Genesis chapter 12 begins the greatest adventure ever experienced. Verse 1 introduces it to us, “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.’” It’s God’s call to Abraham to forsake his life in Ur of the Chaldees to follow God’s call to a new place that he cannot see. The rest of the chapter contains the specifics of that call to leave it all and walk forward in a life of faith. He promised to bless Abraham. To make Abraham prosperous. To bless his descendants. To make him famous in the entire world in every generation. To bless everyone who blesses him and to curse all his enemies. All Abraham had to do was trust God! As the story of Abram, who becomes Abraham continues, we learn the most important lesson in life: We can trust God.
This account has long range effects on all the writers of the New Testament. The call of one man who will become the nation of God’s people as well as the father of all who have faith is a story that headlines the three major religions in the world. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all look back to Abraham as their father. Strassner observes, “When we read about God’s calling of Abram, we are not simply given a lesson in history. We are actually tracing a story line that takes us all the way to the Lord Jesus himself. So the calling of Abram—the beginning of the nation of Israel—is a story of tremendous significance.”1
God’s promises to Abraham are all unconditional. The phrase “I will” that God uses is in direct contrast to the previous story concerning the tower of Babel. There it was all about what man would do! Here it’s all about what God will do. There are at least seven of them.
- I will give your offspring this land
- I will show you a land.
- I will make you into a great nation
- I will bless you.
- I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.
- I will bless those who bless you.
- I will curse those who curse you.
Here is the message of Genesis. God is worthy of our trust. Adam and Eve failed to trust God. Cain failed to trust God. Lamech failed to trust God. The whole world in Noah’s day failed to trust God. Since they did not find God trustworthy, they disobeyed. God would now show the world how trustworthy he is as he calls Abraham, the father of those who trust God. Abraham hears God’s call, trusts God to keep his promises, and obeys by following God’s directions. The rest of the book of Genesis will show us how God keeps his promises to Abraham and his descendants. The message of Genesis is God is trustworthy! He will keep his promises. By the way, God hasn’t changed. You and I can trust him also. He will keep his promises!
1 Kurt Strassner, Opening up Genesis, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009), 60–61.