The Gospel According to Abram Text: Genesis 12:1-9
Introduction: The Hinge of History
The first eleven chapters of Genesis are a story of cosmic catastrophe. We have the fall in the garden, the first murder, the flood that judged a world steeped in violence, and finally, the arrogant blasphemy at the tower of Babel. At Babel, mankind, united in rebellion, sought to make a name for themselves, to build a tower to the heavens and effectively deify themselves. God's response was to scatter them, confusing their language and their purpose. It is a bleak picture. If the story ended there, we would have every reason for despair. The human project is an abject failure.
But the story does not end there. Genesis 12 is the great turning point. It is the hinge upon which all of redemptive history swings. After the global judgment of scattering at Babel, God does not abandon His creation. Instead, He begins His great work of gathering. But He does it in a way that confounds all human wisdom. He does not start a mass movement. He does not send a committee. He calls one man. Out of a world of idolaters, from a family of idolaters, God sovereignly elects a 75 year old man with a barren wife and says, in effect, "You are the one. Through you, I will save the world."
This is the beginning of the gospel. The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians that the promises made to Abram in this chapter were the gospel preached to him beforehand. This is not Plan B. This is the eternal plan of God, unfolding in history. The call of Abram is the story of our calling. The promises to Abram are the promises that find their yes and amen in Christ. To understand this chapter is to understand the grammar of grace, the nature of faith, and the mission of the people of God.
The Text
And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go forth to the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. And Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “To your seed I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to Yahweh who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to Yahweh and called upon the name of Yahweh. And Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.
(Genesis 12:1-9 LSB)
The Unconditional Call (v. 1)
We begin with the divine initiative. God speaks, and a new world begins.
"And Yahweh said to Abram, 'Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;'" (Genesis 12:1)
Notice first that this call is entirely of grace. Abram was not seeking God. Joshua 24:2 tells us plainly that Abram's father, Terah, "served other gods." Abram was a pagan, plucked from the fire of paganism. God's choice of Abram was not based on any resume Abram submitted. It was a sovereign, electing call. Grace is not a response to our goodness; it is the cause of it. God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
The call itself is a radical summons to separation. It is a threefold "leaving." He must leave his land, his country of Ur and then Haran. This means leaving his culture, his customs, his familiar world. He must leave his kin, his extended family or clan. This means leaving his social safety net. And most intimately, he must leave his father's house. This means leaving his immediate identity, his inheritance, his very name. In the ancient world, a man was defined by these three things. God is calling Abram to a kind of death, a complete renunciation of his old identity in order to receive a new one from God alone.
And where is he to go? "To the land which I will show you." God does not give him a map. He does not provide a detailed itinerary. He gives him a promise and a direction. This is the essence of faith. Faith is not knowing the whole future; it is knowing the God who holds the future and taking the next step in obedience to Him. The Christian life is not a guided tour; it is a pilgrimage, walking with God into a future that He will reveal as we go.
The Covenant Promises (v. 2-3)
The call to leave is severe, but it is immediately followed by a cascade of glorious promises. God never takes away with one hand without giving far more with the other.
"And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." (Genesis 12:2-3 LSB)
Let us break these down. First, "I will make you a great nation." This is a promise of posterity. To a 75 year old man with a barren wife, this is a promise of a biological miracle. It is a creation promise. God will make a people out of nothing. Second, "I will bless you." This is personal. God's covenant is not with an abstract principle, but with a person. God promises His divine favor to rest upon Abram. Third, "and make your name great." This is the direct, divine rebuke to the project of Babel. The men at Babel said, "let us make a name for ourselves." God scattered them. Here, God says to Abram, "You follow me in humility, and I will make your name great." True significance is a gift from God, not a human achievement grabbed in rebellion.
The blessing then turns outward. "And so you shall be a blessing." The blessing is not a spiritual dead end. It is not a private treasure to be hoarded. God blesses his people for the sake of the world. We are blessed to be a blessing. This is the missionary mandate embedded in the covenant from its inception.
Next, God promises to identify Himself with Abram. "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse." This is the principle of covenant solidarity. To be for or against Abram is to be for or against Abram's God. How the world treats God's people is a test of their standing before God Himself. This finds its ultimate expression in Jesus, who asks Saul on the Damascus road, "Why are you persecuting Me?"
Finally, the promise explodes to its ultimate, global scope: "And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." This is the gospel. This is the promise that from this one man and his seed, a blessing will come that will reverse the curse of the fall and the scattering of Babel. The Apostle Paul is crystal clear: the "seed" is ultimately Christ (Gal. 3:16), and the blessing is the justification that comes by faith in Him (Gal. 3:8-9). God's plan was never to save just one ethnic group. His plan was to save the world through one ethnic group, so that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one, children of Abraham by faith.
The Obedience of Faith (v. 4-6)
A promise from God requires a response from man. That response is faith, and faith acts.
"So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him... thus they came to the land of Canaan... Now the Canaanite was then in the land." (Genesis 12:4-6 LSB)
The text is beautifully simple: "So Abram went." Faith is a verb. It is not an intellectual assent to a set of propositions. It is packing the camels and leaving home because God has spoken. At seventy-five years old, an age when most men are settling down for their final years, Abram embarks on the greatest adventure of his life. Our age is no barrier to God's call.
He takes his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his possessions and people. He obeys. And he arrives. He comes to the land of Canaan. But the promise is immediately tested. The land is not empty. "Now the Canaanite was then in the land." The promised land is occupied by a hostile, pagan people. This is a crucial lesson. The promises of God do not exempt us from conflict and difficulty. Often, we must possess our inheritance in the midst of opposition. Faith is not a ticket to an easy life; it is the God-given strength to persevere in a hard one.
The Altar and the Tent (v. 7-9)
In the midst of this pagan land, God gives Abram further assurance, and Abram responds with worship and witness.
"Then Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, 'To your seed I will give this land.' So he built an altar there to Yahweh who had appeared to him... he pitched his tent... and there he built an altar to Yahweh and called upon the name of Yahweh." (Genesis 12:7-8 LSB)
First, God appears to him. This is a theophany. God draws near to His servant to confirm His word. He specifies the promise: not just a generic land, but "this land," and it is for his "seed." This is a dynastic promise that will stretch for centuries.
Abram's response is immediate and profound. He builds an altar. An altar is a place of worship, sacrifice, and communion. In the middle of a land filled with idols and pagan shrines, Abram stakes a claim for the true God. Building an altar was a public, political, and polemical act. It was a declaration of war against the gods of the Canaanites. It was an act of worship that functioned as witness.
The text then gives us the two symbols of the pilgrim life: the tent and the altar. "He pitched his tent... and there he built an altar." The tent signifies that he is a sojourner, a stranger in the land. His true citizenship is elsewhere. He is not settling down to build a worldly empire. The altar signifies his true loyalty. His dwelling is temporary, but his worship is fixed. This is the posture of the Christian. We live in our tents, our temporary earthly lives, but we build our altars, orienting our whole existence around the worship of the living God.
And at that altar, he "called upon the name of Yahweh." This is more than private prayer. It is a public proclamation. He is announcing the name, the character, and the authority of his God to a world that does not know Him. His worship is evangelism. Finally, he journeys on. The life of faith is a progression, a pilgrimage, moving ever forward at the direction of God.
Conclusion: Our Call out of Ur
The story of Abram is our story. Every Christian has been called out of the Ur of their sin and rebellion. We have been called to leave the land of our self-sufficiency, the kin of our worldly allegiances, and the father's house of our old, fallen identity in Adam.
We are called, not to a land we can see, but to a heavenly country, a city whose builder and maker is God. We are called on the basis of the same promises, now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Christ, we are made part of a great nation, the church of the firstborn. In Christ, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. In Christ, our names are made great, for they are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. In Christ, we are made a blessing to the nations as we carry His gospel to the ends of the earth.
And so we are called to live the same kind of life. A life of faith that obeys when the way is not clear. A life that perseveres when the Canaanites are in the land. A life defined by the tent and the altar, recognizing our temporary status here and our permanent citizenship in heaven. A life of public, unashamed worship that calls upon the name of the Lord in a hostile world.
The same God who said "Go forth" to Abram says "Come, follow Me" to us. The question for each of us is simple. Have we obeyed? Have we left our Ur? Or are we still trying to make a name for ourselves, building our own little towers of Babel in the land of our rebellion? The call has gone out. The promises are sure. So let us go forth, as Yahweh has spoken.