Now Yahweh
said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s
house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great
nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a
blessing. All the families of the earth will be blessed through
you.” So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his
wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and
the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land
of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the
land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites
were in the land. Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this
land to your offspring.” (Genesis 12:1-7)
Yahweh said
to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look
from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for
I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring
forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so
that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be
counted. Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for
I will give it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-18)
Yahweh
brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars,
if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will
be.” He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for
righteousness. He said to Abram, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur to
give you this land to inherit it.” (Genesis 15:5-7)
When Abram
was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God
Almighty. I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply
you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying, “As
for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude
of nations. Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be
Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I
will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will
come out of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your
offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant,
to be a God to you and to your offspring after you. I will give to you,
and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land
of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.” (Genesis
17:1-8)
I will
bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of
the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. (Genesis 22:17)
___________________________
God
promises that Abram will be the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
which, taken together, today represent well over half the global
population. There is nothing in Abram’s backstory to suggest he deserves
to be chosen for this immense blessing and honor. In fact, Genesis tells
us who Abram’s ancestors were, but doesn’t tell us anything else about
him. God’s choice appears to have been entirely random.
But Abram’s
story is more than just the history of world religion. Abram’s name means,
“father,” and the new name God gives him, “Abraham,” means “father of
nations.” We are not supposed to see Abram as a heroic, distant Biblical
figure, but as being in our own immediate family and our direct decedent.
Abram represents each one of us and God’s unreasoning decision to take each of
us as His very own.
God repeats
His covenant with Abram repeatedly as though to make sure we don’t forget it.
He speaks in the most evocative language: He tells Abram to
look in every direction to see the land God will give his children as an
everlasting possession. He invites Abram, and each one of us, to look up
into the ancient starlit night sky and the sand on the boundless seashore to
illustrate God’s abundant, eternal love.
