Monday, Feb. 18

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Monday

Genesis 11:27-32 - This is the account of Terah.  Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.  While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.  Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.  Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.  Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.  

Genesis 12:1 - The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

Abraham is first introduced to us in the closing verses of Genesis 11 and the opening verses of Genesis 12. His name was originally Abram, and it was not until years later that it was changed to Abraham.  In Hebrew, Abram means “exalted father” (Daddy), Abraham means “father on many” (Big Daddy).  There is no doubt that Abraham is incredibly significant in the history of our faith. Even from a secular perspective, Abraham is a big deal, he is a towering figure in the history of civilization.  Monotheism is kind of taken for granted by most people today, but it was not so in Abraham’s day.  He went against his family, his culture, and the conventional wisdom of his day.  Today, the three major world religions all claim Abraham as their spiritual father; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

What made Abraham so great?  How did he become this remarkable figure on the world stage?  What gave him such great faith and courage?  

Simply put, it was the call of God!  The call of God shaped and defined his life, it formed him into the father of our faith!

The story of Abraham, how the call of God came to him, his response, and what happened to him as a result have tremendous importance for us, not just in a historical sense, but also in that it serves as a kind of metaphor for the life we are called to live in Christ. Woven throughout the story of Abraham are many wonderful references to Christ. Some are obvious and some are more subtle. But they all point to Jesus.
I have often made the mistake of beginning the story of Abraham in chapter 12. But the last few verses of chapter 11 tell us some very important information.

Genesis 3-11 tells the story of a kind of downward spiral of the human race. Since the Garden, things are getting worse. Genesis 4 - first murder, Genesis 6 – flood, Genesis 11 – Tower of Babel. People are turning away from God. They have forgotten and no longer know of the one true God, with the exception of a single family line, the line of Seth (Gen. 4).
But even this faithful family line was deteriorating into false worship. Ur of the Chaldeans was the center of lunar worship at the time – the last family has forgotten God. 

Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.  - Joshua 24:2

Walter Bruggerman (commentary on Genesis): “The barrenness of Sarah is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. This text (Gen. 11:27 – 12:1) tells us that there is no foreseeable future and no human power to invent a future.” It’s a dead end.

They have lost God spiritually and because of Sarah’s barrenness, it is nearing the end biologically. Spiritually speaking, all human history has come to a dead end...and then the call of God comes!

This is the power of the call of God. Abraham was in the best family on the earth, but without the call of God, he is spiritually dead, hopeless. It does not matter your family (good or bad). Each must answer the call!

We are all at a spiritual dead end without the call of God! So the call of god is absolutely critical to the Christian life.

Jeff Frazier