Lesson 14 – Abraham: From the Call to the Covenant
Genesis 11:10-32; 12:1-9; 15:1-21; 17:1-27
Preparing for Lesson 14
When we began our study of Genesis, we learned about specific events including creation, the fall of man, worldwide sin that led to a worldwide flood, another rebellion against God and the repopulating of the earth.
Our study of the remaining 39 chapters of Genesis will be all about specific people. And while many, many people pass through the pages of Genesis, our study will focus on four men God chose to be His instruments on earth to bring His plan to fruition. They were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
Abraham was the first of these four men, and he received literal marching orders directly from God. Since the creation itself, Abraham was only the second man to whom God appeared, the first being Adam.
Nearly one-fourth of the book of Genesis is devoted to the life of Abraham. Over 40 references to him are found in the Old Testament, and there are nearly 75 references to him in the New Testament. Islam holds Abraham second in importance only to Mohammed, with the Qur’an referring to him 188 times. (Bob Deffinbaugh)
Our previous lessons were mostly presented in chronological order, that is, based on consecutive chapters in Genesis. However, in this and future lessons we will have to jump around a little bit in Genesis.
This lesson covers Genesis 11:10-32; 12:1-9; all of Chapter 15 and all of Chapter 17.
One more thing: We all know that God changed Abraham’s name from Abram and Sarah’s name from Sarai, so in this lesson, I am going to consistently use the names God gave to them: Abraham and Sarah.
Now let’s begin our study of Abraham by looking at his life from the time he was called into the service of God to the giving of the Abrahamic Covenant.
LESSON 14: ABRAHAM: FROM THE CALL TO THE COVENANT
Who Was Abraham?
Abraham was a descendant of Noah through the godly line of Shem. The first time Scripture introduces us to Abraham, he is a married man living in the large Mesopotamian city of Ur. Archaeological discoveries indicate that Ur was a prosperous city of lovely homes, beautiful parks and public buildings. But it was also a wicked city where pagan sacrifices, including human sacrifices, abounded. This was no place for Abraham’s faith to be nurtured. (John Walvoord)
Why did God choose Abraham? That’s a good question and frankly, I’m not sure I know the answer. For example, we know why God chose Noah: Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord; he was a righteous man, blameless in his time and he walked with God.
Abraham, on the other hand, was apparently an idolater. We may have assumed that Abraham’s father Terah, having come from a line of godly men, would have brought up his sons to believe in the one true God. But that is not so. Shortly before his death, Joshua gathered the people to deliver his farewell address. He said, “From ancient times, your fathers lived beyond the River, namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.”
But God called Abraham anyway. Could it be that God saw something in Abraham that is not immediately apparent to us? This answer is a resounding yes! No matter how reluctant, flawed, fearful, inadequate or just plain stubborn people are, God can and does use them to accomplish His purposes. And He is patient. Abraham faltered along the way more than once, but God helped him to get up, dust himself off and set out again to finish the mission.
Abraham’s Journey Begins
Chapter 12 begins with God’s call to Abraham to leave his home and family to go to a land God would show him. Verse 12:4 shows that Abraham obeyed and he “went forth as the Lord had spoken”.
But there appears to be a problem. Notice that Genesis 12:4 says Abraham left Haran. What’s he doing in Haran? The answer is found in Genesis 11:28-31 which confirms that although the family once lived in Ur, they left that city bound for Canaan and stopped at Haran along the way.
What we are not told in Genesis is that God’s call to Abraham as recorded in Chapter 12 is actually His second call. God first appeared to Abraham while he was still living in Ur, and this fact is recorded in Acts 7:2-3 as part of Stephen’s self-defense argument against the Pharisees’ accusations. Reading Genesis 11:28-31 without being aware of God’s first call to Abraham, leads us to believe that Abraham was simply a passive participant in his father’s plan to relocate the family, but that is not the case. Other references in Scripture make it clear that although he was not a perfect man, Abraham was consistently an obedient and faithful servant of God.
Abraham apparently did heed God’s instructions to leave Ur but he ran into an unforeseen problem. His father Terah wanted to go with him, and not only that, but he wanted to bring along the rest of his family as well. This presented a dilemma for Abraham. God had told him to leave his family of pagan-worshippers, but perhaps he felt guilty leaving his elderly father behind. Or, maybe something else was going on in Terah’s life.
Josephus is said to have written this: “Now Terah, hating Chaldea on account of his mourning for Haran (his son), they all removed to (the city of) Haran.” If this is indeed true, it may well have been the impetus for Terah’s desire to leave Ur.
There is a story in the Qur’an that was apparently based on a Jewish Midrashic legend and may have been the event mentioned by Josephus. The gist of the story is that while still in Ur, Abraham renounced his belief in the idols of his father and even destroyed some of them. In anger, Terah seized Abraham and took him to the Assyrian King, Nimrod. Abraham argued with the fire-worshipping king, who had him cast into the fire. Haran, Abraham’s brother, saw this event, but hesitated to decide on which side to be. When Abraham was saved from the fiery furnace, Haran declared himself to be of Abraham’s belief. Then Haran was cast into the fire by Nimrod, and died in the presence of his father Terah.
We do not know how much truth, if any, there is in this legend, but we do know that God orchestrates circumstances to accomplish His will. In his book Abraham and All the Families of the Earth, Gerald Janzen says, “The similarity between Terah’s agenda and Yahweh’s call of Abraham suggests that God works in and with the forces and circumstances of human life. Abraham’s free action fuses grace and nature.”
Think About This: Was the city of Haran named after Terah’s dead son? Probably not. The ruins of the city of Harran, also known as Haran, are located in modern day Turkey, where archaeological excavations have been conducted since the 1950s. In Hebrew, when used as the name of the city, Haran means “crossroad”. When used as a personal name, Haran means “mountaineer”.
It was only after Terah’s death in Haran that God appeared for the second time, to reiterate His instructions to Abraham to go to the land of Canaan. His brother Nahor apparently decided to remain in Haran, at least temporarily, but Abraham allowed his nephew Lot to travel with him. Again, this was contrary to God’s instructions to leave his family behind, and as if to prove the point that God always knows best, Abraham discovered that Lot was more of a liability than he was an asset.
The Abrahamic Covenant
In the second call of Abraham, we begin to see the foundation of the Abrahamic Covenant. Regarding this, Bob Deffinbaugh says that here, the Bible demonstrates the principle of progressive revelation. “The principle of progressive revelation is very evident in the book of Genesis, especially regarding the Abrahamic Covenant. This covenant is introduced in Genesis 12:1-3 but only in very general terms. The covenant will not be formally ratified until the sacrifice is offered in Chapter 15, and Abraham does not receive the covenant sign of circumcision until Chapter 17.”
In Genesis 17, we see the most complete description of the covenant, along with God’s instructions concerning circumcision. Abraham himself, as well as every male in his household, including servants born in his house or purchased with his money, were to be circumcised. Any males who were not circumcised were to be cut off from his people, because that would be a sign that he had broken the covenant.
Think About This: Exodus 4:24-26 tells the strange story of God seeking to kill Moses. The Midianites were descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1-4), but they were not Jewish. They were monotheistic and worshipped the one true God. Moses’ wife, Zipporah did not fully understand the importance of circumcision and considered it an unnecessary and bloody ritual. Although Moses was Jewish and supposedly the spiritual leader of his household, he acquiesed to his wife’s wishes and neglected to circumcise his son. God sought to kill Moses because of it, but Zipporah herself performed the circumcision on her son in order to save Moses’ life.
These are the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant:
Abraham would be given land (Genesis 12:1).
He would be the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:2, 15:2).
All the families of the earth would be blessed because of him (Genesis 12:3).
This is an unconditional covenant, meaning that God is the sole “keeper of the covenant”. The covenant is given in a series of “I will” statements made by God, and God alone ratified the covenant by “walking through” the animal sacrifices. God reiterated the covenant with Isaac as told in Genesis 26:3 and again to Jacob in Genesis 28:13-15.
Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant
The provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant provided immediate benefits to Abraham in his lifetime as well as promises that would come to fruition in the lives of his descendants. But neither Abraham nor his descendants, even up to our present age, have seen the total fulfillment of the promises made by God to Israel. This is especially evident in the provisions concerning the land.
Based on the description provided in Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4,
the land God gave to Israel included everything from the Nile River in Egypt to Lebanon (south to north) and everything from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River (west to east). On today’s map, the land God has stated belongs to Israel includes everything modern-day Israel currently possesses, plus all of the territory occupied by the Palestinians (the West Bank and Gaza), plus some of Egypt and Syria, plus all of Jordan, plus some of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. (www.gotquestions.org). Israel will most likely have to wait until the second coming of Christ to see the fulfillment of the land covenant.
The name of Abraham is revered by Jews, Christians and Arabs. He certainly was an important man and led an interesting life, and that will be the subject of our next lesson: The Adventures of Abraham.
Think About It, Talk About It
We know that God chose Noah because he was righteous and blameless in his generation. Why did God choose Abraham?
God did not intend for Terah to leave Ur with Abraham, but how did He work around those circumstances to accomplish His purposes?
Looking back at certain events in your own life, can you now see how God was working in your life by orchestrating circumstances in a way you did not understand at the time?
How does the giving of the Abrahamic Covenant reveal the principle of progressive revelation?
Sources
Deffinbaugh, Bob: Abraham’s Call and God’s Covenant, from the series From Creation to the Cross, (www.bible.org)
Deffinbaugh, Bob: The Call of Abraham, from the series From Paradise to Patriarchs (www.bible.org)
Got Questions: What is the Land that God Promised to Israel? (www.gotquestions.org)
Janzen, J. Gerald: Abraham and All the Families of the Earth (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993)
Kato, Teppei: Ancient Chronography on Abraham’s Departure from Haran: Josephus, Rabbinic Literature, and Jerome (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Kyoto University)
Poulton, Paul: Why Did Terah Leave the City of Ur? (www.genesisforordinarypeople.com)
Ryrie, Charles: Ryrie Study Bible, Expanded Edition, NASB 1995 Update (Moody Press, Chicago)
Rudd, Steve: Chronological Interpretation Variants in the Bible (www.bible.ca.com)
Walvoord, John: Learning From Abraham About the Life of Faith, (www.bible.org)
Walvoord, John: The Promise to Abraham, from the series Israel in Prophecy (www.bible.org)
Walvoord, John: The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, from the series Eschatological Problems (www.bible.org)
Wayne, Luke: Abraham and the Fiery Furnace: The Qur’an and Late Jewish Mythology, Sept 20, 2017 (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, www.carm.org)