Question

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God Called Abraham

Genesis 11:27-12:20

Key Verse: 12:2,3

1. Read 11:27-32. What do we learn in these verses about Abraham’s family? (Jos 24:2) What was his life problem (11:30) Look at 12:1-3. What did God command Abram to do? Why was it necessary for him to leave his familiar, secure environment?

2. Read 12:2-3 again. What did God promise Abram? What is the meaning of each promise?

3. Read v. 4-5. How did Abram show his faith in God’s promise? (He 11:8) What was the basis of his faith? Why is our faith in God’s promise important in God’s redemptive history? (He 11:9, Jn 1:12, Ac 10:43; 16:31, Ro 1:16; 4:13, Gal 3:9, 18)

4. Read v.6-9. What did it mean to build altars in Canaan? What did each one mean? Read v10-20. How was Abram’s motive for going to Egypt different from his motive in going to Canaan? What problem arose to Abram in Egypt? How did God help him? What can we learn from Abram’s mistake?

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Attachment

• Ge12-01-20-q.docx

BibleNote

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God Called Abraham

Genesis 11:27-12:20

Key Verse: 12:2,3 ² “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.^{[a] 3} I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”^[b]

After Noah’s flood, God made new plan for men’s salvation…Through faith in his promise.

As sin spread like COVID, men needed new way of salvation from sin, like Vaccine.

God chose one person Abraham and started his plan through him. …Not by any human condition and situation, but only by faith in God’s promise.

Salvation comes only through faith in God’s promise---John 3:16.

1. Read 11:27-32. What do we learn in these verses about Abraham’s family? (Jos 24:2) What was his life problem (11:30) Look at 12:1-3. What did God command Abram to do? Why was it necessary for him to leave his familiar, secure environment?

Abram’s Family

²⁷ This is the account of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

³² Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

The Call of Abram

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.^[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”^[b]

² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.

Before Abraham was called by God, while he still lived in Chaldean, his father Terah served idols.

Abraham and Sarah were old. Abraham was 75 years old, as good as dead. They had no children…no heir.

God commanded Abraham to leave his country, his father’s household,… go to the land where God directed. God commanded Abraham to leave from his comfort zone and his idol-worship environment.

God prepared spiritual environment for Abraham’s new life.

God disarmed all what Abraham had depended humanly… his house, friend, job…career.

God wanted Abraham to live by faith, not by sight, not by things of the world.

Abraham had to start new life with God alone, not with the things of the world.

1. Read 12:2-3 again. What did God promise Abram? What is the meaning of each promise?

² “I will make you into a great nation,-------I will make you very fruitful with many children.
and I will bless you; (
I will make your name great, --------I will make you very famous. (Honor)
and you will be a blessing.^[a]------ I will make you a source of blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you, ------I will be on your side. I will be with you.
and whoever curses you I will curse; ------I will protect you
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”^[b]

-----I will make you a blessing to the whole world.—The Messiah will come out from your descendants.

God’s promise must be a great blessing to Abraham, who was old, childless, and hopeless man…God will bless anyone who live by faith like Abraham.

1. Read v. 4-5. How did Abram show his faith in God’s promise? (He 11:8) What was the basis of his faith? Why is our faith in God’s promise important in God’s redemptive history? (He 11:9, Jn 1:12, Ac 10:43; 16:31, Ro 1:16; 4:13, Gal 3:9, 18)

   ⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

   ⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

³¹ They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

¹³ It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

⁹ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

¹⁸ For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

1. Read v.6-9. What did it mean to build altars in Canaan? What did each one mean? Read v10-20. How was Abram’s motive for going to Egypt different from his motive in going to Canaan? What problem arose to Abram in Egypt? How did God help him? What can we learn from Abram’s mistake?

⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring^[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. ⁹ Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

Abram in Egypt

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. ¹¹ As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. ¹³ Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

¹⁴ When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. ¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Building an altar means ‘worshiping God’. the First altar---depending on God---request for guidance. The second altar---praising God---thanks

The life of Canaan---even though unstable and inconvenient,----life with God, building altars.. The life in Egypt---even though he got wealth---full of fear, shame, guilt—no happiness,, no peace.

The motivation of moving, changing---should be done by God’s calling, not by our need or desire.

From Abraham’s mistake, we must live by faith from the beginning to the end. The righteous will live by faith, not by sight, not by comfortable life.

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Attachment

• Ge12-01-20-answer.docx