Abram Believed the Lord – Genesis 12

A text – Genesis 12:1-9

12:1 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.
12:2 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.
12:3 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.”
12:4 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.
12:5 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,
12:6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
12:7 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.
12:8 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 the name of the Lord.
12:9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

A reflection:

On the word of the Lord, Abram picked up and moved far away. He brought with him his wife and his brother and nephew and their possessions. They bought more people and goods along the way and settled in an entirely different country, believing that they would be blessed by the God who had promised all this to Abram. They were to be the founders of a great nation – their children’s children were to be God’s chosen ones. All this took place when Abram and his wife were over 70.

God found the man he wanted to build a country out of. God had had relationships with humans before. Some were even recorded in the scriptures, like Adam, and Cain, and Noah. But through this man, Abram, through him and his descendants God wanted to bless the whole human race. He must have been a really great listener and arguer with the Lord. He must have enjoyed the Lord’s company and been glad to deepen his relationship with God.

This willingness to believe, this eagerness to be in relationship marked Abram as the man God wanted to be the father of nations. And indeed God kept those promises and blessed Abram with a son who had children, who had children. A great nation was born. Through it all Abram remained God’s faithful follower and was devoted to the Lord and taught his child and grandchildren to be devoted, too.  And through them we have all been blessed.

A prayer:

Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Help us to remember Abram’s faithfulness in his relationship with you. Help us to be faithful, too, in our attention to you, in our listening and arguing with you, and in our trust that you love us.  Amen.