Abraham: God's New Grace Initiative;
Gen. 11-12
These are not just random
events, different events or biographies, but the writers of Scripture
themselves wrote a sort of editorialized view of history, a theologized view of
what was going on at that time. This is God’s perspective on human history so
that we can understand His plan and purposes and how He is working out His
purposes for mankind. The unifying principle of the Old Testament is the
In Genesis chapters 10 &
11 we have the episode of the
The other thing that we see
is that one of the descendants of Ham was
Genesis 11:1 NASB
“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.” There was a
unity of language and because there is man can do more. He can unite together
against God. [4] “They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a
tower whose top {will reach} into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name,
otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” Man
is out to establish himself in antagonism against God—“lest we be scattered.”
God had said to scatter over the earth. This was an episode of rebellion and
this, of course, man continues to do throughout history and the latest
manifestation is the United Nations and all of the moves and attempts toward
globalization that are going on. It is man’s attempt to solve man’s problems
man’s way. God will always judge that and the results of that are always going
top be catastrophe. It will never work and is has never worked. Because of this
God curses man and he scatters their language.
Genesis 11:6 NASB
“The LORD said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same
language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose
to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let Us go down and there confuse
their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech’.” The
person who led this was a descendant of Ham: Nimrod. Among the Hamitic languages on the earth there is more
diversification, more distinction, than in Japhetic languages. In the Semitic
languages, descendants of Shem, they are very similar. So man is scattered by
language, and because of language diversification men are isolated, there is
genetic isolation, and then the races develop.
In the last part of chapter
eleven we see God’s grace in calling out a special person. Man continues to
rebel against God, to assert his right to rule, refuses to bow the knee; and
God works in a very special way. It is thought that it is in the context of
Genesis eleven that polytheism first begins to originate. Polytheism starts to
elevate man to a position of god and he imputes to all the gods all the foibles
and problems of man; they are just like men. In the midst of all the depravity
God has to start His program to establish His kingdom on the earth one more
time, and He does that by calling out Abram.
Genesis 12:1-3 NASB
“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, And from
your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
The covenant that is given
here is in the form of what is called a royal land grant. A land grant is one
where the king would unconditionally bestow land upon a subject for no
particular reason whatsoever, and it was always unconditional in nature. That
is important because all of the provisions, the blessings, the
promises of the Abrahamic covenant have not been
fulfilled. If God made those promises unconditionally to Abraham and they
haven’t been fulfilled then the implication is that there is yet a future plan
for
In Genesis 12:1 we see the
separation of one man. Abram is to leave all of the influences upon him, his
social background—he came out of a family that was polytheistic. Abram seems to
have had some tradition of the worship of the one true God and so God calls him
out to leave all of these worldly influences around him, and God is going to
start a new plan with Abram. He moves him out to a new land,
In Genesis 12:2 we see the
second stage of the promise. After separating one man out God promises that
through him He is going to make a great nation. Notice the contrast. What
happened in Genesis 11 at the
Genesis 1:3 is interesting
in the Hebrew. In the English it appears that the same word is used both times
in the phrase, “curse” and “curse.” Two different words are used in the Hebrew.
The first word should be translated “the one who treats you
lightly/indifferently.” It is not an active cursing it is simply ignoring or
treating lightly. Of course, this has ultimate fulfillment in the person who
rejects Christ, ignores Christ, who treats the death of Christ lightly. The
second “curse” in the phrase is “I will curse” [and bring discipline on them].
Then He says: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
So what we see in 12:1-3 are
the three great provisions of the Abrahamic covenant.
Whenever we think of the Abrahamic covenant we should
think of three things: land, seed, and blessing. The covenant is with Abram,
not with the Gentiles, but it is through Abram that all the Gentiles will be
blessed, and, of course, that comes through the spiritual blessing of the
cross. It is through the cross that all are brought to salvation.
What we get from the Abrahamic covenant is a synopsis of the rest of the Old
Testament. This lays the groundwork for the founding of the nation, the
formation of the nation, the preparation of the nation, and then the ultimate
fortune of the nation. God will make Abram’s descendants a blessing to all of
the other nations.
Abram is called out
(Abraham is the covenant name that God gives him; father of the multitude), he
marries Sarai but she doesn’t give birth right away
and they get impatient. They substitute man’s solution for man’s problems and
Hagar has a son, Ishmael, who becomes the father of the Edomites.
The seed goes through the promised son, Isaac, who marries Rebekah.
They have twins, Esau and Jacob. Isaac is a believer; Ishamel
is not a believer, so it is through the line of regeneration that the true
nation develops.