Stories Of The Bible
Gtcotr/ws121102
Genesis 12 -- God Speaks To Abram
Between 2100 and 2000 BC
Abram is 75 years old
I. Gen 12:1-5 God Speaks To Abram
1 ¶ Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 ¶ So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
A. The Instructions
1. Get out of your country
2. Get away from your relatives
3. Get out of your father’s house
4. Go to a place I will show you
B. The Promise
1. I will make you a great nation
2. I will bless you
3. I will make your name great
4. I will make you a blessing
5. I will bless them that bless you
6. I will curse them that curses you
7. In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed
C. Abram’s Response
1. Abram left the country
2. Abram left his father’s house
3. Abram took his relative, Lot, his nephew, with him
4. Abram went into the land of Canaan
D. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran
II. Abram and Lot Were Different
A. Abram was an altar man
1. Gen 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
2. Gen 12:8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
3. Gen 13:4 When Abram left Egypt he returned to Bethel: Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
4. Abram was an altar man
B. Lot was a tent man
1. The bible never mentions Lot building or worshipping or attending an altar.
2. Gen 13:5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
C. After Abram and Lot Separated
1. Gen 13:12 Lot, “… pitched his tent toward Sodom.”
2. Gen 13:18 Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
D. When Lot was taken captive, Abram Recovered Him
1. Lot returned to Sodom without mention of thanksgiving to God
2. Abram passed all of the recovered goods by the altar of God:
* Abram met Melchizedek, the priest of God
* Abram refused to keep anything for himself
* Abram declared that God alone would make him rich
* Gen 14:20 And (Melchizedek said to Abram) blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he, (Abram), gave him tithes of all.
III. Abram Is Forced To Fully Obey God
A. Genesis 13:14-18
14 ¶ And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.
18 Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
B. God’s Plan
1. Bless them both so much that the land cannot contain them
2. Let them decide to separate in peace, not strife
* 2 Timothy 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
C. Genesis 12 was not the first time God had spoken to Abram and gave him instructions to follow:
1. Acts 7:
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
2. Before Abram lived in Haran, NT Charran:
* He lived in Ur of the Chaldees
* God spoke to him to leave relatives behind but instead he moved to Haran with his father, brother and brother’s family.
* Abram’s father, Terah, and his family were evidently a hinderance to God’s plan in Abram’s life
* Terah means ‘delay’
* When Abram left Haran, he took his nephew Lot who continued to delay God’s blessing on Abram
IV. Remember The Lessons On Miracles
* God demands we participate in our miracles
* What It Takes To Work With God
> Depend On God and Not The Arm Of Man
> Offer What You Have To God For His Touch
> Obediently Follow the Prescribed Course of Action
Use The Miracle Blessings and Benefits For Their Intended Use
Until Abram fully follows the course of action prescribed by God, he continues to wander and wonder without obtaining the promise.
* After having received commandment from the Lord:
* Abram followed his family to Haran, taking delay with him
* Next he took his nephew Lot with him
* Then he did not stay where God would bless him but went to Egypt in the face of a famine and ended up a liar and almost lost his wife Sarah
* Next he is delayed again by having to rescue Lot and his family
* Then he will follow Sarah’s counsel and take her handmaid and birth a work of the flesh, Ishmael.
* The dealings with Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael will continue to delay Abram for years.
* Not until he is 100 years old, 25 years after he had left Haran, does Abraham receive the son of his promise.
> Why did God put up with Abram and his ways:
* God is very patient, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy
* Abraham also was a patient man, merciful and caring
* God is a God of covenant
> bilateral covenants &
> unilateral covenants
^ Hebrews 6 … He swore by Himself …
* Abram was an altar man
In order to receive our promised miracles we must follow Abraham:
* Have faith & be patient
* Be faithful & fully obey God
* Continue to pass our lives and goods by the altar of God
Heb 6
12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
