The Call of Abraham

I first read this passage in 1974.

I remember the Holy Spirit
quickening this word to my heart.
It was a diving calling that
resonated within my redeemed
spirit and still does today.
 Genesis 12:1-3
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.
 In the previous chapter
we read how that
Abraham’s father Terah had
already moved his family from
Ur of the Chaldeas to Haran.
God strategically positioned
Abram for his calling.
 Principle #1
You have to be separated
from your old lifestyle
in order to receive
God’s promises.
This begins with repentance.
 God strategically removed
Abram from a land of idolatry
to prepare him for his calling.
From what did God
separate you to prepare you
to respond to His call?
What land did He call you to?
 2 And 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.
 3 I will bless those
who bless you,
and him who dishonors
you I will curse,
and in you
all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.”
 3 I will bless those
who bless you,
and him who dishonors
you I will curse,
and in you
all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.”
 Principle #2
All of the families
of the earth are
blessed through faith
in Jesus Christ.
 Galatians 3:14
So that in Christ Jesus
the blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles,
so that we might receive
the promised Spirit
through faith.
 Romans 11:26-27
26 In this way all Israel
will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will
come from Zion,
he will banish
ungodliness from Jacob;
 27 and this will be
my covenant with them
when I take away
their sins.”
Jesus brought salvation
to the Jews and
Gentiles once and for all
on the cross of Calvary,
where he bore the
punishment for our sins.
 Principle #3
God alone became
the guarantor
of His covenant for us.
 Genesis 15:1
After these things
the word of the Lord
came to Abram in a vision:
“Fear not, Abram,
I am your shield; your reward
shall be very great.”
 Genesis 15:7-10
7 And he said to him,
“I am the Lord who brought you
out from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land to possess.”
 8 But he said,
“O Lord God,
how am I to know
that I shall possess it?”
 9 He said to him,
“Bring me a heifer three years old,
a female goat three years old,
a ram three years old,
a turtledove, and
a young pigeon.”
 10 And he brought
him all these,
cut them in half,
and laid each half
over against the other.
 When a covenant of this
nature was made back then,
both parties would
walk through them,
essentially saying,
“If I break this covenant,
may I die a horrible death.”
But in this case, Abraham
did not walk through it.
Only God passed through
with a smoking fire pot
and a flaming torch.
 In a similar manner,
Jesus hung on the
cross by himself enacting a
covenant on our behalf,
a covenant that we
must access by faith.
 Principle #4
God made an everlasting
covenant with us
through Jesus Christ.
 Hebrews 8:8-12
8 “Behold, the days are coming,
declares the Lord,
when I will establish
a new covenant
with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah,
 9 not like the covenant
that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them
by the hand to bring them
out of the land of Egypt.
 For they did not
continue in my covenant,
and so I showed
no concern for them,
declares the Lord.
 10 For this is
the covenant
that I will make with
the house of Israel
after those days,
declares the Lord:
 I will put my laws
into their minds,
and write them
on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be
my people.
11 And they shall not teach,
each one his neighbor
and each one his brother,
saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them
to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful
toward their iniquities,
and I will remember
their sins no more.”