GENESIS 12

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 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 shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.

BACKGROUNDER

Last week we began a series called, Restoring the Image: The Journey from the Fall to the Cross. Part 1 talked about how our original ancestors, Adam and Eve turned away from God. Though they were made in the image of God, they sought to acquire power over good and evil, by eating from the one tree that God had forbidden them to eat, in the Garden of Eden. That’s why we experience The Distorted Image when we look at ourselves, at others, and at the world.

This week, Part 2, God calls another couple, called Abram and Sarai, to leave their country, kindred and their home to go to a land that he will show them. It’s a sudden move that they are expected make. What would it feel like for them, or for any of us to suddenly leave everything behind because God asked us to? Even more amazingly, we read the simple phrase, “So Abram went”. This is an incredible act of faith. They don’t even really know who the Lord is because they have been worshippers of other gods. To leave everything for the unknown was to trade a present satisfaction for a future without any substance. Where would they be led? And why?

The Lord is the name of the one and only God of all creation. He is the one who made Adam and Eve in His image. He is the one who now turns to a new couple to start again. Adam and Eve knew the Lord – and turned away from Him. Abram and Sarai – despite not knowing the Lord – trusted Him with their whole lives. From this moment on, through the rest of the Bible, including the New Testament, they became the models for what we mean when we say, faith.

The Lord’s promises to this couple are truly astounding and must have seemed impossible to them. They are to become a great nation, to be a blessing, and to be the source of blessing for all peoples. What the Lord is saying to them can be restated to mean that through their faith He will restore the divine image which was distorted by Adam and Eve.

As we continue to read about Abram and Sarai in the Book of Genesis, we learn that they are not always the best role models for us. They also struggle with continuing to trust the Lord when it takes many, many years before they even have one child, Isaac. The Lord will test their faith even more by asking them to be willing to give up Isaac to Him. Despite all of these ups and downs, they remain faithful to the Lord. And the Lord remains faithful to them.

A key step on their journey is a name change, a new identity reflecting their new mission. Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah. The expansions reflect the Hebrew understanding that these two go from being known as great in their own right, Abram = exalted father, and Sarai = my princess, to now being Abraham = father of many, Sarah = princess of many. Many would be blessed in them.

Jesus himself is a descendant to Abraham and Sarah; the one who fulfills what God promised them. He too sets off on a journey into the unknown, leaving his Father in Heaven, taking on the limitations of humanity, and giving up his own life on the Cross. We can be blessed, meaning the image of God can be restored in us, because of Jesus.

But the whole journey of Restoring the Image was able to get re-started when two people, Abram and Sarai, first said Yes to God