The Call of Abram

Genesis 12:1-9

The Bible has taken us through the descendants of Noah to Abram (later to become Abraham).

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. 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 the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

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. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. 

When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 

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. From there he moved on 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 invoked [preached] the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Plain instructions from God to Abram:

• Go from your country (check - departing Haran)
• Go from your kindred (oops, except for Lot, and the persons they had acquired in Haran)
• Go from your father's house (check)
• Go to a land I will show you (check - heading for Canaan)

And promises and blessings from God.  When Abram arrived in Canaan, the LORD appeared to him. And another blessing from God to Abram's offspring.  Still no signs on conversation with the LORD -- this is all God speaking, and Abram listening and doing.

Canaan was the son of Ham - the one cursed by Noah to be a slave to the family line for Shem and Japeth. Abram is descended through Shem's line. Is God sending Noah to enslave the Canaanites?

Maybe the reaction of Abram to God's presence doesn't sound like prayer to a modern mind - so much of our speaking with God consists of complaints and wish lists.  Is Abram so settled in his spirit that he is willing to simply listen to the word of the LORD and follow it?

Abram isn't walking in perfection before the LORD.  He's not completely following God's instructions, and he's about to tell a big whopper to Pharoah about his wife Sarai.  Liar, liar, robes on fire.

But he's still God's man on the scene.