Genesis 11:27-12:20
Psalm 121

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, grace to you and peace from our Creator God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray.  We thank you, O God, for calling us into your church to be your people in the world.  We are ready, God, to hear your word; speak to us and give us courage to do your will.  With all our doubts and fears and shortcomings, we follow you.  Guide us by our loving Spirit.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen

Please open your Bibles to Genesis, the end of Chapter 11.  First, in verse 27, we meet Terah’s family and find out that Lot is orphaned when his father Haran dies.  Apparently, Lot’s grandfather takes Haran’s widow and son into his household and they simply become part of his family or clan.  We don’t know why they leave Ur and head out for the land of Canaan, in verse 31 – perhaps there has been a famine or other problem and that is why Haran died.  In any case, they settle in a new place, a place that comes to be known as Haran.

When Terah also dies, Abram and Sarai take the boy Lot under their wing.  And then, in chapter 12, verse 1, Abram receives a call from God to begin a new life in a new place.  Abram also receives a promise.  In verse 2, the Lord says, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

It is in this call and promise to Abram and Sarai that gives the people of Israel the title “the chosen people”.  I’ve heard many discussions about how Christians have become “the chosen people” also – eliminating the distinction that had been given to the people of Israel as “chosen” by God.  But I think this is a unique calling that the Lord extends to Abram and Sarai.

This is not about a promise of salvation specifically for the two of them, nor the two of them and their immediate family, nor even the two of them and all of their descendents.  This is a promise of blessing and salvation for “all the people of the earth”.  Abram and Sarai are called, chosen and blessed in order that all the peoples of the world can be blessed through them.

This is the uniqueness of the people of Israel being called “the chosen people”.  Why would God choose a particular group of people or THIS particular group of people?  As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, it seems to be that God chooses to work great blessings through human beings.  And the blessing that the Lord is going to bring to the world through Abram and Sarai is the gift of the Messiah.

That’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves – jumping all the way to the New Testament and the Gospels – and yet, as we see Abram and Sarai invest their trust in God, we also need to keep in mind that the Christ child whose birth we will celebrate in a couple months is a part of the promise extended to Abram and Sarai here in the Book of Genesis!

Abram is a man of faith and, we see in verse 5, that he follows the calling of God.  Remember that his father Terah had originally set out for the land of Canaan, but he stopped before he reached that land.  Abram and Sarai and Lot complete the journey – settling in a place called Shechem.

In verse 7, God promises that this very land where Abram and Sarai have stopped will be the place where their descendents will become residents and Abram pauses to build an altar and worship the Lord there in that place.

We find out in verse 8, that Abram and Sarai do not stay there permanently.  He and his family move on to Bethel, which means “the House of God” in Hebrew – and onward from there to the Negeb, which is the “wilderness in the south”.

In verse 10, we hear that famine strikes and forces the family to move yet again – landing in Egypt this time.  Each time Abram and Sarai and their family moved, they set up an altar and worshipped God.  Each time they left behind a home, and found that the Lord welcomed them when they reached their destination.

When they arrive in Egypt, verses 11 and following tell us that Abram is afraid that he will be murdered so that Sarai can be taken as “spoils of war” into another man’s household.  They were foreigners in Egypt, and Abram did not have a lot of trust in Egyptian hospitality!!  So he and Sarai tell a half-truth, claiming that Sarai is Abram’s sister and not saying anything about being his wife.  Half-truth … since Sarai WAS Abram’s half-sister, and also his wife.

In verse 16, we see that the Pharaoh pays a very nice bride-price to Abram for his “sister” Sarai and takes her into his household, and then we read that God protects Sarai from any advances the Pharaoh might have made.  Pharaoh returns Sarai to Abram and asks them to leave Egypt – which Abram does, once again uprooting his family and wandering into the wilderness.

It may seem amazing that a man would continually uproot his family and leave home – each time crediting God for telling him to do so.  And perhaps it was not quite clear to Abram and Sarai as they moved and wandered and moved again – fleeing the famine that hit the land or other troubles that visited their family – perhaps it was not clear at the time of their departure from each home that this was God’s guidance.

It may seem even more amazing that a man would lie about the status of his wife – allowing her to be taken into another man’s household – and again crediting God with making the whole situation work out just fine.

This account of Abram’s wanderings was written long after Abram had died, however, and hindsight often changes our understanding of events that have happened.  We tend to see patterns and connections when we look back – patterns and connections that we did not see as we lived the events themselves.

When Abram and Sarai and their descendents looked back at all their wanderings, all their travels, all the trials they faced, and all their adventures in the various lands where they lived, they saw what seemed to be miraculous stories of survival and blessing.

When famine hit one land, they were able to make a living in another.  When faced with a rich and powerful enemy, that enemy wound up a benefactor and both Sarai and Abram came through the events untouched.

Surely, this could not all be coincidence, could it!?  God’s hand MUST have been guiding them every step of the way.  And so when they began to tell the story of what had happened to them, God became one of the main characters.

The story was not about Abram and Sarai and their adventures.  The story was about God and God’s relationship with Abram and Sarai.  The story was not about the struggles that this couple faced in each land where they settled.  It was about the blessings that God gave to them no matter where they found themselves living.

Some will ask whether or not the stories are true.  Are Abram and Sarai “real people”?  Probably they are.  If a historian were to write the story of their lives, would these facts be present?  Probably not – because historians do not take into account the motives behind the details.  Historians ask “what” and “when”.  They do not ask “why”.

The chosen people passed down this story of their ancestors because it gave them the foundation for their faith.  Later we will hear the Jewish recitation, “A wandering Aramean was my father.”  Our heritage is one of trusting God, even in the midst of wanderings that we DO NOT understand.  Our heritage is one of being blessed by the Lord, in order to be a blessing to others.  Our heritage is one of being chosen by God as witnesses to God’s purpose for the world, even when we are not entirely sure how that is going to work itself out.

And no matter how many times we might uproot our families or leave our homes, no matter where our wanderings might take us, our Lord and our God will be right there with us, all the way.

Abram and Sarai told us that this is true.  And so, we will also trust and follow this God.

Amen