Genesis 12:1–9

Explore the Bible
Assistant Professor of Christian Ministries, University of Mobile

WHEN GOD CALLS

Genesis 12:1–9

God Calls (1–3)

God challenges Abram to abandon the normal sources of personal identity and security: his family and country. To obey, Abram must trust God implicitly.

His agonizing decision is further compounded by the vagueness of God’s command. God does not reveal to Abram where He will lead him. 

This call to forsake all is like the call of the gospel. Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37). He also says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). The gospel calls us to rest all of our hope on the Word of Christ and nothing else. When Jesus calls us, He does not guarantee the future or even tell us what it will be like. He does promise that He will take us to be with Him, which is the ultimate land. He does promise forgiveness and that He will never leave us. But Jesus never says it will be easy on earth.

God makes remarkably rich promises to Abram but they were promises he would never experience in full because their ultimate fulfillment would come through his offspring, first in believing in Israel and then in the Church. God prophesies personal blessings for Abram. The first blessing to make Abram a great nation stands in tension with Sarai’s barrenness. The second blessing is to make Abram’s name great. Ironically this is what the builders of the Tower of Babel sought for themselves. By faith Abram is going to receive what never truly comes by self-serving effort. His great name is a gift. This endowment with a name is clearly royal language, and Abram is viewed here as a regal figure.

God also prophesies global blessings for Abram. In verse 3 there is more than the law of retribution at work in God’s curse-for-curse, blessing-for-blessing promise. It is true that those who bless Abram will be blessed. God Himself will curse those who dishonor Abram. Today those who align themselves against the Church, “Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29), will not fare well.

Abram’s call ends with a promise that “all the families of the earth” will be blessed in him. The buildup to this blessing is explicit. Abram alone is blessed. Then Abram’s name is used as a blessing. Next those who bless Abram are blessed and finally all the families of the earth are blessed in Abram. Sadly Abram’s descendants, the children of Israel, never really did rise to the task. It was only in Christ, the ultimate seed of Abram, that the fulfillment came and blessing went out to all people (Gal. 3:8–9). So the gospel, our good news, was announced 4,000 years ago to Abram in Ur. This gospel announced in advance to Abram and fulfilled in Christ is now the Church’s responsibility to proclaim to all peoples of the earth.

Abram Goes (4–9)

Abram obeys God’s call and departs Haran for the land God will show him. He migrates with everything he possesses from northern Mesopotamia to Canaan. The Lord appears to Abram at Shechem and promises the land to his descendants, although he is still childless. In response Abram builds an altar to the Lord.

Abram’s next stop is only 21 miles to the south, near Bethel and Ai. Once again he builds an altar to the Lord and calls upon the name of the Lord. Proclaiming the Lord’s name includes extolling His great attributes and mighty works.