Life lessons for times of transition from the story of Abraham
Scripture
Genesis 12:1-5 And Yahweh said to Abram, “[a]Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so [b]you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who [c]curses you I will [d]curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4 So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the [e]persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go forth to the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
Introduction: Transition
Everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it.
Issac Newton, First Law of Motion.
Did you know that it was not until 1850 that our world reached the one billion mark? By 1930 we reached two billion. It took only thirty more years for the world's population to reach three billion. We have now arrived at five billion. Statisticians tell us that by the end of the twentieth century we'll have seven billion...
Until 1800 the top speed was twenty miles an hour as people traveled on horseback. With the arrival of the railroad train, almost overnight we jumped to 100 miles per hour. By 1952 the first passenger jet could travel 500 miles an hour. By 1979 the Concorde cruised at more than 1,200 miles an hour. But even back in 1961 the astronauts were orbiting the earth at 16,000 miles per hour.
C. Swindoll, Rise and Shine, 1989.
Life lessons for times of transition from the story of Abraham:
We are still looking at the high points of doctrine. But I wanted to incorporate something a little more practical.
Abraham was led by God to change. And we can learn from him, not only the doctrines, but some principles on living life, and going through change; remember that God is in control, remember that you are chosen, remember that God keeps His promises, be a blessing, walk by faith, expect trials, do the work, be present.
Prayer
I. Remember that God is in control
As we come to the next section of Scripture in our Firm Foundations series, we are introduced to the next major character in Bible history; Abram.
Genesis 11:25-27 and Nahor lived 119 years after he became the father of Terah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. 26 And Terah lived 70 years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot.
“Terah lived 70 years and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” This passage sounds like just another part of a genealogy. We have no indication in those few short words that these people, more specifically this person, Abram, is going to be any different from the thousands upon thousands of people who had lived and died before this. And if we were left with just chapter 11 in Genesis, we might believe that life was just going to keep rolling on as usual. We have had a consistent pattern of world history up to this point; God blesses, (creation, the Garden, rainbow after the flood) and God gives out the rules for living in relationship to Him. (The tree, the prescribed sacrifices, worshipping the Creator) Then man ends up chaffing at the confines of God’s law, they sin, then comes God’s judgment, (cast out of Garden, Cain condemned to wander, the flood, dispersed languages) then comes a fresh start (Abel, Seth, Noah) and renewal, God blesses again, we start over. Rinse and repeat.
After having read all of the Bible up to this point, you might wonder if we as humans are condemned to living in Groundhog day. Will the world keep going through the same cycle over and over again? God’s gifts are given, man chooses sin, God responds with a curse, and on and on it goes.
But when we come to Genesis 11, we will, for the first time, hear the name, Abram. Later he is called Abraham. And through this man God changes everything. It is time for a change. God calls out a man that will break the cycle. How does that happen?
Abraham is the start of God reaching out with a plan of grace and salvation to the world.
There are a number of passages I could point to to describe how that happens, but let me just give you one very succinct one.
Matthew 1:1 Jesus, son of David, son of Abraham.
From Abraham comes Jesus Christ. That was God’s plan.
What this story tells us is that just when we think we know where the world is going, just when we think we pessimistically know that it’s all going to hell in a handbasket, God steps in with grace. And that tells us that God is in control.
Psalm 47:8 God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.
Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
We will explore that further, but let me reassure you today, no matter where your life is, God is in control. This is a major doctrine in the Word of God.
Ecclesiastes 8:12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may prolong his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.
All of life can be challenging. But there are certain moments. Moments of change, upheaval, transition, disturbance, that we are most challenged. So, to bring some stability to your time of change, remember that God is in control.
A second thing that we can learn from Abraham during times of transition is to remember that you are chosen.
II. Remember you are chosen.
Let me summarize Abraham’s story. Who was Abram before God spoke to him? He came from Ur of the Chaldees.
Abraham was born and raised in Ur of the Chaldees,
which is in modern Iraq, near Nasiriyah in the southeastern part of the
country. Joshua 24:2 says
that Abraham and his father worshiped idols. We can make some educated guesses
about their religion by looking at the history and religious artifacts from
that period.
Ur of the Chaldees was an ancient city that
flourished until about 300 BC. The great ziggurat of Ur was built by Ur-Nammu
around 2100 BC and was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god. The moon was worshiped
as the power that controlled the heavens and the life cycle on earth. To
the Chaldeans, the
phases of the moon represented the natural cycle of birth, growth, decay, and
death and also set the measurement of their yearly calendar. Among the pantheon
of Mesopotamian gods, Nanna was supreme, because he was the source of fertility
for crops, herds, and families. Prayers and offerings were offered to the moon
to invoke its blessing.
He was called away from there by God. He was a Syrian,
Deuteronomy 26:5 5 And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
He was a moon worshipper.
Joshua 24:22 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the [a]River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.
We sometimes think that Abraham was this righteous guy who looked around at his people back in Ur of the Chaldees with disgust, and said, “I gotta get out of here.” But Scripture gives us no such picture. We are told his background, then we are told that God called him out of it.
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Let me compare him to someone so you can get a better understanding. The first time we are introduced to Noah, for example, it tells us;
“Noah was found righteous in all the earth.” We gather from that statement that he had a right relationship with God. He worshipped God alone as Creator. He sought an ongoing relationship with God by blood sacrifice, acknowledging his own sin, and trusting God for forgiveness. Before Noah the book of Genesis mentions Enoch and says about him, “Enoch walked with God.” Before Enoch, the Bible mentions the son of Adam and Eve born after Cain killed Abel. His name was Seth. And when he had a son, it says that “then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
It doesn’t say any of that about Abraham. It doesn’t say that he was righteous, that he walked with God, or that he called on the name of the Lord.
All we get is his genealogy, and then God called him out. Now, that doesn’t mean that he had no idea who God was before God called him. But it is significant that the Bible gives us no indication that he was extra special before then. What we do get is that when he did hear from God, he chose to obey. God called on him to leave his home country, his family, and follow God to a place that would be given to him as an inheritance.
But he chose to follow God because God chose him. What does that mean to us? During stressful times of change, we need to not only remember that God is in control, but also that we are chosen.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
And we, like Abraham, were not chosen because we were the smartest, best, most righteous. He chose us because He chose us.
You have not chosen me…saved by grace
4 So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
It is easy to stray from the faith during times of transition. Satan uses troubling times –like Peter walking on the water—began to look at the waves and the sea, he began to sink.
Jesus before Pilate—you have no power except what is given to you from above
God is in control, You are chosen
III. Remember that God keeps His promises
It’s also very easy during times of change, to become myopic. You are thinking about you a lot. “Look at all that is happening to me.” And sometimes we forget that number one, we are living the human experience. What is happening to us, has happened to others a million times before, and will happen a million times long after we are gone. God is not singling us out. And we also need to remember in our decision-making processes that the things that are happening to us, very often are happening to others who are close to us as well.
You may want to move, but if you move, so does your spouse. And your move will affect your kids, and others in your life. We do not live life in a vacuum.
Look at the promised blessing to Abraham.
Genesis 12: And Yahweh
said to Abram, “[a]Go forth from your land, And from your kin
And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show
you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I
will bless you, And make your name great; And so [b]you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will
bless those who bless you, And the one who [c]curses you I will [d]curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4 So
Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now
Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 So Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his
brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had accumulated,
and the [e]persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go
forth to the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
God has promised a lot of blessing to Abraham. God promised to make him a great nation. The nation that came from Abraham is the nation of Israel today. Just this week the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke before our Congress in Washington D.C. Think about that. God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation, 4000 years ago. And God kept His promise. Name another people who have maintained their identity for 4000 years. And in promising that He would make him a great nation, he was promising that Abram, now 75 years old would have a son.
He also promised to make his name great. Has God kept that promise? Think about this. There are three great religions in the world that consider Abraham as a father. Three great religions that trace their origins back to this man; Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Judaism led to the nation of Israel, and the Jewish faith. Islam traces their lineage to another son of Abraham named Ishmael. Christianity understands that God called Abraham, made him a nation, gave them the law, to be the launch point for the Messiah He would send into the world; Jesus Christ. We, as Christians, are the spiritual children of Abraham.
Romans 9:6–7 Paul explains, “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children.”
In Galatians
3, Paul states it all plainly: “So also Abraham ‘believed God,
and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Understand, then, that those who
have faith are children of Abraham. . . . So those who rely on faith are
blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith”
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile . . . for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26–29).
This number of people follow those three religions in the world today; Out of 7.8 billion humans, Christianity 2.5 billion, Islam almost 2 billion, Judaism almost 15 million, for a total of over 4.5 billion, almost half of the world population today, even if they are not devote, have some notion that Abraham is their ancestor.
Did God keep His promise to Abraham to make his name great? I should say so.
He also said, “I will bless you.” Abram would be blessed; financially, becoming a clan and then a nation, he would be blessed in strength, in influence, wisdom, in his health. He was to receive many blessings.
But the greatest blessing of all, and the one around which I am making this point is that God said, “in you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.” Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.
Nations?
How was that going to happen? Well, it happened in two ways. Through the law and grace. First, through Abraham came the law.
Moses was descendent of Abraham. Through Moses, God gave the Ten Commandments, and the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. This was a blessing not only to the Jewish people, but to the rest of the world. They reveal humanities origins, and God’s requirements. They outline what God requires. And more importantly they demonstrate our inability to meet God’s standards. Which brings us to the second way that the world is blessed through Abraham. Jesus came out of Israel, Abraham’s nation. And Jesus brought the message of grace and forgiveness, and atonement to the world.
All the earth is blessed in Abraham.
Galatians 3: 6 Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, 7 so know that those who are of faith, those are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God [i]would justify the [j]Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with [k]Abraham, the believer.
Openness is essentially the willingness to grow, a distaste for ruts, eagerly standing on top-toe for a better view of what tomorrow brings. A man once bought a new radio, brought it home, placed it on the refrigerator, plugged it in, turned it to WSM in Nashville (home of the Grand Ole Opry), and then pulled all the knobs off! He had already tuned in all he ever wanted or expected to hear. Some marriages are "rutted" and rather dreary because either or both partners have yielded to the tyrrany of the inevitable, "what has been will still be." Stay open to newness. Stay open to change.
Grady Nutt, in Homemade, July, 1990.
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