Genesis 12-13

In Genesis 12 we pick up with Abram whose family was introduced at the end of chapter 11.  His family had made a move to a new city and now God calls Abram to make another move.  God says go.  Leave everything you know and are familiar with and go to the place “I will show you”.  That I will show you?  That’s all he gets?  Talk about a kairos moment.

God calls him to obedience and a huge step of faith, with not a lot of clarity of details about what or where he was being called to. What he does give is a promise.  A promise to make his name and family great. To bless him and make him a blessing to all peoples on earth.  While the details are sparse, the promise is encouraging.  And with the weight of that promise, Abram and his family go.

As we come out of All Things New, remembering the promises of God for us can help us be obedient to God, even when the details of where God is sending us are sparse. Just like Abram, we can trust God’s long term plan, and be obedient today.  

Continuing on with the narrative, we learn something else about God. Abram and his family find themselves in Egypt and Abram makes a choice that, as we read it today, makes our stomach turn.  He lies about his relationship with his wife to protect himself.  As we’ll discover later in chapter 20, it was only a half lie, because Sarah is actually Abram’s half sister.  That doesn’t make us like Abram anymore, but also makes us feel weird. 

Two points to remember here. First, the crystal clear laws about not lying and not committing incest are not given until much later in the biblical timeline.  While our ignorance to God’s laws and God’s ways does not excuse sin, it does give us some understanding and it points to a huge principle we need to know: God uses sinners to accomplish his goals.  God seemingly chose Abram to go and to bless, but clearly it wasn’t based on how good Abram was, or how good he would be after God called him.  

Brothers and Sisters, your brokenness does not keep God from using you nor does it cancel out the promises of God for you.  As we see in chapter 13, despite Abrams missteps, God remains true.  As we respond to God in obedience, may we lean on His promises, His grace, and His truth every day.