Abram the Blessed

Genesis 11-15

It's important to remember when reading Genesis, that it is a collection of stories all hinged upon the revered and famous genealogy of Israel. We don't value genealogies like the ancients did. And we don't tell stories like they did either. Genesis is about the genealogy of Abraham - his sons, their descendants, and the beginning of Israel. The genealogies in the early chapters of Genesis tell us who Abraham descended from, and then the later chapters tell us the story of those that descended from him. 

In these initial chapters about Abraham, we learn a few things: first, his original name is Abram and he is the oldest of a set of triplets. We learn that he is from Ur, a major city near Babel. Abram's father is a sojourner, traveling the traditional route west - heading north in order to not cut through the desert and follow the Fertile Crescent to Canaan. Terah, Abram's father settles in the northern city of Haran - which is where God introduces himself to Abram for the first time.

The significance of these initial chapters swirl around what we learn about God and what we learn about Abraham. We learn about God as he deals with Abram, and we learn about Abram as he reacts to God. Do you ever wonder what it was like to be Abram and meet God for the very first time? What was it like to receive the promise of blessing? The command to sojourn to Canaan and start a new life there? To begin to trust a God you'd never heard of, know nothing about, and has no image you can point to and bow down and worship?

We learn about the important people in Abram's life: his barren wife Sarai, his greedy nephew Lot, his faithful servant Eliezer he picked up in Damascus. We also learn about his nervous character while in Egypt and his conniving nature. When Lot gets captured along with the evil citizens of Sodom, Abram, we learn, has enough servants he can arm to defeat a regional military power. He has become a very powerful, wealthy, feared, and influential man in the promised land.

But: he has no heir, no son, no one to carry on his family seed and fulfill what God had promised. And that is the tension in the story. Blessed but barren. How will God keep his promise with these two old people? Trust and faith and belief become everything. They still are.