The divine promises to Abram are described in 12:1 9. These verses are of fundamental importance for the theology of Genesis, for they serve to bind together the primeval history and the later patriarchal history and look beyond it to the subsequent history of the nation. Whereas chapters 1 11 generally portray man's rebellion, chapters 12 50 detail God's bringing man into a place of blessing. This is the central passage of the Book of Genesis. God's revelation to Abram in these verses explains why his family left Ur (11:31). By placing the call of Abraham after the dispersion of the nations at Babylon (11:1 9), the author intends to picture Abraham's call as God's gift of salvation in the midst of judgment. The primeval history thus explains the significance of the patriarchal story: though apparently of little consequence in the world of their day, the patriarchs are in fact men through whom the world will be redeemed. The God who revealed himself to them was no mere tribal deity but the creator of the whole universe. The fourth dispensation, the dispensation of promise, extended from Abram's call to the giving of the Mosaic Law at Mt. Sinai (Exod. 19 24). Man's stewardship rested on God's promises to Abram, which appear first in 12:1 3 but receive confirmation and enlargement in 13:14 17; 15:1 7; 17:1 8, 15 19; 22:16 18; 26:2 5, 24; 28:13 15; 31:13; and 35:9 12. Individual blessing depended on individual obedience (12:1; 22:18; 26:5). God unconditionally promised blessing through Abram's descendants to the nation of Israel (12:2; 15:18 21; 17:7 8), to the church through Christ (Gal. 3:16, 28 29), and to the Gentile nations (12:3). Individuals (e.g., Pharaoh, 12:17; Abimelech, 20:3, 17) and nations (e.g., Egypt, chs. 47 50; Exod. 1 15) that proved favorable toward Abram's seed would experience divine blessing, but those that proved hostile would experience divine cursing (12:3; cf. Matt. 25:31 46). Christians are called upon to trust God as Abram did and so enter into the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, which covenant inaugurated the dispensation of promise (Rom. 4:11, 16, 23 25; Gal. 3:6 9). God's promises to Abram and his descendants did not end with the giving of the Mosaic Law (Gal. 3:17; cf. Exod. 32:13; 33:1 3; Lev. 23:10; 25:2; 26:6; Deut. 6:1 23; 8:1 18; Josh. 1:2, 11; 24:13; Acts 7:17; Rom. 9:4). However as a test of Israel's stewardship of divine truth, the dispensation of promise was superseded, not annulled, by the dispensation of law (Exod. 19:3 8). 217
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father s house, to the land that I will show you; (Gen. 12:1). 12:1 God's word (call) to Abram appears in 12:1 3. This section begins with a waw disjunctive in the Hebrew text, translated "Now" in the NASB. It introduces an independent circumstantial clause (cf. 1:2). Probably the revelation in view happened in Ur. The NIV and NKJV capture this with the translation "The Lord had said to Abram." So the beginning of chapter 12 flashes back to something that happened in Ur, even though chapter 11 ends with Abram in Haran. Stephen's statement in Acts 7:2 supports this interpretation. In Acts 7:3 Stephen quoted the Septuagint translation of this verse. The LORD called Abram to leave his homeland and to proceed to a different country. The name Yahweh, translated as LORD, is not explained until Exod. 3:14, 15. But the readers of Genesis needed to know that the one who spoke to Abram is the same Yahweh who later would form the nation of Israel and who had created all things (2:4). He is the one who had called them out of Egypt to a new land. That Abram's family chose to accompany him does not imply an act of disobedience on Abram's part. God did not forbid others from accompanying Abram. Lot chose to accompany Abram; Abram did not choose to take Lot with him. The focus of God's command was that Abram should uproot himself and follow His leading. God called him to leave three things, which were progressively more difficult: his country, his family, and his father's house. His country was his home region, his family was his clan, and his father's house was his branch of his clan. In Abram's world such a move was unheard of. Only the poverty-stricken or the defeated would wander; only the landless and the fugitive would move about and leave their ancestral homes. Notice the (initially) conditional element in the covenant program with Abram. It was not until after the death of his father (Gen. 11:32) that Abram began to realize anything of the promise God had given to him, for only after his father's death did God take him into the land (12:4) and there reaffirm the original promise to him (12:7). Initially the promise was conditioned on Abram s obedience. Whether or not God would institute a covenant program with Abram depended on Abram's initial act of obedience in leaving the land. Once this act was accomplished, however, and Abram did obey God, God instituted an irrevocable, unconditional program (ch. 15). While the fulfillment for any particular generation of Israel depended on obedience to God, the ultimate possession of the land is promised unconditionally to Israel even though she does not deserve it. Scripture prophesies that a godly remnant of Israel will be the ultimate possessors of the land at Messiah s second coming (Ezek. 20:33 38). 218
2 and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; 3 and 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 will be blessed (Gen. 12:2 3). 12:2 3 Abram had only a promise from God. We see his faith in his willingness to obey God strictly in the confidence that what God had promised He would perform (Heb. 11:8). This divine promise was the seed from which the Abrahamic Covenant grew (ch. 15). The promise here included few details; it was only a general promise of descendants (v. 2) and influence (vv. 2 3). The Hebrew text says, "be a blessing" (v. 2), not "you shall be a blessing." This was a command rather than a prediction. However as Abram blessed others he would become a blessing (i.e., enriched, as in enriched uranium or plutonium). God would make his life more rich and powerful, and he would enrich the lives of others. There are seven elements in this promise seven suggesting fullness and completeness (cf. 2:2 3). (1) God promised to create a great nation through Abram. (2) He promised to bless Abram. (3) Abram's name would live on after his lifetime. (4) He was (commanded) to be a blessing to others. (5) God would bless those who blessed Abram. (6) And God would curse those who cursed Abram. (7) All the families of the earth would be blessed through Abram and his descendants. The promises that this glorious God gave to Abram fall into three categories. First there were personal promises given to Abram. God said, I will bless you; I will make your name great. Then there were national promises given to this childless man. I will make you into a great nation. And finally there were universal promises that were to come through Abram. You will be a blessing and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. 219
2 and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; 3 and 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 will be blessed (Gen. 12:2 3). 12:2 3 Five times in vv. 2 3 Abraham is said to be blessed or a blessing to others. This harks back to the first great blessing of mankind at creation (1:28) and its renewal after the flood (9:1). Moreover, Abraham is to become a great nation, comparable presumably to the seventy nations listed in Gen 10. His name will also be great, whereas the men of Babel who tried to make themselves a name were frustrated (11:4 9). Three nuances of blessing include prosperity (13:2, 5; 14:22 23; 24:35; 26:12 13; 30:43; 32:3 21), potency or fertility (1:28; 13:16; 15:5; 22:17; 26:4; 28:3, 14; 35:11) and victory (1:22; cf. 22:17). God's ultimate purpose was to bless all the peoples of the earth through Abraham and his seed. Abram's call and obedient response form a foundation for all that follows concerning him, his immediate descendants, and his later descendants. When God called Abram, He took a new approach to blessing the human race. These verses constitute a programmatic statement, a statement that succinctly lays out God's program concerning the future. Any personal promise God gives must be appropriated by faith (15:6). The remarkable thing about Abraham was his deep, unwavering faith. 220
3 and 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 will be blessed (Gen. 12:3). 12:3 The Hebrew words translated "curse" in verse 3 are significant. The word qll in "the one who curses you" (Heb. qalal, to be slight, swift, or trifling) really means "disdains," but the word 'rr in "I will curse" (Heb. arar, to curse) means "curse." It was only disdain for Abraham (not a formal cursing of him or his people) that would provoke God's judgment. Why is there suffering in the world? One answer is that some people and nations have chosen not to bless Abraham and his descendants through Isaac the Jewish people. 221
3 and 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 will be blessed (Gen. 12:3). 12:3 This promise of blessing through (in) Abraham to all the families of the earth is later reaffirmed to Isaac and Jacob (22:18; 26:4; 28:14). In you designates Abram as the covenantal representative for a people group that includes Abram s physical descendants through Isaac. To be blessed in Abram is reserved for members of that people for whom Abram is the representative (cf. 2 Sam. 19:43; 20:1). But not all of Abraham s physical descendants experience justification; children of Abraham (cf. Matt. 3:9; Luke 3:8; John 8:39) are those who believe and obey God as Abraham did. The promise of blessing extends also to believing Gentiles (e.g., Rahab, Ruth). The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed in You. So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham s descendants, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:8 9, 29). A typical amillennial interpretation of this promise is that it "does not pertain today to unbelieving, ethnic 'Israel' (see Rom. 9:6 8; Gal. 3:15) but to Jesus Christ and his church (see 12:7; 13:16 and notes; Gal. 3:16, 26 29; 6:16) (Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001], 206). This amillennial interpretation applies the promise to the spiritual seed of Abraham (the Church) but not to the physical seed (the nation Israel). However, there is no reason for accepting this more obscure explanation. Abraham understood the promise as applying to his physical descendants (through Isaac), and later revelation encourages us to understand it this way too; i.e., the promise applies to the nation Israel (cf. Gen. 27:29; Num. 24:9), and especially to those Jews who believe God as Abraham did. The ultimate fulfillment of the promises to Abraham s physical descendants awaits the time when all Israel shall be saved (Rom. 11:26) at Messiah s second coming. 222
God s promise to Abram (Abraham) was reaffirmed to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. These reaffirmations show that the promise to Abraham extends also to his physical descendants (his seed) through Isaac, the child of promise, and to the sons of Jacob (the twelve tribes of Israel). Later, during the Exodus from Egypt, God would form the Hebrews (physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac) into a nation, as He promised He would (Exod. 19:5 6; Deut. 4:34, 37; 7:6). The family of Israel is the only nation God has chosen (known or set apart in a special way) among the families of the earth (Amos 3:2). Believers today become children of promise like Isaac (Gal. 4:28). Gentile believers are spiritual children (descendants) of Abraham, though they are not his physical descendants. Jewish believers are doubly blessed (as both physical and spiritual descendants of Abraham), since even unbelieving physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac are advantaged (Rom. 3:1 2). The spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant will apply to all of national Israel beginning at the time of Messiah s second coming to earth, when all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26). 223
4 So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran (Gen. 12:4). Abram's response is described in 12:4 9. After 25 additional years at Haran, in 2091 B.C. Abram obediently departed for Canaan. At this time Abram was 75 years of age. 12:4 Since Lot voluntarily chose to accompany Abram, he probably believed the promises as well (cf. Ruth). Abram's call had been to separate from his pagan relatives, so he was not disobedient by allowing Lot to accompany him, since evidently Lot was a believer. Probably Abram viewed Lot as his heir (cf. 11:27 32; 12:4 5; 13:1 2). Since Mesopotamian law-codes allowed for the adoption of an heir in the case of childlessness, this becomes an attractive hypothesis with respect to Lot. Abram lived 50 years with his father (2166 2116 B.C.), then 50 years without his father or his son (25 years at Haran, 2116 2091 B.C.; 25 years in the land 2091 2066 B.C.), and then 75 more years with his son, Isaac (2066 1991 B.C.). 224
5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land (Gen. 12:5 6). 12:5 6 Abram's first settlement was in Shechem. Towns on the main caravan route southwestward from the Euphrates which figure significantly in the Abram stories, are Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, and Gerar. Shechem became sacred to the Israelites because here God revealed Himself to Abram for the first time in the Promised Land. This was God's second major revelation to Abram. At Shechem Jacob later bought land, set up his home, and buried his idols in rededication to Yahweh after returning from his sojourn in Paddan-aram (33:18 20; 35:4). Here, too, the Israelites assembled twice when they had taken possession of Canaan under Joshua's leadership to commemorate God's faithfulness in giving them the land He had promised their forefathers (Josh. 8; 24). Shechem was near the geographic center of Canaan (cf. Josh. 20:7). It lay in the heart of the land God now promised Abram. "Moreh" means "teacher," so the tree (oak) of Moreh may have been a pagan site for oracles. Here Abraham began symbolically taking possession of the land that would one day be the territory of the Great Teacher (Messiah) and His instruction. The reference to the Canaanites' presence in the land prepares the way for incidents of conflict with these native inhabitants that followed in Israel's history (cf. 10:15 19). It also notes a barrier to the fulfillment of God's promise to give Abram and his heirs the land (v. 7). Abram could not take possession of the Promised Land immediately because the Canaanites occupied it. 225
6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land (Gen. 12:6). Abram s father, Terah, initially led the family from Ur toward the land of Canaan, but decided to settle in Haran. Terah died at Haran in 2116 B.C. at the age of 205 years. Twenty-five years after Terah s death (i.e., in 2091 B.C.) the Lord called Abram to go to the land that I will show you (12:1; i.e., Canaan), which the Lord promised to give to Abram s descendants (12:7; 13:15). 226
7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him (Gen. 12:7). 12:7a Abram and Sarai had no children, yet God promised that He would give the land of Canaan to Abram s descendants. Though it seemed, humanly speaking, impossible for Abram and Sarai to have children, Abram believed God. Abram envisioned himself with descendants because he trusted that God would fulfill His promise. Abram s faith in God s word led him to worship God. 227
7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him (Gen. 12:7). 12:7b In response to God's promise to give Abram the land where he stood the patriarch built an altar and worshipped Yahweh. This was Abram's characteristic response to God's grace. Abram's altars were more permanent structures than his tents. He continued living as a pilgrim and stranger in a land that he did not yet possess (Heb. 11:9 10). Critics of the historicity of the patriarchal narratives ("minimalists") have tried to prove that the religion of the patriarchs differed greatly from Mosaic orthodoxy and even Christian norms. While there was some difference, there is no solid evidence that the patriarchs worshipped a different God than subsequent Israelites worshipped. 228
8 Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev (Gen. 12:8 9). 12:8 Abram proceeded south and encamped between Bethel and Ai (lit. "Ruin, probably et Tell) just north of Salem (Jerusalem). Again he built an altar to worship Yahweh and called on His name in worship. 12:9 He next continued south toward the Negev (lit. "dry," a transliteration of the Hebrew word for "south"), perhaps because of a shortage of food for his grazing animals (v. 10). The nation of Israel in Moses' day shared the same call that God had extended to Abram. She was to leave her place of residence, Egypt, and go to a Promised Land to worship and serve God there with the promise of blessing. This required faith. We today have a similar calling. Believers who walk by faith will forsake much to become part of God's program to bless the world. Departure from securities is the only way out of barrenness. 229