A New Nation

Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.”

The first words spoken to the chosen generation was to get out of their traditions. In 11:27-32, we read about Terah’s decision of going to Canaan. This was not a bad decision to not gain God’s approval. But God had chosen Abraham only. Here, “Ur of the Chaldeans” written twice draws our attention. It has been widely accepted that this “Ur” is very close to Babel and so, this group of people did not scatter away but had chosen to stay nearby. Since Chapter starts with “Now”, we can see that the time of Babel was when the last genealogy in Chapter 10 was written which was before the birth of Reu, Peleg’s son. Adding up the years of birth we can see that 161 years after Babel was the decision made by Terah and God was not happy about their stagnancy and Terah had a conviction to move around the world. Terah has started to move to Canaan but stopped his progress at Haran. God rejected Terah because he was in Haran for around 50 years and not move. Canaan was not introduced to Abram alone. God had indeed wanted all the early fathers to move, but Abram was the only one who obeyed or was humble enough to obey and honor his father.

There are three things God wanted Abraham to forsake: his country, family and inheritance. Country points to our culture, family to our sentiments and inheritance to our pride. All these have to be thrown away to have God’s plan executed in our lives. Abraham had to forsake his identity completely to submit to God’s plan. This is faith. Faith does not drag along our self-esteem and other talents. In Luke 14:12 we read Jesus not approving our help to family members or friends which is still selfishness. We need to be independent for true Christian progress. Jesus had always pushed us to leave family and belongings behind. In Gen 12:2, God provides the answers to this loss. We will become a nation if we forsake our country or tradition. We’ll be blessed if we lose our earthly sources of blessings. We will have our names honored if we lose our identity to God.

There was not one incident where Abraham recalled his origin because he completely transformed himself to be a part of the new nation. We are also called to this new nation which is very superior to Canaan or even Israel. Faith is something that makes us believe that we belong to the eternal Father and not to our belongings.

The verse says “To a land that I will show you”. Even though Canaan was known previously, God wanted Abraham to see Canaan the way God wanted to. We make the same mistake in life and so fail as Terah failed. Terah had a different opinion about Canaan and that was satisfied at Haran to make him stay. God wants us to see our destiny through His eyes. Psalms 98:2 says God revealed His salvation. This salvation is Christ, the holy and perfect person ever on earth. When progressing to Christ, we stop in the way at Haran because we think that Christ is just about food and wine which is already available in this earth. We believe that Christ is just redemption from earthly problems and so, do not pursue a real solution. But this salvation is something we need God’s help to understand. This is the role of faith in our life. We believe Him so much that even though we do not properly understand, we would start moving.

In Hebrews 11:8-10, we read this faith elaborated. Abraham did not know where he was going. This was his promised land, but Abraham patiently waited till God built the city. Till that moment, they were living in tents. Faith allows God to work and makes us wait. Sometimes, we also become impatient and give blue-prints to God to start working. Abraham did not have any clue on what nation this is going to be and did not even build houses meaning that we was waiting for precise instructions on where to build a house from God. If God is planning to bless us, we need to let Him do the job completely without interfering.

The blessings given to Abraham did not stop there. God says that “You shall be a blessing”. Abraham was given to us as the wonderful gift which was fulfilled by Jesus. A same instruction is given to us also in Zachariah 8:13 where God says that our salvation is given so that we would be a blessing to others. Without earning people for Christ, there is no reason for us to be saved. At many instances God does not bless us because of our selfish motives to get settled where we want to. God calls us to be blessing to others and not for us to enjoy our lives. We need to note that those who bless you is given in plural and him that curses you is given in singular. This points to the value of this blessing where Abraham was a blessing to every single person and family in the world. There is only one who would curse him which is the devil. This is the amount of goodness God has promised us. This is how we shall become a blessing.

Amen.