Abram

If you have a Bible with you, I think, let me put it this way. We're going to look at quite a bit of chapter 11 and chapter 12. Let's just read the first four verses of chapter 12, which is on the back of your order of worship. I say to you here, the Word of God. 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, 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. 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. So Abram went as the Lord had told him and went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Hiram. Let us pray. Father, I pray now that you would come in open the eyes of a blind and the ears of the death that you would teach us the gospel, that you would be in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking. Christ's name, we pray these things, amen and amen. We're looking at the book of Genesis, and if it's your first time at this service, I started a while back doing things a little differently, partly using graphics and things just to keep myself from being bored in some sense. When you preach a couple of times in the morning, I just needed to do something different, so that's one thing. So it's a little bit more teaching oriented at night.

So yeah, I mean, that's about all I should say about that, I guess. But if you were looking at the book of Genesis, and last week, we actually finished the first major chunk of the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis is broken down. Basically, it can be broken down into about three different major chunks. The first chunk is what's called primeval history. That's Genesis 1 through 11, and that's the creation story and the flood all the way up to the Tower of Babel. We looked at that last week. The second part of the book of Genesis goes from chapter 12 to about 25 or so, if I'm remembering correctly, basically it's the life of Abraham. And then the last part of the book of Genesis, well, the life of Abraham and Abraham's sons, and then you have the life of Joseph at the end. And so we finished Genesis chapter 11, but not really. Because what we're going to look at tonight is the transition from Genesis 11 into 12, the transition from sort of the primeval history to what would become Israel, or what for them would have been modern if you're an Israelite watch reading this from the beginning. And so if you remember the original audience for this book was probably the Israel as they came out of Egypt, either right as they were, before they left the Egypt, or after they had gone out of Egypt, and Moses is trying to persuade them that either they need to leave or that they made the right decision in leaving. And when you read through this, you're going to see over and over again, they're little hints when you keep that in mind, because if you remember when we looked at Noah's sons, how Noah's sons, Shem Ham and Jacob, Ham, the father of Canaan, did something, we don't know to know it says he walked in and saw his father's quote nakedness. And because of that Noah cursed Ham, the father of Canaan, and Israel could have looked back at that and said, well, I guess God does want us to go into Canaan, because all the way back to Noah, we see that they've been cursed and they're supposed to serve us. So basically the review tonight, the only thing I've got my way of review is I really thought through one question. What was the primary sin of Babel's tower builder and if you think through that question, if you've not been here, obviously I'm going to tell you right now or it should just leave you and make you go look it up, but maybe I remember the primary sin. They had lots of sins. Remember they said let us make a city for ourselves with a tower in it and let us make a great name for ourselves. And all those things, they sort of had this escalating sense of pride. But the tower in Babel was not the sin. And almost every Christian you ask if you took a Bible quiz, they'd say, what was the sin at the tower of Babel? They would say it was them building a tower to reach to God. The tower wasn't the sin. In fact, the tower was laughable to God. Remember it said that God had to come down just to see it. Imagine spending there, probably people spent their whole lives, maybe generations working on this tower and how impressed they were at how big it wasn't, how great it was. And the Bible's witness to it is that it was so lame in God's view that he actually had to come down to see it. Well, the sin of Babel, in my opinion, is the fact that they said let us build a city and a tower and let us make a great name for ourselves that we not be dispersed. You remember the original creation mandate that God gave humanity was be fruitful and multiply throughout the face of the earth and rule it and subdue it. That's what he told the Adam and Eve. That's what he told to Noah when they got off of the ark, be fruitful and multiply and fill the face of the earth. And at Babel, they said we're not going to be fruitful, multiplying, we're not going to be dispersed. We're going to stay right here in these walls. In other words, they were like most churches. You see because if you follow that, be fruitful and multiply all the way through to the New Testament. You have go ye into all the nations making disciples still transforming people from the mart image of God into the redeemed image of God. And so remember I sort of threw that out there, what do you imagine God thinks about churches that refuse to make disciples, that refuse to go out and live out the creation mandate as we know it was probably not particularly pleased but that's one of the callings of the church. So that's part of the reason that you with the sin of Babel is this whole idea that they refuse to disperse. And what you're going to see as we move into the life of Abraham is that God is calling Abraham again to disperse and be a blessing but the focus becomes narrower and narrower and narrower as you go all the way through the Old Testament until finally you get to the New Testament which is Jesus. So the whole thing starts with Shem. Remember Shem, him and Japheth and chapter 10 gives you the table of nations, how these three the nations that came from these guys then you have the tower of Babel and then it backtracks and talks about Shem again. And remember Shem was the father of the semi ultimately the father of the Hebrews. Let me read to you

Shem in verse 10 says these are the generations of Shem when Shem was a hundred years old he fathered our Prochshod two years after the flood and Shem lived after he fathered our Prochshod 500 years and had other sons and daughters when our Prochshod had lived 35 years he fathered Salah who I'm just going to skip to the 30 years he fathered Abraham he fathered Pelegue he fathered Rue he fathered Serog verse 22 he fathered Nehore and when Nehore had lived 29 years he fathered Tara and Nehore lived after he fathered Tara 119 years and had other sons and daughters I'm in verse 26 now chapter 11 and when Tara had lived 70 years he fathered Abraham Nehore and Heron okay so that whole rehashing of Shem's genealogy was to get us somewhere he goes through all these sons and where has he taken us what is Moses really what is really important about Shem's story what's really important about Shem's story is this part of it that Shem ultimately had this this son this great great great and how many many greats at his grandson Tara and Tara was the father of Abraham Nehore and Heron so in the Bible what you're often the reason you get genealogies oftentimes is because what the author is trying to do is he's trying to make the case for what kind of person this is as Abraham a valid father of the faith or is he not well one of the ways you prove that is you walk people all the way back and show them that Shem the original one who has blessed the original one who has to have Canaan serve him is your father and so if Israel's reading this they can see that what's more interesting but it's typical throughout the whole Bible is Abraham or Abraham in this case is probably the youngest of the three not the oldest that's important we're going to find later on but there's also a pattern through the Bible have ever heard anything remotely like you know the last will become first or the first will become last or Jesus said that all the time and if you look through the Old Testament one of the big scandals is that younger brothers are constantly being chosen by God as his representative as the ones who bear the seed of promise over older brothers and if you remember we're going to start oh let me think in two weeks I think on September 13th I'm going to start back in the book of Samuel and remember when we looked at Samuel the big scandal of King David who's the greatest King in Israel's history is he's not only the youngest son but he's number eight number seven is the perfect number so if he's going to be the youngest son of Jesse he might as well be number seven but he's number eight so he's at the he's the very last he's the least one Abraham was probably the same way he's still Abraham right now now a couple things to know is the name Abraham means exalted father we're going to see that's practical joke in a few minutes the name Tara on the other hand means aimless wanderer or something like that that's going to be important however in the providence of God we're going to we'll look at right now actually so what's Tara's story if you 27 through 32 let me read that to you he says these are the generations of Tara Tara fathered Abraham, Nahor and Heron and Heron fathered Lot Heron died in the presence of his father Tara in the land of his kindred in ear of the calledians and Abraham and Nahor took wives the name of Abraham's wife was Sarah and the name of Nahor's wife Milka the daughter of Heron the father of Milka and Iska now Sarah was you should you know remember that snidely whiplash music dun dun dun you should hear that right now now Sarah was barren she had no child okay remember if you've ever been under by teaching or whenever you see editorial comments in the bible it's one of the probably one of the most important parts of what you ever you're reading so Tara's story is basically this he has three sons the first one is Abraham, Nahor and Heron and then these guys two of them at least have wives Abraham as Sarah is for a wife Nahor has Milka and Heron has Lot oh my clicker was possessed I guess Abraham had Sarah Nahor had Milka Lot was the son of Heron but Heron is dead now but that leaves Lot where well that means Lot's gonna have to live with somebody we assume is young enough to have to be under somebody and so he goes to live in Tara's household and so that's what we're gonna find out and the reason that we have to we have to set up where Lot comes from because remember there are several big stories about Lot and a few nations ultimately come out of Lot but the big thing here the news if you know if you're writing a news story and you know newspaper reporters journalists always you know you you start with the lead or you're wrong with the lead part of your story and here's the lead part of the story they sort of buried it Moses did he buried the lead he says now Sarah was barren she had no child now why is it so important we're gonna find out it's important because of the promises that God makes to Abraham but also we're gonna find out it's important to the faith of Israel because remember how Israel was wandering through the desert and they say God doesn't care about us things are so miserable there's no hope here there's no help here there's nothing we could do Moses why did you bring us out in the desert to eat onion or to to eat nothing at least in Israel in Egypt we had onions to eat at least in Egypt we have water to drink out here we've got nothing and God is not able to take care of us well they should look back at the story of Abraham and see that you know there's another guy who was hopeless there's another guy who was helpless and God intervened on his behalf and if you look forward to the new testament there's one person who's used as an example and an illustration more than anyone else day broom especially in the book of Romans remember Paul says when he was old and without without the ability to father a child and Sarah was old that he believed God could do what he promised that's what we're being set up before here so that's the rub right there Sarah had no child so where's it take us next it's interesting to me that I was thinking about this today I usually reread the passage on Sunday mornings and it just made me I started to think about a terror because when you think of again if you ask the average Christian who knows the Bible some or they think they know a lot and you say from where did Abraham journey to the promised land and everyone will say he journey from earth of the called ease but that's not true he didn't what happened notice in verse 31 here it says terror took Abraham his son and locked the son of her in his grandson and Sarah his daughter-in-law his son's Abrams wife and they went forth together from her of the call deans to go into the land of Canaan but when they came to heron they settled there the days of terror were 205 years and terror died in heron so basically her if you look at this map is down in the right hand corner and I'm gonna I'm gonna take it straight line if you look at how their journey actually went it's pretty waxes and wanes that moves forward so terror not Abraham first decides remember his name is what was wanderer and terror just decides out of the blue it would seem that you know what I'm gonna take my family from earth to the land of Canaan what do you think guys I'm a wonder why not so they take off for the land of Canaan and they take off to the north and they stop in heron now why would they do that the screen here doesn't give you the true colors the why would they go north instead of just straight across and the answer is because straight across it's just desert you wouldn't do that up along where you it's hard to see on the graphic but that's all sort of very fertile land it's there's a river they follow all the way and so they get to heron and that's where Nahor is gonna park it and so when terror decides he's gonna or actually I think Nahor stays behind when terror is gonna take off he takes with him the youngest son Abram and Lot who's still his responsibility they go to heron and we assume they're comfortable and safe and everything's copacetic and terror dies and so now Abram is responsible for the whole family including Lot and we'll talk about it in a minute but ultimately Abram is gonna go down into Canaan but when Abram is called he's not called from her he's called from heron in other words in the providence of God Abram was halfway where he needed to be before God even spoke to him God was obviously working in the life of Abraham before before he even acted before he came to him and sort of opened his eyes and what have you and that's true of us as well how many of you you look at your life and you look back on it and you say you know I thought it was just misery after misery after misery but if it weren't for all of these things I wouldn't be where I am now in other words we you you really can't regret things if you believe that God is sovereign and he was sovereign over Abraham too so he took him halfway there before he even talked to him and that's basically what happens next what's Abram's call? Let me read 12 one to you

says now the Lord said to Abram go from your country and your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you I will make you a great nation I'll bless you make your name great so that you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you to him who dishonors you I will curse in and you all the families of the earth shall be blessed so now the Lord said to Abram go from your country your kindred father's house to a land I will show you now you got to think I don't know if it strikes you but I've taught this the book of Genesis when we were in the NPR it took me about four years or so and it always amazed me because we tend to forget that Abram he was probably religious and most love scholars think that his family worshiped sort of moon gods or something and it's but out of the blue this on this God who's unknown to him comes to him and calls him that's crazy right I mean imagine if someone came up to I used to work in with mental health centers here in the northwest and when someone came up to you and said you know hey God just hold me I need to go from point A to point B and he's gonna take care of me the whole way is that cool I would say yeah that's cool and then I would tell the doctor he needs to be on my medicine because it's crazy and as you look at the life of Abraham God he would go 20 or more years without ever talking to Abram without ever revealing himself and yet the whole time Abram just keeps on trucking so that it doesn't it shouldn't surprise us that Abram every now and then tries to take matters into his own hand because he didn't have a Bible to read he didn't have those kinds of things but what's interesting is what God which of these would be hardest for you again I was just thinking about what to be hard for you if God called you to leave your country that I mean that would be hard hard for me like when I was a church planner with the PCA I could never understand why guys how guys would take calls to plant churches in Canada man dude this is my country I would tell him and then they would get Canadian citizenship I didn't want any part of that country was important I thought how about your kindred another word for that is relatives your extended family would it be hard for many of you to leave I know it would for some of you because you've lived in the Pacific Northwest for your for as long as you can remember how about your father's house maybe for us that doesn't that's not as big a deal but in Abram's day that men like leaving everything that was secure to you would those be the hardest things for you to leave your country your family your kindred or would it be this part to a land that I will show you in other words in other words you most people don't really notice that at this point in the call he doesn't tell Abram where he's going he just says Abram I want you to leave everything that you know everything that makes you comfortable everything that that gives you any bit of security and I want you to go to a land I will show you is it nice I'll show you is it far from it I'll show you you know you almost get this sense like when you know I do this to my girls all the time many of you know where the 100% of the time I'll come to them and I'll say all right everyone get in the car and 100% of my time over the history of their lives when I've said all right everyone go get in the car it is something good 100% of the time I'm always going to take him to ice cream we're gonna go to movies we're gonna go do something and so when I come in the house I say all right everyone in the car I'm always shocked when they say where we going I'll say do you trust me it's gonna be good no I'm taking you to do to try out medieval torture methods get in the car it's always good but part of the reason I do that is because I'm trying to teach them this kind of thing right here because someday God is gonna say to them all right girls get in the car and they're gonna go as a good and he's gonna go isn't it always it's gonna hurt it might it's gonna be hard probably but is it good yeah it will be so this is big for me maybe that's the bigger part or at least as I think through what most people deal with so he calls Abram and then he begins to make promises and the promises are interesting as well because you the first I split up the promises into the two verses that they come in because of the way that they're laid out the first one in first two you get a lot of I wills can you guys see that I can't see it from where I'm standing the the color up there's bad so he says I will do what he first says I will make you a great nation okay now for Abram why is that such a joke so now that this God who he doesn't know comes out of nowhere and calls him to leave everything that makes him comfortable and to go to a place where I will show you now remember the editorial comment now Sarah was barren she had no child and this God says I'm not only gonna show you where you're going but I'm gonna make you into a great nation Abram that's your name dude exalted father I'm gonna do that for you what's the second thing he says I will bless you that's big third thing I will make your name great so here you have this guy who has nothing at least as far as physically speaking his wife is barren he's by himself and he's gonna become a nation he's gonna be blessed and his name is going to be great why would God do all these things for him it's certainly not because of anything good he did but it's bigger than that you see a lot of us we begin to understand grace and we begin to understand that God does things for us and he intervenes in our life not because of anything good we have done but we don't we don't often take the next step and what's the next step when you think about Abraham at least he God says I will I will I will and then he says you will you will what I'm doing all these things for you Abram for this so that you will be a blessing let me read that to you he says I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you him who honors you dishonors you I will curse why has God calling Abram so that he can be a blessing to the to the all the families of the earth we're going to find out and ultimately he is and the fact that his his great son Jesus is the one who would save us from our sins and Abram is the one with whom all that begins on one hand on the other hand why is God calling you or me assuming you're a Christian if you're a Christian why is God called you unto himself is he called you unto himself just to to bless you just to make you make you successful why has he done it he calls us the same reason he called Abraham you know I have a friend named Bing that's true dumb weather knows him Bing you always talk about when we work together in Atlanta he's always talk about plumbing theology and what's plumbing theology is just this is that that we are not receptacles of grace we're conduits of grace in other words we don't we're not just buckets where God just pours his grace into us and we just keep receiving and keep receiving we're conduits of grace and that we're like pipes that great God's grace comes to us that we might show it to other people and to the extent you've understood God's grace is the extent you're able to show it so if you move on to the next part of his promises more promises I've called this the next promises those who bless you bless those who bless you I will curse those who curse you now this is important because from this point on you begin to see this division happen that that Abram is the blessing bearer and as you work your way through the new the Old Testament and certainly into the new your relationship with God is completely dependent upon your relationship with the blessing bearer and a lot of people a lot of Christians for example a lot of people who are maybe not Christians you're maybe you're just spiritual and you say you know it's just me and God I just want I just me and my relationship with God and I'm spiritual and I like to think through things whatever that all the way back to Abram that your relationship with God was contingent upon the whether or not you embraced or blessed the blessing bearer or whether you cursed the blessing bearer and God tells Abram however people treat you Abraham as how I'm going to treat them and you work that through the whole Old Testament up into you find Jesus and Jesus is the ultimate blessing bearer he is the one to whom everyone pointed whoever blesses him will be blessed whoever dishonors him God will curse and then what does he say what's the reason for these two things he says in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed okay I think I have one more slide here Abram's faith when you begin to think through all this stuff and you you can obviously I've taught a whole Sunday school classes about this how do you know that Abraham or Abram had faith there's only one way to know whether or not Abram had faith if the text would have stopped there we'd just always been speculating you know could God told him this stuff did he believe it or not and Abram could have said okay I believe that I buy it but there's only one thing that tells us that Abram had faith and it's it's just this is that he went in other words let me read it it said so Abram went that another way to put that is that our faith that we are saved by justification by faith alone not by our works on one hand on the other hand faith is always accompanied by works the only way you can know you have faith is to see the fruit of those of that faith which is works the only way you know that Abram had faith is that he actually went if he didn't we would have never known let me close with this word from Hebrews Hebrews 118 says by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out into a place that he was to receive his to an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going it was faith and just let me remind you that faith this is an important thing to get that biblically speaking faith has nothing to do with taking a leap you often hear in secular writing or in TV you know so and so took a leap of faith in the Bible faith is actually believing the promises of God that's all it is and so when you read says that Abraham exercised faith that you and I are called to exercise faith you're not called to leap anywhere you're actually called to something very objective that God is coming he has promised to save you from your sins and the person of Jesus what it means to have faith is to believe that promise and the question is do you believe that promise let me pray for us father I pray that you would continue to teach us these things that you would open our eyes and the eyes of our heart that we might embrace the gospel more and more if we're not Christians I pray that you draw us to yourself and if we are Christians I pray that you draw us to yourself father all of us where we need to be is where you are and close to you and Christ name we pray these things amen and amen