A brief note about chronology

The call of Abram – who will eventually be renamed to Abraham – begins with this stunning promise: “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. 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.  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’ ” (Genesis 12:1-3).

There are several details of the promise that we should especially notice. It includes a whole nation of descendants. It includes a personal blessing and a great name. It includes a sense of divine overwatch: God will bless or curse those around Abram, depending on their behavior toward him. All in all, we see that God has arbitrarily chosen one individual, and has established all of these benefits for him and his descendants.

Yet all of this is not just for his family, as extensive as that family will turn out to be. We must notice that Abram is blessed with the inclusion of a particular purpose: “so that you will be a blessing” (12:2). Perhaps this will teach us that it is the nature of blessings that they are not for ourselves alone, but so that we can share them with others. And even though the blessing of Abram includes a primary focus on his descendants, its purpose extends far beyond them: God’s blessing reaches out via Abram with an astonishing reach, to “all the families of the earth” (12:3).

But this blessing begins with a difficult command. In contemporary American culture we tend to think that if your job relocates you to some place halfway across the country, that’s just the way it is, and you learn to live with it, and you do your best to come home for Christmas: because your job is just that important. But in ancient times, family was far more important than we give it credit for today, and so it would have been quite difficult for Abram to accept a call that specified that he must leave behind his homeland and his extended family and his inheritance. Even so: “Abram went, as the Lord had told him” (12:4).

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We do want the blessings, O Lord. We mostly want them for ourselves; we are kind of reluctant to share them with the world. And we mostly want to stay close to where we can earn our own living, rather than go to the new place you might show us. Help us, we pray, to gain a sense of calling and obedience, so that we may follow as you lead us, forever.