Abraham’s Second Call (Genesis 12:1-5)

We saw previously that God had initially called Abraham when he lived in Ur of the Chaldees. In response to that call, Abraham had left that city along with his father Terah and other family members. They travelled as far as Haran, a region that today is on the border of Turkey and Syria. There they settled down, for how long we cannot say, although we are informed that this second call occurred when Terah had died. So we can assume that the delay had a connection to Terah.

Was Abraham a backslider in Haran?

The call that Abraham received the second time was virtually the same as the first call. He was told to leave his situation and his family and go to an unknown location. There he would prosper under the hand of God, and eventually he would become a blessing to the whole world. The point to note is that God, when he gives a second call, does not adapt his original call.

This feature is found in the experience of many in the Bible who received a second call from God in a specific way. One of the best-known examples is Jonah who initially refused God’s call to go to Nineveh, but who discovered that attempts to divert God’s intention will not work. Another example is Peter, although his call from God came the second time after his repentance over his denial of Jesus. A third person is Mark, who failed in his calling as an apostolic assistant, was later restored and regarded as very useful by the person whom he failed, the Apostle Paul. To that list of stalwarts we can add Abraham, the father of the faithful.

Why did he delay? We are not told why, so every suggestion is just a guess. The usual assessment is that Abraham was distracted from fulfilling his calling by disobedience to God’s revealed will. It is suggested that he should have left his family behind in Ur and not allowed them to come with him. F. B. Meyer, who wrote many books assessing Bible characters, is adamant in his study of Abraham that he was hindered by his father in the life of faith. That may be true, but if it is we must ask why he was willing to take Lot with him after his second call. It is true that Lot caused Abraham a lot of problems, but these problems were caused by Lot’s attitudes and not by Abraham’s kindness in being willing to take him along. I am not aware of any biblical passage that suggests Abraham was wrong to look after family members who were willing to travel with him.

In contrast to the suggestion that Abraham was hindered by Terah is the idea that the older man was converted as a result of the divine message received by his son when in Ur. John Calvin wrote: ‘In short, Moses records this oracle, in order that we may know that this long journey was undertaken by Abram, and his father Terah, at the command of God. Whence it also appears, that Terah was not so far deluded by superstitions as to be destitute of the fear of God. It was difficult for the old man, already broken and failing in health, to tear himself away from his own country. Some true religion, therefore, although smothered, still remained in his mind. Therefore, when he knew that the place, from which his son was commanded to depart, was accursed, it was his wish not to perish there; but he joined himself as an associate with him whom the Lord was about to deliver. What a witness, I demand, will he prove, in the last day, to condemn our indolence!’

In between these two views is that of Matthew Henry who regards Terah as a picture of many who set out for Canaan but do not get there, who are not far from the kingdom of God, but not in it. The problem with Henry’s suggestion is that it makes Terah’s physical death a reason for his spiritual death, whereas the account can be read as indicating he was an old man who was prepared to travel to the earthly promised land in order to enjoy the blessings of God but found himself enjoying heavenly ones instead. For what it is worth, I prefer Calvin’s interpretation and do not regard Abraham’s time in Haran as delay caused by disobedience.

If the delay was not caused by disobedience, can another suggestion be made as to why he was hindered in getting to the promised land? I think it is at least feasible to say that he was delayed by family responsibilities. His father Terah was willing to go with him and went as far as Haran. As I mentioned earlier, Abraham stayed there until his father died, and we have no means of knowing how long they remained there (Abraham was seventy-five when he left Haran). It may have been a month, a year or a decade. Perhaps the delay was caused by Terah’s inability to travel any further, and the group had to wait there until he passed away. I mention this possibility because some people receive a call from God to work for him but are hindered from doing so by legitimate circumstances in God’s providence. Yet when the situation is resolved, the Lord sends his call again and re-commissions them, as it were, for the task. Such providences are not permanent barriers; instead they are ways of God saying to us, ‘Wait on my time.’

We do not know which option is right, or whether either one is correct. Yet personally I would lean to the second option, mainly for the reason that the biblical accounts don’t condemn Abraham for this action. With regard to definite failures in his life, the accounts mention that he was wrong. Also, with regard to others who received a second call – people like Jonah, Peter and Mark – we are told what their sinful action was that affected the initial call. I would also mention a third possible argument that supports the idea that Haran was not a bad experience for Abraham – God allowed him to take with him the various items he had accumulated there. If they were illegitimate things that he had collected during a time of backsliding, I do not think that the Lord would have allowed Abraham to hold on to them.

Abraham’s experience teaches us that God is often not in a hurry. In past generations, when life was slower, this reality was often not a difficulty. Would-be missionaries knew that they would have to wait several years before they would reach their fields of labour. Even in domestic circumstances, people were used to waiting (for example, a husband might go abroad to find a place to live for his family, but they knew that it might take several years for him to send word that he had found it). One of the biggest difficulties facing us today is the sense of immediateness that marks our society, whether it is sending messages or travelling to other places. They are difficulties because God has not changed his methods of preparation. He is often prepared to wait until a particular time that he has fixed. Today, if God has decided that the suitable date for a person to go to serve him in a particular place is in March 2011, it makes no difference to his plans that a dozen planes will be flying there every day until then. He will arrange for the best time, which usually is when his chosen servant is ready.

In passing, we can note another way which shows that God was not in a hurry. Abraham was seventy-five when he left Haran with God’s renewed call in his heart. Yet he was going to have to wait twenty-five years before God fulfilled the next stage in his promise, the birth of his descendant. Abraham would be one hundred when Isaac was born (Gen. 21:2).

An important passage in the Bible

If someone were to ask you this question, What is the most important set of verses in the Bible?, you might give several sets of options in reply. You might say that Genesis 1–3 are very important because it describes the creation of the universe and the entrance of sin into the world. Or you might choose the last two chapters in the Book of Revelation because you think they depict the wonders of heaven. Or you may choose prophecies such as Isaiah 53 because it combines God’s ability to predict the future as well detailing what happened to Jesus on the cross. Of course, my question was not a valid one because it is not possible to say which is the most important passage in the Bible.

Having admitted that this is the case, we also have to insist that there are key moments in the unfolding of God’s purpose of mercy. There are several of them and they help give us a framework by which we can understand what God is doing. In this regard, we can mention the new world after the flood, the new people of God after the Exodus, the church after the Day of Pentecost as key moments in God’s plan for his kingdom. To them, we need to add this passage in Genesis 12 because it is not too much to say that the remainder of the Bible is an exposition of what is declared in these verses.

For example, God promises to Abraham that he will have a specific country and that he will be the ancestor of a great nation. In a sense, these two details summarise the rest of the Old Testament because it is largely about what took place in the land of Canaan and it describes what happened to the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham.

The promise to Abraham extends beyond these historical Old Testament references on through the New Testament and down all the centuries since then. Abraham heard a promise that is connected to you and me, although he had no idea that we would exist. He was told that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed. This is a reference to the coming of the Saviour, the Descendant of Abraham, the man who stayed in Haran for a short time.

This promise of God to Abraham is one of universal blessing, which means that God separated him in order to bring blessings to others. Abraham was told to isolate himself so that through his obedience to God others would receive a blessing. This principle is not as strange as it may sound. God still makes the same demands of his people. He says to them, ‘Draw near to me in prayer, either by yourself or with others, and pray to me about giving spiritual blessing to other people.’ What Abraham did physically, we are asked to do spiritually. Separate in order to procure a blessing. The opposite is also true: ‘Don’t separate and deprive others of a blessing.’

Three blessings we share with Abraham

The promise made to Abraham involves spiritual blessings. What are these favours that God is going to give to others? There are many, but I would mention three in particular that arise out of this promise here.

First, Abraham is a reminder that acceptance with God is not based on our works, but is based on faith in the promised Deliverer. I suppose that Abraham could point to his lifestyle of obedience as a means of obtaining God’s favour. Yet we know that Abraham failed God often. So even his dedicated life, in which he made many a sacrifice for the cause of God, was not the means by which he became right with God. Instead he had to trust in the One whom God promised would yet come to provide salvation. And when Jesus came, he testified about Abraham to the Jews in John 8:56: ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ He looked ahead and trusted in what Jesus would do on his behalf.

We have to do the same. Our good works are of no use as far as becoming right with God is concerned. We have to do what David Dickson of Irvine did, a well-known Scottish preacher who died in 1662: ‘As for myself, I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and have cast them together in a heap before the Lord; and have fled from both to Jesus Christ, and in him I have sweet peace.’

In Romans and Galatians Paul argues from the experience of Abraham the great truth of justification by faith alone. Abraham depended entirely for his salvation on the work of Jesus Christ. He is not in heaven tonight because he lived a life of devoted obedience to God’s call – he is there because he committed his soul by faith into the care of the future Saviour.

Second, this divine promise to Abraham points to the fact that in this world we have no final resting-place. The Bible itself says that Abraham did not regard the possession of the land of Canaan as being the full meaning of this great promise by God. Paul says this in Romans 4:13: ‘For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.’ Abraham saw beyond the earthly territory to another world, ‘to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God’ (Heb. 11:10). In other words, Abraham saw in this aspect of the promise the greater reality that one day there would be a new heavens and new earth in which he as an heir of God would live for ever. This detail recognised by Abraham has yet to be fulfilled, but it will be. Hopefully, each of us will be there and join ‘Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 8:11).

Thirdly, God promised to Abraham that his name would be vindicated – ‘I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse.’ Abraham, who went forth in faith upon God’s promise, travelled under the assurance of God’s protection from enemies. Yet I think this detail also stretches across the ages down to the judgement seat. Here is a reminder that God will one day deal with people according to how they treated his people. Is this not what Jesus says in the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. The test is clearly stated: ‘And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”….Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

These three great promises were only the first of many that the Lord gave to Abraham. Throughout his life, he would have reflected many times upon them. Today he can testify from heaven that these promises have within them far greater prospects than even the greatest believers on earth can imagine. But they have been given to us as well as to Abraham in order to help us journey as pilgrims to the heavenly city.