Reading: Genesis 12

The flood did not result in a permanent return to God. People forget God and worship their idols instead. They fall back into the spiritual darkness of heathendom. God must intervene to ensure the church continues and the line to Jesus Christ is preserved. God calls Abram out of this darkness into His glorious light. Abram must leave his home town Ur; God will make a new beginning with him. God blesses Abram, and in him all the families of the earth. Abram and Sarai obey God and travel to Canaan where they worship God. Abram and Sarai however must learn to trust God. Their attempt to save themselves in Egypt during a famine fails and God has to rescue them from Pharaoh.

 

Key verse: Gen 12:1-2 “Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you”.

 

Questions: Why did God command Abram and Sarai have to leave their country? Could God not have built his church in Ur? What lesson is there here for us?