Sermon

December 12, 2007
Midweek Advent 2
Genesis 12:1-8
Pastor Ben Berger

God's Promise to Abram

Promises, promises. Who of you has ever made a promise? OK. Who of you has ever broken a promise? Yeah, that’s why you’re not God. We humans can make promises, but we can’t always keep them. God, on the other hand, keeps every promise he makes. And God doesn’t just make promises to see or test if we’ll trust in him. God makes promises, and keeps them, so that we will trust in him. We’ll learn that again tonight as we look at the promises God kept to his servant Abram. First we’ll look at Abram’s call from God. And then we’ll look at Abram’s promise from God. And we’ll learn how God calls and keeps promises to us too.

The LORD called Abram both to leave and to go. The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (1). What a tough request. The LORD asked Abram to leave behind the things most important to him. Abram had established a home in Haran after his father moved there from Ur. He was now surrounded by family and friends. God had blessed Abram with wealth, both land and flocks, servants and possessions. Now the LORD was asking Abram to leave most of that behind. And, he was asking Abram to go, to go to another land and country. But he didn’t tell him which land. He asked Abram to trust him, to trust that he would guide Abram along the way.

Now I, your pastors and teachers and all “called” workers can relate. When we train to become pastors and teachers, we agree to leave our homes and families and country as necessary and go to the land the LORD shows us. He calls us to our first ministry by means of an assignment committee. I was originally assigned to teach at Nebraska Lutheran High School. I left my family and home in WI and went to the land and people the LORD called me to serve. Now I’m back in WI and my sister, my dad, and my wife’s family all live nearby. One day I might again be called to leave family and home and possibly country to go to another land the LORD will show me. Pastor Raasch is struggling with such a call right now.

Can you relate to the LORD’s call to leave and go? I’m sure you’ve all been asked to leave something at some point. Has the LORD asked you to leave behind a home or family that wasn’t Christian? I’m sure some of you have family that does not agree with your faith. Or maybe the LORD has asked you to let go of a family member he has taken to himself in heaven? Has the LORD asked you to leave behind country or cultural traditions? That’s a struggle for our Latino, Hmong and Asian friends. Has the LORD asked you to leave behind a good paying job because it endangered your faith? Has the LORD asked you to leave behind money or wealth in order to focus more on him? Has the LORD asked you to leave behind a life of sin? Very often we don’t want to leave behind any of these things. We aren’t always willing to put the LORD and his word before family and friends, country and home, job and money?

We can be just as hesitant when the LORD asks us to go. Maybe the LORD has not called you into public ministry as a pastor or teacher, but the LORD has called all of you to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. He has led you to people and opportunities to share his Gospel. Have you been willing to accept the LORD’s call? Are you looking for the “land,” the work, the LORD has given you to do? Do you trust that he will lead you in the right direction?

It wasn’t easy for Abram to follow the LORD’s call either. But Abram was able to follow his call from the LORD because he also received a promise from the LORD, a number of promises in fact.

The LORD enabled Abram to leave and go with his promises. Let’s take a look at the promises beginning in verse two. “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. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (2-3). There are seven specific blessings there that I’m going to put into three general groups.

First, the LORD promises to bless Abram with a great family. He didn’t have to worry about the family he was leaving behind because the LORD was going to give him an eternal, countless family. The LORD promised Abram a great name. Not only would he become famous and known throughout history, the name of Abram or Abraham would become synonymous with faith. And the LORD promised to bless others through Abram. In fact, the LORD promised to bless ALL PEOPLE through Abram; we’ll come back to that promise in a minute. Later, when Abram arrived in Canaan, the LORD reassured him one more time by promising the land to his offspring or descendants. Abram trusted the LORD’s promises. He took the LORD at his word. And by faith in God’s word, Abram followed God’s call. He left his country, home and family. He took his wife and his nephew with their servants and possessions and went to Canaan, the land the LORD showed him.

Let’s go back to the most important promise the LORD made to Abram, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (3). This is God’s promise of a Messiah or Savior. Abram wasn’t the blessing. God wasn’t going to bless all people with Abram, but THROUGH Abram, through one of his descendants. That descendant was Jesus. Genesis 22:18 confirms that Abram’s offspring would be the blessing. And in Galatians 3:16 Paul says that offspring is Christ.

The LORD kept his promise to Abram. He kept all of his promises to Abram, which you can see by reading the rest of Genesis. But, most importantly, he kept his promise to bless all peoples through Abram. Our celebration of Christmas is proof that God kept his promise to Abram.

God the Father called his son, Jesus, to leave and to go. He asked his only son, his most treasured possession, to leave his home and his Father and to go to earth. Jesus willingly left his home and Father in heaven to be born of a virgin and to live with a new family. He agreed to come to a new land and live as a human, following the laws of the land and his family and his Father perfectly. Jesus was willing to go to the Garden of Gethsemane where his best friends would leave him and one would betray him. He was willing to go to the Roman palace where his countrymen would shout for his crucifixion and Pontius Pilate would comply. He was willing to go to Calvary where the soldiers would nail him to a cross for sins he didn’t commit. He was willing to go to hell to suffer for the sins of the world. When Jesus was born on Christmas morn, a babe in a manger, he fulfilled God’s promise to Abram. God kept his promise to bless all people by the birth of Abram’s offspring, Jesus.

Abram proclaimed that promise loud and long. Everywhere he went he built an altar to the LORD. Abram called on the name of the LORD. In other words he proclaimed God’s promises, made and kept, to the people all around him. He told his family and servants and fellow countrymen that God promised a Savior as one of his descendants. Abram’s faith in the LORD’s promises was passed on. Abraham became the father of all believers, and the LORD kept another promise, that of a great nation. Now you and I and all believers are part of Abram’s family, part of his great nation.

Just as the LORD enabled Abram to leave and go with his promises, so also the LORD enables you and me to follow his call with his promises. The LORD does not call us to leave or go without giving us his promises. He promises us the power of his great name. He gives strength for every situation he allows to come into our lives. He promises the support of a great nation or family. He has surrounded us with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage us along life’s way. And he has promised us the blessing of all nations, his Son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, the LORD promises forgiveness for all our sins. He promises forgiveness for our selfish unwillingness to leave behind earthly blessings and relationships. He promises forgiveness for doubting his word and unwillingness to go where he has called us. And with such forgiveness the LORD promises eternal salvation. He ultimately calls us to leave this world and go to his land and home in heaven.

The LORD continues to enable us with his promises every day. He gives us regular opportunity to hear those promises through Word and Sacrament. In his word he calls us to repentance and assures us of forgiveness. In baptism and the Lord’s Supper he further assures us by connecting his word to water, bread and wine. And at special times of year like Christmas, the LORD shows us again how he has kept his promises.

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