Genesis 12:1-20
God tells Abram to journey through territory that eventually becomes the inheritance of Israel. This oracle may have come to Abram when he still lived in Ur of the Chaldeans or perhaps it came to him after his family had settled in at the place they called Haran. In any case, this journey kicks off God’s plan for Abram to make of him a “great nation” that will be a blessing to “all the families of the earth.”
Similar cases of covenantal language appear in chapters 15 and 17 but God’s statement to Abram in 12:2-3 is central to the whole Bible. It is the Bible’s thesis statement. God planned to make a people for himself through whom he would reach the world. The core thought defines the vocation of God’s people:
It is not the vocation of God’s people to be God’s exclusive people—the only ones who are saved and at the expense of those who, by their very heritage, will never find God’s favor. No. It is the vocation of God’s people to channel God’s favor to the world.
The meaning of that vocation became more evident to the writers of the Bible as they experienced more and more contact with Gentile nations. We will see it in a chilly way in the early days of the nation and during the Assyrian crisis when the kingdom of Israel was destroyed beyond recovery. We will see it in a prominent way when the people of Judah are carried into captivity. We will see it in the days of the Roman oppression. We will see it in the preaching and ministry of Jesus Christ. We will see it as the primary vocation of the church.
Everywhere Abram journeyed he built a monument to Yahweh and he worshiped God. We all have secular lives; but everywhere we go, we should be leaving monuments in people’s minds that testify to the reality and character of God. Do people see God working in me?
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. (1 John 4:7, NET)
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