Part I: The call of Abraham (Genesis 11:27-12:9)
In our survey of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we mainly saw God’s holly justice and wrath demonstrated through acts of judgment. It starts with kicking Adam and eve out of the garden after the fall, to Caine’s punishment, to the flood and lastly the confusion of tongues.
However, starting in chapter 12 the tone changes decisively. Moving forward, we will start to see God’s attributes of mercy, love and grace extended to a man called Abraham and his descendants.
The author of Hebrews in 12:1 states: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses”. In the book of Genesis and through-out the bible, there is no greater witness to look up to and emulate than Abraham. His shadow stretches over the entire bible old and new testaments.
He was a nomad whose life is characterized by two things, faith-in and obedience to his God. So the name of our series studying his life will be called: Abraham, a journey of faith and obedience. In our study this Sunday we will focus on his call. Our outline will be broken to 3 main parts:
- Hindrances to the call 11:27-32
- The nature of the call 12:1-3
- Full obedience to the call 12:4-9
It is my prayer that the study of Abraham’s life will motivate us to do “the works Abraham did.” Jn 8:39 as our Lord challenged the Jews to do.
May our God whose love was manifested to us through the offspring of Abraham our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified always