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The Call Of Abraham: Genesis 12:1-8

August 24, 2008

The message given to Abraham

Genesis 12:1-4 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation [the nation of Israel]; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Abraham leaves for Canaan

Genesis 11:31-32 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32 So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

God brought Abraham out of the Ur

Nehemiah 9:7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;

The New Testament commentary on Abraham’s call

Acts 7:2-4 And he [Stephen] said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia [Ur of Chaldeans], before he dwelt in Haran, 3 "and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.' 4 "Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.

Only Abraham was called

Isaiah 51:2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

By faith Abraham…obeyed…he went out

Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

He was strong in faith – fully persuaded of the promise

Romans 4:20-21 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

The God of glory appeared to Abraham

Acts 7:2-4 And he [Stephen] said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia [Ur of Chaldeans], before he dwelt in Haran,

A Messianic title

Psalm 29:3,10 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. 10 The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.

The command to separate

Genesis 12:1-4 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out [Qal imperative; Lxx aorist, active, imperative] of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.

The promises

Genesis 12:2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

To be fulfilled in the kingdom of God

Matthew 8:11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

Abraham received not the promises

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob], not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Abraham left Haran and went into Canaan

Genesis 12:4-7 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Abraham the Hebrew

Genesis 14:13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew;

By faith he sojourned in tents

Hebrews 11:9-10 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles [tents] with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.