I cannot say for certain, but I have an idea that there may have been no worshippers of YHWH God on the earth by the time we get to the end of Genesis 11. I'm not sure when to place Job, and I do not know what else God may have been doing in the hearts of others that is nowhere recorded in Scripture, nevertheless the portrait painted in Genesis is of a world in rebellion to God and scattered. And as we saw in the last post, Terah and his family are in Ur of the Chaldees "serving other gods."
That's when God begins his great redemptive work. Oh, God has been merciful and forgiving before now and God has loved and saved by his grace before now, but when we get to Genesis 12 and Abraham we arrive at a great turning point in the history of the world. We see the beginnings of God's great plan of redemption being set into motion. It begins with a man called Abram.
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3 ESV)So God comes down and speaks to an idolater named Abram and God calls him "out of darkness into his marvellous light" as Peter phrases it in the King James translation. God waits until everything looks really, really bad and then God begins to do something very, very good. It's easy to miss the significance of what is going on here, but make no mistake, this is like the sprouting of an acorn, the first acorn in what will become a great forest.
God's calling is an act of love--not just of love for Abram, but of love for all mankind. God is determined to bless whether we deserve it or not. In fact, God is determined to give blessing to those who most certainly do not deserve it. So he chooses Abram and tells Abram he will bless him, bless all those who bless him, and through him bless the whole world. Isn't God's love amazing? When the world is most deserving of a curse, God intervenes and begins the greatest work of blessing the world has ever known.
What is Abram's response to this call? The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8 ESV)God, in grace, speaks to us in spite of the fact that we do not deserve it. If you are a believer, if you are a follower of Christ, then you already know this. God spoke to you, called you, and you responded like Abram did, in faith. But what if you are not a believer? Perhaps you have doubts. Perhaps you are a skeptic. Perhaps you have reservations. Perhaps you have had some bad experiences. Perhaps you were once a church-goer, made a profession, walked an aisle, raised your hand, kneeled at an altar, . . . but now there is doubt and darkness in your heart. I want you to know that God calls people out of darkness, and he calls them to Himself. In fact, just as God invaded the world and invaded the life of Abram in our Scripture above God may be invading your life right now. He may be calling you out of your darkness into his glorious light. God is like that. God could judge you, but God is extending love to you instead. He says, "Follow me." Where is he going? Who knows. Does it matter? Wherever he leads we know this--there is blessing, and peace, and joy, and love where he is.
Not sure yet? Keep reading.
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