April 3, 2023
Reading: Genesis 11:10-32; Genesis 12:1-9
Focus: Genesis 12:1-3 – The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whosoever curses you I will curse, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Father God, Thank You for this Easter season. Help us to remember that it’s not about the eggs or bunnies but it is about the empty tomb. Hosana to the King of Kings. In Jesus Name. Amen.
NOTES: To read ‘The Reason for Easter’ please click the link below. Please comment and subsctibe. Thank you. https://bringingjesusn2focus.com/2023/04/04/notes-the-reason-for-easter/
I know. More genealogies but bear with me for a minute. These genealogies are important. They will always show the unbroken line of the ancestors of Jesus. Since Adam, and then Noah, people knew that God punished sin. Still, they kept turning away from Him. Only a handful of people kept the faith. Abram’s family was part of that handful. It is important that we know that Abram, while he followed God and was faithful to Him, he was still a man, with human failings. However, he listened to God and followed His call. There are 11 generations (about 400 years) between Noah and Abraham. And each of those generations lists one son of the direct line of Jesus and each had other sons and daughters. That could be a huge amount of people, considering that they were to “be fruitful and multiply,” right? I don’t even want to try to guess just how many descendants that Shem had. Suffice it to say it was a bunch.
The Bible then draws the wide lens down to a narrow one. It points to Terah, Abram’s father. Terah had three sons and they were living in Ur of the Chaldees, which is believed to be on the western side of the Arabian desert about 150 miles northeast of the Persian Gulf on the Euphrates River. OK, that tells me exactly where it is. Well, not really. I still need a map with the location marked in red to find it. Haran, one of the brothers died. The other two married. Terah took his son, Abram and his wife Sarai, and his grandson, Lot (son of the deceased brother) and left Ur of the Chaldees for Canaan. Abram’s brother, Nahor stayed behind. Remember this man’s name, we will see it again in a future blog. Terah had good intentions but when they reached Harran, he decided to settle and he died there.
Some scholars will tell you that Abram was not a Godly man before God spoke to him to tell him to pack up and leave Harran. I don’t think I believe that. Yes, I know that God will speak to non-believers and they become believers. Wouldn’t you think that God would have chosen a man who believed in Him and followed Him, rather than an out and out heathen? Remember we are looking at the genealogy of Jesus here. It is supposed to be an unbroken line of Godly men. So, don’t tell me that Abram didn’t know God. Why else would he have picked up everything to go where God was directing him?
Ok then, now, imagine this for a minute. You are seventy-five years old and, so far, your life has been pretty good and you know what your plans are. You have a good life in Harran, then, in the night, God speaks to you and it turns your world upside down. Abram was told to pack up everything he had and go to a place that God would lead him to. God didn’t say where he was going; He said He would lead him there. On top of that, God tells him that he would be the father of nations. So far, his wife, Sarai, had been unable to conceive a child and even now she was past childbearing age. Here, in God’s instructions to Abram, is a prophecy that looks to the future and Jesus. God said, “. . . and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3b)
Look at that phrase, Genesis 12:3, “. . . and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” It is from the line of Abram, who was later called Abraham, that Jesus was born. Jesus is the blessing that God was telling Abram about. Jesus came for all nations. Not just the Jews but for all peoples. God had a plan and it was that Jesus would be born to be the salvation of fallen man. It took a man like Abram to answer that call, to be a part of that plan
OK, the moving part wasn’t so bad. Abram could handle that but how could he father a nation when his wife was barren and too old on top of that? So, we have Abram who was willing to make the move but he wasn’t so sure about the “nation” thing. But he packed up his wife and all their possessions, took along his nephew, Lot, and set off. Now these possessions are rather numerous and diverse. The Bible says they took all their possessions AND the people they had acquired in Harran. That caravan had to be huge! That would be like packing up everyone in your neighborhood and taking all your and their possessions and families and moved the who lot of you across the country. It was a big undertaking. But Abram did not question God. He went and everything and everybody went with him.
They reached Canaan, and went as far as Shechem, where the Lord appeared again to Abram. God told him again that the land would be given to his offspring, regardless of who lived there now and regardless of the fact he had no children. Yet. But Abram believed God and built an altar to the Lord there. Abram wandered some more through the land and when he came the Bethel. He built another altar there and called on the Name of the Lord, who led him toward the desert.
Let’s take a closer look at Abram. During these first years of travel and following the direction of God, he doesn’t question what God is saying. I’m sure he thought about it a lot. I know I would have. God said move. Abram packed up and went. God said, “You will be a father of nations.” Abram said “OK.” What would you do or say if God spoke directly to you and said that He wanted you to pack up and move across the country? Would you wonder if you had lost your mind? Or would you do exactly as God asked? Be really honest here. What would you do?
Me? I am not sure. At least, God didn’t ask me to move but He did ask me to write. To share the pictures of Jesus that I see in the Old Testament. To bring others to the awareness that the entire Bible is about Jesus, from first “I” of Genesis 1:1 to the last period of Revelations 22:21. It is the story of people who believe in and followed God no matter the cost. It the story of God’s love for us and His desire that none of us should suffer hell. Hell is real but we don’t have to go there. Jesus is our way out. If we but answer His call and come to belief in Him and salvation. Our choice.
When God calls us to a task, that choice is also ours. He does not make us do anything. Oh, He may prod us a little to get us into line or He may go a different route altogether. The sad thing there is that you may never know the blessings you missed by not answering that call. While growing up, I knew an old Nazarene lady preacher. I spent lots of time talking to her each year at our denomination’s annual meeting. Her name was Rev. Emma Irick. She was a very special lady and a mighty preacher and prayer warrior. She told me that God called her to preach because a man somewhere refused to answer God’s call. That stuck with me. I want to do what God called me to do. That’s the reason I write these blogs. That’s the reason I may go on to write other blogs and maybe, eventually, a devotional book. I am not sure where this first set of blogs will lead me. But I can tell you this, right now, I am driven to share what I see in the Old Testament with others. I don’t have any idea where this is going, but I am going to follow.
Our lives will be that much more fulfilling if we answer God’s call. Listen for His Call. He may call you to preach, to teach, to sing, to write or to be a prayer warrior; or you may be the first person that someone new to your church will be greeted by. That greeting may be the first step to another’s salvation. My mom was never the person to be out in front. She never taught a Sunday School class, stood in the pulpit to address the congregation. She never sang in the choir. Those were not her talents. She took care of the Sunday School records at our church and she decorated the church for holidays. She typed the Sunday School lessons my grandmother wrote. She used the talents that she was given to further God’s Kingdom. God has given each of us talents and I believe that we must use them or lose them. I’ve wasted one in my life. I will not waste any more. God gave talents to each of us for a reason. He has something for each of us to do. Something that will satisfy our longing to do something more for God.
Will you accept the call?
Father, thank You for the call You have for me. I’m sorry that I’ve pushed it off for years. But now, as I write, I feel the leading of Your Spirit. Open my mind and heart to Your leading. Flow Your words through my fingers and onto paper. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Food For Thought
- Why do you think it is so easy to live as if there is no God?
- In the reading, it tells us that Terah was moving his family to Canaan. Why do you think he stopped in Haran?
- God told Abram that he would be the father of nations. Would you be able to believe it if you were 75 and had no children?
- God told Abram to move from Haran to a land He would show him. Could you move somewhere before you even knew where you were going?
- Is God calling you? Has he told you what and where yet?
