Themes of the Bible: Follow (Genesis 12)

 

Themes of the Bible: Follow (Genesis 12)

When I first set out to do this series on these major themes of scripture, these important chapters where God's communicating something to humanity, Genesis 12 is one that obviously we were going to do. It's very popular passage, it's where Abraham is called by God, Abraham is a key figure in scripture, so I knew Genesis 12 was going to be one that we’d cover. So, I jot down some of these key ideas and themes, and where I think it's going to go, and everything that I thought I was going to preach on, then when I start studying, it hit me like a ton of bricks that I totally wasn't looking at this passage the right way or at least there was a major way that I wasn't seeing it. Alright, so for next week, make sure to pre-read Genesis 22, and then after that we'll get out of the book of Genesis. It’s not that there's no other important stuff there, but we're hitting the major themes of scripture and what God's communicating to humanity, and maybe we’ll do a dedicated Genesis series another time. So, Genesis 22 for next week, but for this week we’ll be in Genesis chapter 12.

To begin, there was a survey of linguists, if you don't know what a linguist is, a linguists are people that study languages from around the world, and they did a survey of linguists and they ask them to come up with the most powerful term across languages, what term is it that across languages is the most powerful. This doesn't mean the most recognizable term, but the most powerful term means, what word or idea is it that will evoke the most emotion? And sometimes, it’s even a physical response, or a mental response from people when you say it, regardless of their culture. What is it? This is what linguists determined was the most powerful term across cultures: “home.” The idea of “home” will evoke the most mental and emotional and sometimes even physical response amongst people across cultures, and that should make sense to us, right? Most of us enjoy vacations, even with children you enjoy vacations, or at least you enjoy the idea of how much fun a vacation would be. But, at the end of any vacation, even if you don't have kids and you're enjoying it, there comes a point in time where you're anxious to get home. It's just the way that it is, and even as fun as it is, there's something about driving home. We just had this a week ago driving down 395, getting closer to home. That familiarity that you have, your house, your couch, and it's not just your house that we're talking about. You start driving around, and you say, ‘these are our restaurants.’ ‘This is where we go, these are our gas stations, and that's my pump where I will sit and I will wait for somebody who's there rather than use the open one right next to it, because that's my pump. When I’m on vacation sometimes I’ll be using gps and driving around and I will think to myself, sometimes I'll even say to Christiana, ‘it'd be awful to live here, you can't find anything around this place, it's bizarre the way the roads are. . .’ and then she points out the obvious, that if we lived here, then those roads would be more familiar. Just like if you put those people in Arroyo Grande or Atascadero, or San Luis Obispo, they would think our roads are weird. All of those factors into the idea of home, and that's why that word evokes so much emotion.

Well, that's the first thing that you pick up on when you read Genesis 12. One of the most powerful lessons of Genesis 12 is where God is teaching humanity that the nature of following him is going to involve challenge. It's not always going to be comfortable. You pick up on that very early on, because God's command to Abraham is the complete opposite of, ‘be comfortable at home.’ If you read it, it's right there in the first verse. Look at Genesis chapter 12 verse 1. [Read Genesis 12:1].

Alright, so that's verse one, and it's a really important verse. First of all, what is Abraham’s home? If you read this chapter, you would know that the name of the city where Abraham was dwelling was Ur. Ur of the Chaldeans, this is in the ancient Sumerian empire. Now, for those of you that aren't very familiar with world history, here's what you should know about the Sumerians: they're very advanced for their time. Historians credit the Sumerians with the first written language, they had laws, art, a huge city, so what I’m trying to get across to you is that Ur was like the New York City or L.A. of their time. It is a trendy metropolitan place. There are people out in the rural backwoods towns that are scraping sheep dung off of their sandals, but Ur has art and culture. This city is near where we know the Garden of Eden would have been located, where the Tigris and Euphrates come together. It's a very fertile land. We know that this isn't far from where Babylon, the great city will be built. So, what I’m trying to get across to you is that Abraham is living in a culturally advanced city. Once you're established in a place like that, you're not going to leave because you're very comfortable there, and everything that you need is right there. And where does God call him to go?

God doesn't just say, ‘alright, we're leaving New York City and we're going to Nashville.’ At least then you know where you're going, and Nashville is at least a city. It's not ‘alright we're leaving New York City and we're going to Arroyo Grande.’ It's not anywhere close on par with the size, but at least you know where you're going. But, where does God say he's to go? ‘Just leave Ur, leave your homeland and start walking to wherever it is that I’m going to show you.’ Abraham has no idea where God is going to lead him, and I don't think I’m alone in this, but I think most of us are hesitant even when we go out and are adventurous and we're going to go hiking or we're going to go exploring, we still want to know where we are. Most of us will take a GPS receiver, maybe in our phones, most of us will take a map, when you hike you follow trails for the most part. Basically, we want to know where we are, and we want to know where we’re going.

 The idea of going into the unknown is not something I’m overly excited about, and especially if you're telling me to do so permanently. Pack up what you can and head out into the wilderness. Oh, and take your family that you're supposed to provide for and just follow me into the wilderness. That's an incredible call that God is placing on Abraham. And how does Abraham respond? Don't overlook how he responds. The book of Hebrews has the best description of it. Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Imagine your reaction, if God places the call on you to leave everything that you're comfortable with and just go out into the wilderness to never return. Would you have hesitancy? I would. Would you be reserved about that? Would you find objection to that? But this verse, the writer of Hebrews is saying in the process of God calling him Abraham was already gone as soon as he understood what God was saying. Is that not the polar opposite of Adam and Eve? Adam and Eve had been told this is what you do and don’t do, and they sit there, and they are almost instantly questioning it. I don't know about that, did he really mean this? And they disobey. One the other hand, God's basically barely gotten the sentence out and Abraham’s packing his bags. That's instant obedience.

Now, here's what we say to make ourselves feel better: ‘yeah, but Abraham he was set apart. He was the father of the faithful. God knew that he was something special, that's why he picked him.’ This is our defense when we look at Abraham. We say, ‘yeah, but Abraham was abnormal. He's not like us. God knew that he was the super Christian type, so God knew he could expect more out of him than he expects out of me or you.’ That isn't true! Look, we don't know a lot about Abraham’s life before God called him, but we do know that Abraham was a sinful man who had been growing up in an unbelieving idolatrous culture. You think our culture is bad? Ur of the Chaldeans, it's the New York City it's the L.A. that's where Abraham is, and we know it’s bad and its godless. I don't know when God came to Abraham the first time, I don't know specifically at what moment God established a relationship with him, but we do know that Abraham was raised a pagan. Regardless, my point to you is this, that's not why God called him. God didn't specifically pick Abraham because he was different or because he was set apart, or because he was a better person than all of these other people. That's not why God chose him, and yet, when God spoke, Abraham listened.

I mean, God's in the middle of speaking and Abraham is on board with it. When God commanded, Abraham chose to obey. When God commanded, Abraham chose to obey, and when God promised him things, Abraham chose to trust God, and the question is, what about us? Are we learning from this example? When God speaks, do we choose to listen? You might say, ‘well, God's never spoken to me. He never came through the clouds and spoke to me.’ But you’re wrong, God has spoken to you in a way that Abraham never had. You have God's complete word, right here. Are you listening? But what does that entail? That means being in the word of God. You can't listen to the word of God if you aren't in the word of God. His word cannot and will not transform your life if it’s gathering dust on a shelf. Compare the amount of time that you listen to the voices of this culture; the voices on television, the voices on the radio, the voices on the news, the voices on Instagram or TikTok. Look at how you're listening to the words and the ideas of the world versus the amount of time that you're listening to God.

Are you choosing to listen when God commands? Abraham chose to obey. God has commanded us regarding a lot of ways that we're to live. Do we choose to obey? And when God promises us, saying that there's a reason why I’m telling you to do these things and you will be blessed if you do, do we choose to trust? It'll be obvious in the way that we live how are we making those decisions.

By the way what did God promise Abraham? Let’s look at verses two and three. [Read Genesis 12:2-3]. Those are some magnificent promises that God is making to him. He's going to give him a land, he's going to make him a great nation, he's going to bless him, and that's when it happened. Verse 3 hit me like a truck to the face.

How have I always read and understood this story of Genesis 12 and thought to myself, ‘okay, I’m Abraham and I need to think where it is that God wants to lead me. Am I doing what God wants me to do? Because I’m here, and maybe I need to go there to really serve God. If I don't uproot everything and risk everything to follow him, am I being disobedient. Abraham was willing to do that.

But this is what hit me. I’ve said this several times just in the last couple years that I’ve been doing this ministry, that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. There are things that we study in the Old Testament that will have spiritual meaning once we get to the New Testament and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The old is a shadow that points towards the picture coming into focus when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed and his kingdom comes. In other words, there's all of these traditions, all of these customs, all of these events in the Old Testament, and you read it and you say, ‘why do I need to know that?’ Why is it significant to me that God called Abraham out of Ur? Why does that matter? Then you get to the New Testament, and something happens; all of a sudden you see what all of that was foreshadowing. All the spiritual truth starts to come into focus.

So what is the account of Abraham a foreshadowing? What spiritual truth do you see in the New Testament that perfectly parallels what God does with Abraham? Alright, this is it. What does he say, ‘leave what feels like home’ ‘follow me’ ‘it won't be easy or comfortable if you do’ ‘but if you choose to, you will receive blessing beyond measure.’ Does that sound like anything to you? I’m calling you to leave what it is that feels like home and follow me, it's not going to be comfortable, it's not going to be easy, but if you do this, you will be blessed beyond measure. Please tell me that you are seeing this as our spiritual pilgrimage that we take as believers from death and sin to life in Christ.

That's what the story of Abraham is foreshadowing; you are leaving what is comfortable to you a life of sin, and you are choosing to follow Christ into the unknown because you trust God's promises. If you follow him, you will be blessed. Look at the promises; God will give him a land, God will make him a great nation, God will bless him richly, he'll curse those who curse Abraham, he'll bless the world through Abraham. Do you not see the parallel for the church and the Christian in the New Testament? A land to call our own. He'll make us part of a great family, the family of God will be blessed richly. The writer of Hebrews says that Abraham was called a friend of God, is that not us? Are we not blessed in the same way in relationship with Christ?

God promised to bless the world through Abraham, and this is obviously talking about the lineage that would lead to the Messiah. It is through Abraham that the Messiah will come, and it is through the church that the Messiah is proclaimed to the world; both of which are a blessing to the world.

Hebrews 11 says, [Read Hebrews 11:8-10]. What is Abraham looking towards? He's looking heavenward. His ultimate promised land was being with God and dwelling in heaven with God. That's what this is about! Yes, of course God has called us here on earth to a time of earthly service, and there's a territory where we're going to do that. Maybe that territory for you is the local high school, maybe that territory is serving the Lord as a part of the Camp Challenge staff, maybe that territory is leaving your homeland and taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to far off places. Maybe God is preparing you right now to be His missionary to a tribe that would have never known his name had you not said ‘yes’ to His calling and chose to follow His leading. I don't know where the territory is for you, but I do know that wherever that territory is, our job is to make His name great. That's what we do wherever we are here on earth. That's what we're expected to do, but as believers our primary call has always been heavenward. Our eyes are always focused on that very thing Abraham was focused on, that eternal city whose foundations and whose architect is God.

When a person comes to Christ, God is calling them, he's demanding from them a pilgrimage to leave the land of sin, and follow him into a new life. That's exactly what Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” That’s exactly what our camp theme verse for this year means when Philippians 3 says, “. . .forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

What did we study in Genesis chapter 3 about the causes of sin? They are the lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. That's what's home to us. That's what feels natural to us. Things that we want, things that we see and we desire, all of that is our home. And we're being told, by faith, walk away from that, and if you do leave those things that feel like home you will be blessed far greater than that. God is calling us to his promised land. That's why he says, Romans 12:2, “. . .don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be renewed by the transforming of your mind. . .” because giving up your old life that's one of the biggest obstacles to becoming a Christian. Why do so many people choose not to follow Christ? It's because they don't want to give up everything they think they're going to have to give up. ‘Man, if I follow Christ, I’ve got to give up all of these earthly pleasures.’ ‘I’ll be busier on Sundays.’ But think about what you’re giving up and think about what you’re gaining!

In closing, I want you to remember the last lesson from Genesis 12. Remember Abraham’s heart. Remember what we said, the writer of Hebrews said as he was being called Abraham was already all in. ‘If God says it, I’m in. That's what I want to do.’ It is so important to remember his heart because worldliness, choosing to be of the world, is less about what we do with our physical body and more about what we want to do. In other words, it's less about the actions of our body and more about where our heart is. Remember from yesterday, what did Noah and his whole account tell us? That God sees our heart and he knows where our heart is.

Let me give you one more great example from the writer of Hebrews. This one is about Moses. Do you remember his story? Pharaoh is going to kill all the little baby boys so Moses’ mom puts him in a basket that is found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and she raises him as her own son, then Moses grows up, gets called by God, and ends up working for God as the deliverer of the children of Israel. Here’s what the writer of Hebrews says, chapter 11:24-27, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”

Think about that. Moses did not forsake Egypt and walk away from everything he had there because he had to, or because he was obligated to. No! He could have lived in Egypt as a prince and had everything, but he chose to walk away from it. Abraham chose to walk away from Ur. Why? Because they wanted to. They wanted to pursue God and the things of God. Egypt had lost its attraction to him, it couldn't compare with what Christ offered. The same is true for Abraham. There's no comparison between what Ur or the world tells me and promises me, and what God is calling me to. There’s no comparison. My question for you is, have we accepted the same? Is that not what we should strive after? Everything the world and the land of sin is offering you doesn't compare to what God has in store for those who by faith will follow.

Let’s pray.