PATRIARCHAL HISTORY

The Abraham Story

The Call of Abram (12:1-9) [J, P]

We are now moving out of the general, universal history of Genesis 1-11 into the particular history of God’s Chosen People, which begins with the story of Abram. The last incident described in the pre-Abrahamic period was the building of the Tower of Babel, which ended on a sad and dismal note - “. . . and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth” (11: 9b). What was to happen to these people who were dispersed throughout the world? Had the Lord given them up entirely? Was divine mercy finally exhausted? After Adam’s sin God still allowed him to live, and even clothed him to cover his shame. After Cain’s sin God mercifully put a sign upon him to protect him from wanton murder by those who did not know him. After the destruction of wicked men by the flood, God promised Noah that he would never destroy mankind again by catastrophe, and he gave his bow in the clouds as a sign that he would be faith a faithful to his Covenant promise. Up to this time God’s mercy had always followed hard upon man’s sin, to protect him from complete and utter annihilation. But now we hear no word of forgiveness, no word of mercy, no word of di­vine love. Yet all is not lost! Once again the words of God, as recorded in Hosea, come to mind: “I will not execute my fierce anger . . . for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy” (Hosea 11: 9)

According to Genesis 12:1-3, God calls one man out from among the multitude of nations to be the channel of his saving grace to the world – Abram, who, like Noah, is a righteous man and a blessing to “all and upright in character. God calls him to the families of the earth.” God has not forgotten mankind. The call of Abram is the logical, or should we say, the theological conclusion to Genesis 11: 9. This is the saving link, as it were, between the wide-scale history of Genesis 1-11, and the “holy history” of Genesis 12 to the end of the Bible. God’s redemptive purpose for the world now becomes focused on a specific person.

God, who had dispersed mankind over the earth, now draws the nations unto himself through Abram and his seed. God will bless those who bless Abram - he will not forsake his own!

A new stage in the history of revelation has been reached in 12:1. God now speaks to one man, Abram, in the midst of the families of the earth. Why did he not choose to speak to Japheth, or Arpachsad, or Peleg, or someone else? The answer to this question is not given in the biblical account. Divine election is entirely a matter of God’s grace and wisdom. it is not our func­tion to question God in these matters (Job 9:12). God’s word not only creates the world, it also directs the saving acts and actors of history through which the world is to be saved. He calls Abram, and Israel (Exod. 19:5-6), and his Servant (Isa. 42:6) to bring salvation to all mankind.

But the call of God demands a response on the part of man. It is not easy to follow God. Often the real reason people do not believe in God is that they do not want to obey him. Abram is asked to leave country, relatives, and family and go “to the land that I will show you” (12: 1). He is to rely entirely upon God (Heb. 11: 8). If Abram obeys, God will bless him. This is the key word in God’s promise. It occurs five times in two verses (12: 2-3). The promise, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you” (12:2), springs from the creation blessing (1:28). God himself will now give Abram the great name (12:2) which man had previously tried to gain for himself without success (11:4). God’s blessing (12:3; note the plural, “those who bless you”) outstrips the divine curse (singular, “him who curses you”; see also Exod. 20:5), showing the limitless extent of divine mercy. “So Abram went” (12:4). In a simple word, “and he went” (one word in Hebrew), the writer describes the act of silent obedience that changed the course of world history. The long hours of pondering and meditation, the fateful moment of de­cision, the days of preparation before the final departure, and then the final farewell to home and friends and all that bad been his life - all of this is summed up in one word, “and he went.” If Terah died before Abram left Haran, as one would naturally assume from the text, there is some discrepancy between the figures found in 11:26, 32 and in 12:4. This may result from the inclusion of several divergent strata of tradition in the narrative. Lot, who goes along with Abram, figures prominently in the events recorded in chapters 13 and 19. “When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh” (12:5-6). Shechem is situated on the eastern side of the pass between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim in central Palestine. It was already an ancient centre of religious activity when Abram came upon it, for it is referred to as the site of “the oak of Moreh,” or “‘the oak of teaching, or teacher,” which must have been an ancient sacred tree from which oracles were obtained (see Gen. 35:4; Deut. 11:30; Joshua 24:26; Judges 9:37). Here God appears to Abram and says, “To your descendants I will give this land” (12:7). Abram is now assured by God that he has reached the goal of his pilgrimage, and so he builds an altar to the Lord, in whose name he proceeds to take possession of the land.

From Shechem, Abram moves southward along the ancient highway on the central mountain ridge of Palestine to the Bethel-Ai region. Bethel, mentioned more times in the Bible than any other city except Jerusalem, was originally called Luz (28:19). It is situated about ten miles north of Jerusalem. Ai was the site of an ancient ruin about two miles south-east of Bethel (see Joshua 7:2-5). It was in this area that Abram spread his tent, built an altar, “and called on the name of the Lord” (12:8). From here “Abram journeyed on [literally, “pulled up stakes”], still going toward the Negeb,” that is, the south (12:9).

So far, the wanderings of Abram in Canaan can be traced by the altars he builds. The altar and the tent, in fact, may be thought of as symbols of Abram’s life, the altar representing his fellowship with God, the tent representing his earthly pilgrimage from place to place, in utter reliance upon God. As the writer of Hebrews says, Abraham was “living in tents . . . For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:9-10). It is significant that there is no reference to Abram’s building an altar while he is sojourning in the Negeb or when he goes down into Egypt (12:10-20). Perhaps this may have something to do with Abram’s moral lapse in Egypt described in the following verses.