Week 5

10/6/2024

Fall 2024

Central Passage: Genesis 11-13

Many of us know that God’s grace takes center stage in the story of Abram/Abraham as it unfolds across Genesis 12-22. However, at its beginning in chapter 12, God's promises came with a condition—Abram had to go, leaving his family and land. As the story progresses, God’s promises become more unconditional and unmerited, but don’t miss the seriousness of that first condition.

In ancient Near Eastern culture, gods were often local to a specific land/tribe. Thus, when God called Abram out of the land of Ur, He called him out of worshipping his local gods. Imagine growing up as a pagan worshipper of a specific god. Having spent your whole life in ritual worship of this god so that your crops, livestock, and other possessions might be enriched, an unknown god now calls you away from your security. Abram did not know the character of God who called to him. He did not know what God had the power to do, for pagan gods had power over something specific such as rain, health, fertility, etc. He was called into the unknown with no guarantee that he could trust his God to bless him as he promised.

Additionally, ancient Near Eastern kinship practices meant that cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, servants, children, and other extended family lived together. It would have been unheard of for a household to consist of only a husband, a wife, and children (if one did, they were considered desolate). Thus, when God called Abram, He called him to be head of a new household (Genesis 14:14 demonstrates a fraction of the large number of people traveling with Abram under his leadership). Abram had to trust this unknown god who appointed him to lead an entire kinship into an unknown land. And God chose Abram, a man who, according to Genesis 11:30, has had a failed marriage in ancient Near Eastern eyes. He had produced no offspring with his wife (and no progeny to receive his inheritance), so, as the newly appointed household father, he trusted this unknown god to not shame him in this role by providing him a child in his old age.

We often read how Abram responded and see what great trust he placed in God when He called to him. Hopefully seeing the ancient Near Eastern context expands on how great a risk Abram took in responding to God’s call. However, we often focus on the wrong actor in stories like this. Yes, Abram responded with faith, yet the power of God’s call led him to abandon his comfort and security in Ur among his kinsmen and local gods. Just as Levi/Matthew sat in the tax collection booth and received a call from Jesus so powerful and effectual that he simply arose and followed (Matt 9:9; Mark 2:13-14; Luke 5:27-28), here God powerfully and effectually calls Abram out of idolatry and into a blessed covenantal relationship. God’s call is the primary actor as new journeys of faith begin.