From this point onward, Moses wrote strictly about the history of the people of Israel. He brought us from the very beginning of creation to the judgment of the Flood, and from the Flood to the call of Abram, Israel’s ancestral father. The remaining record of Genesis involves Abram’s walk with God, then the walk of his son, Isaac. After Isaac, we discover all the things that occurred to Isaac’s son Jacob, whose twelve sons became the twelve tribe of Israel. Finally, Moses tells the story of how Israel came to be in Egypt, through the events of the life of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son. Moreover, through it all, he tells the children of Israel, why the Lord came to them, as he did, to bring them out of slavery and into the land, he promised to give Abraham, their father.
“Now the Lord said unto Abram…” (Genesis 12:1). The last time the Book of Genesis tells us that the Lord spoke with a man was when he spoke with Noah, whom he called righteous, immediately after the Flood (Genesis 9:17; cp. 7:1). Abram’s call represents a renewal of mankind’s relationship with the Lord. Remember, Cush had influenced at least most of the folks on earth, leading them to reject the knowledge of God (Romans 1:28). He was able to do this even though all mankind knew full well what God was like (Romans 1:21). Nevertheless, the leaders of men began imagining traditions that pleased men, or encouraged them in the things they desired to do (Romans 1:22).
How was this done? It was done through idolatry (Romans 1:23), worshiping creation as god, such as worshiping the sun, as the giver of life, during its solstices and its equinoxes etc. Abram was no better than the rest of his family and the folks around him. He was completely devoid of any true spiritual understanding of the Lord or mankind’s relationship with him (cp. Joshua 24:2). Keep in mind, for the sake of context, that Noah lived to be 950 years old, dying about two years prior to Abram’s birth, and Noah’s son, Shem, lived to be 600 years of age, or about 150 years after Abram’s birth, which was twenty-five years (rounded off) prior to Abram’s death! What does this say about the rise of idolatry, something that Abram practiced prior to his call?
Just as it was from the very beginning, the texts says that God said and God did. In other words, God initiated the call to Abram. Abram wasn’t looking for God. He thought he knew him in the traditions that were handed down to him, which actually originated with Cush (Romans 1:21-23). So, it was God who came to Abram, saying:
“I will show you (a land); I will make you a great nation; I will bless you; (I will) make your name great; I will bless them that bless you; (I will) curse them that curse you; I will give this land to your descendants” (Genesis 12:1-3, 7).
Seven times in seven verses, it is God who takes the initiative to call and to encourage a man who never worshiped him, until he was called by God. In other words, everything came to mankind by grace, because mankind had drifted apart from the Lord. When men knew God, they didn’t value the knowledge they had, and they simply let it all slip away in favor of their own traditions (Romans 1:21; cp. Matthew 15:8-9). Thus, their own will was more important to them than the will of God; what they wanted to do, was more important to them than doing what the Lord wanted them to do!
In other words, in just a single generation from the Flood mankind had drifted into a spiral that would have taken them so far away from the Lord, that the Flood would have to be repeated once again, if God didn’t do something. However, the Lord promised that wouldn’t happen again (Genesis 9:8-11). Therefore, the call of Abram was undeserved, in that ‘he’ didn’t do anything that would require God to reward him, by calling him to walk with his God. Mankind, the whole of mankind, didn’t deserve being blessed by the Lord’s call of Abraham. It was by God’s grace alone that he saved us, honoring his own word to mankind who, as a whole, was dishonoring him!
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