Genesis 12:1-4
This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on March 12th, 2017.
These words in verse 4, So Abram left, as the LORD had told him, are essential to preaching the Genesis 12:1-4a text assigned to the second Sunday in the 2017 Lenten season. They are grounded in themes of surprise, obedience, faith, courage, grace, and a new beginning – if not a new birth – blessings, and perhaps intrigue in the context of God’s protection and provision. They are exposed on a God-directed journey being traveled by Abram.
It is a pericope that is pregnant with much preaching opportunity for the preacher, as she focuses on these themes. The preacher would be wise to consider this text from the perspective of the hearer being on a life-journey under God’s guidance. After all, in a sense, the Lenten season is a certain kind of release, freedom or letting go of oldness or that which is comfortable or familiar for newness that God offers. While Lenten is one season of the year, God’s offering of newness is presented daily to his people throughout their lives, even if it seems they are being asked to make a personal sacrifice leaving what they know.
Some might be surprised or intrigued that God came to Abram in his old age and did not offer him a comforting or encouraging word but demanded he take on a life-changing challenge, the effects of which would reverberate to his descendants. But he was offered blessings which included a great legacy, a great name, a new territory, new promises, new opportunities, and new life, simply because God promised. They had nothing to do with Abram’s seniority or worthiness.
Thankfully, God continues to demand of and offer to his people this “leaving” kind of blessed challenge. And we would be remiss not to see that it is fundamentally a grace-gift from God.
Yet God gave Abram a corresponding obligation. Literally, God ordered Abram to be a blessing (12:4), rather than predicting you will be a blessing as many biblical translations provide. It was not a prediction but a command for Abram to become and continually be. It is also an expectation that is to be passed on to his descendants.
Notably, it is a command that Abram had a mission that was far beyond personal gain for himself and his family. Indeed, as God blessed Abraham, he was to be a blessing that impacted others.
The text, however, does not suggest that Abram must wait for his blessing before he is to bless others. Perhaps that is a misunderstanding we sometimes have. Could we be waiting to be blessed before we bless others? Could it be that God prefers that we first be a blessing to others? What a striking point this would be for the preacher to make.
Nevertheless, this is one of the most impactful points the preacher should consider when preaching this text. God expects us to be a blessing to others whether or not we believe we have been blessed.
But none of this frightened Aaron. He was up for the challenge and expected a new beginning and even new birth in his life that God would bless him and “make him a great nation,” because God promised.
It is also important for the preacher to explore that a companion to God’s promise to Abram was the protection that God would give. Abram was ensured that those who cursed or treated him with disdain or contempt would also be cursed by God. The Lord God is a protecting God.
Accordingly, we see Abram’s faithfulness, obedience, and compliance, because he left, as the LORD had told him to go to the land that God would show him (12:4). Abram was commanded to leave the land he knew for a land he did not know, but God was the one who would show him the land. This is a commanding opportunity God offers to us today – “Go where I tell you to go.”
Let our faithful testimony be as the writer of Hebrew 11:8 wrote of Abram: By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Abram unquestionably trusted God for what he would now experience at God’s command and promise. We should trust when God directs us. That is what God expects of us and we should never forget, in the words of David in Psalm 23, that the Lord desires to be our shepherd and continues to be with his people.
In the midst of today’s intense discussions and debates about immigration, the preacher may want to explore the sermonic implications of God’s command to Abram to go to a land that he would be shown and compare that to the prospective immigrant who similarly hears God commanding her or him to go to a foreign land. The preacher should also consider the reactions, responses, and responsibilities of those who reside in the land to which God has commanded the immigrant to go. Will the person told to go have the courage or be able to depart his or her country as God has instructed, given today’s political, legal and social immigration milieu? What fears and apprehensions might keep the one to whom God commands from going forward? How does that person trust God in this context?
These sermonic musings can allow the preacher to press the fact that this pericope assures us that the Lord God continually protects and provides for his people who are on his directed journey. And it is helpful to urge the hearers to reflect on the psalmist’s encouraging and comforting words that the Lord God still will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection (Psalm 91:4).
Joseph C. Parker, Jr.
Senior Pastor
David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church
Austin, Texas
pastorparker@davidchapel.org
Tags: lent, lenten, abram, calling, be a blessing, blessing, challenge