Genesis 12

Here begins the history of the O.T. Israel, the Chosen People, through whom God would bring in the Messiah to make an atonement for sin and to establish the spiritual kingdom of heaven, the heavenly device by which God would enable fallen mankind to renew fellowship with their Creator and escape the judgment of death, the sentence already imposed upon Adam's rebellious race following the disaster in Eden. All of this began with the call of Abraham related in this chapter (Genesis 12:1-9). Genesis 12 also records a sinful lapse of the great patriarch in the events of his unwise trip down into Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20).

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM

Importance of. It would be nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the call of Abraham, the Friend of God, the Father of the Faithful, a man so important that he actually stands in the Bible as a type of Almighty God himself. All the saved of all ages are in a specific and genuine sense "the children of Abraham" (Galatians 3:29). In the great and universal drama of God's "Operation Rescue," Abraham corresponds to Noah, by means of whom God bridged the gap between the antediluvian and the post-diluvian worlds. It was by means of the choice of Abraham that God likewise bridged the tremendous gulf between the second great apostasy of humanity and the rising of that Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings - our Lord Jesus Christ. Following the extremely significant departure of Adam's race from the path of duty in the events of Babel, the situation revealed every proof that a second worldwide debauchery was already in progress, but, as God had promised never more to destroy the whole world with a flood, the necessity of taking some other action became acute. That other action was the call of Abraham.

The First Call. God first called Abram while he was living in the pagan city of Ur of the Chaldees (Acts 7:2-4), and although the Bible does not give the specific nature of that call as first delivered, the exact nature of it was given in the second instance of it which came in Haran. It should not be thought strange that the call came twice. "The word of the Lord came the second time unto Jonah" (Jonah 3:1), and, of course, it was exactly the same word that came the first time. We are therefore fully justified in the conclusion that God did not vary the call, and there was no need to change or amend it, and that the account of it in the record of the repeated call in Haran likewise describes the first call. Such a conclusion also serves to explain why the second call became necessary. In the first, God had commanded Abram to leave his native land, his kindred, and his father's house, etc., but, for some reason, Terah was not left in Ur, but accompanied Abram. This would appear to be the reason why, instead of going to Canaan as was their stated intention upon their departure from Ur, they went to Haran and settled there! See further comment on this under Genesis 11:30.

The Second Call. Inherent in the fact of the emigrants having settled down in Haran was the truth that, to this point, Abram had NOT fully obeyed the commandment of God; hence, the necessity for the second call which apparently came following the death of Terah. Abram no doubt found it extremely difficult to say "goodbye" to his father's house. And there would seem to have been a special dispensation of mercy on God's part that he should have delayed the second call until after Terah died. Such a delay affords a strong presumptive evidence that Terah was the big hindrance. After all, he was an idolater (Joshua 24:2). That was not the last time that God's plans for humanity were forced into a period of waiting until after some human hindrance had been laid to rest in the grave!

The Command to Abram. "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee" (Genesis 12:1). The ascending and climactic nature of this commandment reveals what an act of faith it was on Abraham's part that he promptly obeyed it, however imperfectly, at first. The comment from Hebrews 11:8-10, is:

"By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

The great test in such a commandment consisted, not merely in the leaving of loved ones and kindred, but in the uncertainty of going "not knowing whither he went." The grand dimensions of Abraham's faith appear in the fact that "he went out." "Abraham, when he was called, obeyed!" The silly notion that Abraham pleased God "by faith only," as actually stated in some of the current, corrupt translations of the N.T., is denied by everything concerning this patriarch. True, his faith saved him; but it was always and ever an OBEDIENT faith.

The Seven-fold Promise. This great compound of seven elements is referred to above in the passage from Hebrews as "the promise," that is the great, universal and perpetual promise (See Galatians 3:29). The elements of it are:

I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee. And I will make thy name great. And be thou a blessing; And I will bless them that bless thee. And I will curse him that curseth thee, And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:2,3).

We shall comment on the fulfillment of these in the text below; but it should be noted here that the benefit and blessing of all men were the clearly stated objectives of this call from its inception. There was never anything purely racial in God's election of the Chosen People.

Why God Chose Abraham. In God's choice of Abraham, the principle of election is discernible. The theory held by some to the effect that God's election is in any sense irrational or capricious is untenable. God elected Noah to provide a new beginning for sinful humanity. And why did God do that? Because of the kind of man that Noah was. He walked with God; he was a preacher of righteousness; he was obedient to God's instructions, etc. In the same manner, God's election of Abraham as a means leading to the salvation of all people must undoubtedly be understood as having been founded in the very best of logical and compelling reasons. Where was there another in all the world whose shoulders were broad enough to carry such a load as would rest upon the shoulders of Abraham? In him there was also the ability to rear a family who would respect and honor, not merely himself, but the God of heaven whom he loved and worshipped. The Bible emphatically states as much:

"For I have known him (Abraham), to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice" (Genesis 18:19).

Thus, God chose Abraham, because, among other reasons, Abraham would be able to keep alive, through his posterity, the knowledge of God upon the earth. It need hardly be said that such a quality is sadly lacking among most of the Gentiles, and indeed among all men.

Who Are the Sons of Abraham Today? Do these promises apply to the seed of Abraham today? Indeed, yes, but a word of caution is necessary regarding just WHO are the sons of Abraham. No racial considerations whatever can enter into the answer to such a question. That was the fatal mistake of the Pharisees who boasted that, "Our father is Abraham" (John 8:39). However, our Lord Jesus Christ gave them the correct definition of just who are Abraham's children, saying, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham ... Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do" (John 8:44). Christ further added that the TRUE sons of Abraham would love him (Christ) and keep his commandments. The "sons of Abraham," therefore, in all generations must be identified not by blood lines, but by the criterion of whether or not they are believers in God and the followers of his Only Begotten Son. Under the old covenant, the true sons of Abraham were identified as those of like faith and disposition of Abraham, and under that criterion, the Edomites and many other were excluded, despite the fact of their being literally and racially Abraham's posterity. The sons of Abraham throughout the current dispensation of God's grace are composed exclusively of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:26-29). None are either excluded or included on solely blood or racial considerations.