God Calls Abram and Makes a Covenant

Context

Abram lived in Haran with Sarai, his wife, and an extended household that included his nephew Lot. He had possessions and people around him, but he had no child to carry on his family line. He was also seventy-five years old when God called him to begin a new journey.

That left a question Abram could not solve for himself: How could a man with no child become the beginning of a great people? Everything would depend on what God promised and how Abram answered.

Story

God told Abram to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s household and go to a land that God would show him. Along with that command came extraordinary promises. God would make Abram into a great nation. He would bless him and make his name great, so that Abram would be a blessing. God would bless those who blessed him and curse whoever cursed him. Through Abram, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Abram responded by going, just as God had told him. At seventy-five years old, he left Haran with Sarai, his nephew Lot, their possessions, and the members of their household. Together they set out for Canaan, and they entered the land.

At the site of Moreh near Shechem, Canaanites were already living in the land. God appeared to Abram there and promised to give that land to his offspring. Abram responded by building an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

From there, Abram moved into the hills east of Bethel. He pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. Once again, he built an altar and called on the name of the Lord. Then he continued traveling south.

Later, God’s word came to Abram in a vision. God told him not to be afraid. God was Abram’s shield and promised him a very great reward.

Abram answered with the problem he could see. He remained childless, and Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in his household, stood to inherit his estate. Since Abram had no son, someone born in his household would become his heir.

God told Abram that Eliezer would not be his heir. Abram’s own son would inherit from him. Then God brought Abram outside and told him to look toward heaven. If Abram could count the stars, he should count them.

His offspring would be just as numerous.

Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness.

God went on to say that he was the Lord who had brought Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give him this land. Abram asked how he could know that he would possess it.

God instructed him to bring a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram brought the animals, divided the larger ones, and arranged the halves opposite each other. He did not divide the birds. When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell over Abram, and a terrifying darkness came over him. God told him what his descendants would face. They would live as foreigners in a country that was not theirs, where they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. God would judge the nation they served, and afterward they would leave with many possessions.

Abram himself would die in peace at a good old age. His descendants would return in the fourth generation, because the sin of the Amorites had not yet reached its full measure.

After the sun had set and darkness covered the land, a smoking firepot and a blazing torch appeared and passed between the divided pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant—a solemn, binding commitment—with Abram. He pledged to Abram’s descendants the land stretching from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates, including the territories of the peoples then living throughout that region.

What We Learned

• God takes the initiative: he calls Abram and promises a blessing meant to reach every family on earth.
• Abram answers God’s word with action. He leaves Haran, enters the land, builds altars, and calls on the Lord.
• Trust does not silence honest questions. Childless Abram asks about an heir and the land, and God answers by clarifying and confirming his promises.
• Abram is counted righteous because he believes the Lord before the promised descendants or land are in his hands.
• God’s covenant reaches beyond one lifetime. It includes delay, suffering, judgment on oppression, and a future return for Abram’s descendants.