in the opposite direction: to journey from the unknown to the known, from what we do not have to what we think we want and need, from the strange and the unpredictable to the safe and the secure, and from mere promises to human guarantees.
Abraham acted whole-heartedly but without absolute certainty, we demand certainty and act timidly.
This God who has called Abram also makes two promises to him:
- That he will give the land of the Caananites to Abram’s offspring (Genesis 12:7).
- That his offspring will be like the stars of the sky (15:5).
Abram’s response is to believe the Lord, and God “counted it to him as righteousness” (15:6).
Abraham really believed in the promise of Yahweh.
The story of Abraham will show, despite the sterility of old age, the time that had passed, and the order to sacrifice his son, that Abraham kept steady and firm in the promise of the Lord.
Abraham’s faith was demonstrated in his actions.
That is why James refers to the works of Abraham when faced with the truth of Paul’s faith.
Genesis 15:7–11, 17–18 contains the ritual used to confirm the covenant.
Sometimes we don’t understand what God is doing.
Sometimes we need to trust being in the presence of God.