Gluten Free & God Seeking: How Did God Call Abraham in Genesis 12:1?

Sunday, November 29, 2015

How Did God Call Abraham in Genesis 12:1?

It didn't take long after the flood before Satan instigated a flat out rebellion against God. In fact according to Halley's Bible Handbook that rebellion took place just 101 years after the flood when everyone on earth united to build the tower of Babel (H. H. Halley. Halley's Bible Handbook. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. 1965, Print.)

The Bible tells us in Genesis 11:7-8 that God wasn't happy with this building and confounded their language so they couldn't work together. The footnote in my Recovery Version of the Bible says that archeological records indicate that both this city and tower were full of the names of idols!

For about 326 years God didn't have any testimony on this earth (page 83). Halley states that all the Babylonian cities of that time were filled with idol worship. It may have looked like God had lost everything. But the omniscient God knew he had one person on the earth. In Ur of Chaldea lived a man named Abram.

Nothing can stop God, and one day God spoke to Abram. These two verses show the first two times God appeared to Abraham--the first was in Ur and the second in Haran:

And he said, Men, brothers, and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. Acts 7:2

Now Jehovah said to Abram, Go from your land and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. Genesis 12:1 [spoken in Haran--see Gen. 11:32]

By reading chapter 39 of the LIfe-Study of Genesis I learned more about why God had to call Abraham repeatedly. These excerpts are on page 540, 546, and 547:

There is a very crucial difference between these two callings of God. In the first calling God told Abraham to get out of his country and his kindred (Acts 7:3). In the second calling God told him to get out of his country, his kindred, and his father's house (Gen. 12:1)….To be saved is to be called to fulfill God's purpose. When God came in to call Abraham, it was not for the purpose that Abraham be saved from hell or filled with joy, it was for the purpose of fulfilling God's plan….To be saved is to be delivered out of many negative situations so that we may come into God's goal…..God's goal is firstly Christ….Secondly, God's goal is the church….God is God. No one can frustrate Him. Once He has chosen and called you, He will not be stopped by anything. Sooner or later He will get through. He will come to you again and again (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Genesis. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1974, Print).