The Call of Abram

"Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Micah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Micah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had not child. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. (Genesis 11:27-32)

"Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So, Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran." (Genesis 12:1-4)

And here we are introduced to Abram (whose name would soon be changed by God to Abraham). Abram will be the subject of many chapters to come in Genesis. The Word of God testifies to us of the faith of Abram. He had to deal with God by trust alone, just as Noah did before him. This trust is called "faith." Both the Old and New Testaments confirm the faith of this man called Abram.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, spoke, just prior to being stoned to death, of Abraham's call and response to it. A small portion of that discourse gives us a bit more understanding about this call of God upon Abram:

"The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran [Haran], and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee." (Acts 7:2-3)

We see from this passage that God "appeared" before Abram, and His appearance was full of "glory." The word "glory" is defined as a "splendor or brightness; majesty."

You will recall that in Genesis 9 that as a sign of God's covenant with Noah, He set His "bow" in the sky for us to see. Can we look at what we call a "rainbow" without understanding that we are looking upon a thing of beauty and splendor? All the colors of light that it contains! And this is only God's bow; not God Himself. Now imagine what the "glory" of God must be. That is what Abram saw appear before him. This "glory" undoubtedly confirmed for Abram who it was that was addressing him, helping him to make the decision to obey as he did.

God called Abraham (after his father's death) to leave his father's house and kindred, to leave the area ["country"] that he had lived in for the past five years, and apparently, with a sense of urgency ["Get thee out"] to follow wherever God would lead him.

There was a testing in this command. Did Abram love his father's home and belongings more than God? Did he love that sense of being surrounded by family more than he loved God? Did he love the familiar landscape of the country he lived in more than he loved God? Could he uproot his family and "risk" following God? The answer to all of this, for Abram, was yes; so certain he was of God's promises to him.

The first promise God made to Abram was that He would "show" him a new land, not that He would "give" it to him, but only that He would lead him to it. Yet Abraham was of such a heart to follow where God led; a sign that it was not the land that he sought, but God Himself.

The second promise God made to Abram was that he would make of him a great nation, bless him, and make his name great. That all sounds good, but what did it mean exactly and how was this going to come about; especially since he was already 75 years old and his wife Sarai was barren. Is it possible that Abram fully understood what God was saying to him? Or was Abram taking it one step of faith at a time: follow God, then see what God will do? In either case, trusting in the faithfulness of God was a necessity.

The third promise, was that God would make Abram a blessing to all families of the earth; and that, with God as His protector, any who blessed Abram would be blessed, and any who cursed Abram would be cursed.

That is a powerful statement showing God's favor and protection upon Abram. How wonderful it would be for us all to know that God so cherished us, so protected us, that He would take care of our enemies for us, and bless our friends through us.

But wait! God does promise that to us, doesn't He? To those of us who are called by His name, His children, not by flesh but by Spirit, the promises of God are very similar to what He has promised Abram. Why is this? Because that is who God is. He does not change according to the ones He loves. His love is the same for one and all, to those who trust in Him.

And so, we will see in this study of Abraham, many similarities between how God dealt with Abraham and how He deals with us. The call, after all, is the same. Leave the familiar things of the past behind, separate yourself from those things once and for all, love nothing more than Me, God says, and see what I will do for you and through you.