Things you can learn from Genesis: part 10

This is not shocking. After the whole scattering incident God seems to randomly choose one of them to be His next person. God does have people. He is a chooser of people. It is one of the things He does. And the way He chooses makes no sense to us. It is just His way. And so He looks about the whole of the earth and He picks Abram. Abram has done nothing remarkable. We are not even told what Abram has done. Unlike Noah he is not even righteous or holy from what we can tell. Now he does set up alters and make sacrifices and these actions seem to indicate he is a man who follows God. But by the same token within one verse of making a sacrifice he is also cruising into Egypt and giving his wife away to pharaoh in order to save his own life. But that is later.

For now it is altogether strange that God has chosen another man period. God says to Abram, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." These are some pretty big promises right there. At this point from what we can see Abram has done nothing. God tells him if you will do something then I will do all these things. All Abram must do is move. Pretty simple. Pack everything up, take all your stuff and your friends and your family and move to the next land on down the way a bit. He did not have to leave anything behind except the land.

God wants Abram to move to Cannan. Now here is something interesting, in Genesis  chapter 11 we are told Abram was headed there anyway. At some point Abram's dad was headed to Cannan and decided to stop short and set up life in Haran. So God is asking Abram to get to the place where the family was headed to at one point anyway. Abram has big cash flow, lots a family and friends, so he packs everything up and off he heads to Cannan. God has made some big promises. Why not go?

It is a good time to stop and really take a look at all the things not said here. Clearly, Abram has a relationship with God. I mean God has a pretty long conversation with him and Abram is not too shocked about talking with God. Another thing here is that God makes big promises. He does not just say go to Cannan and I will make you happy. He literally promises blessing forever. Beyond that Abram is already super wealthy. He pretty much has everything. But he hears God and God says move to a new land so he goes.

On top of everything God has promised He also adds in a few more things. He tells Abram that God will "bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse." Now that is pretty crazy. God literally sets it up that all things that occur on earth have two implications. People will receive blessing or they will be cursed. Again this is a critical component of who God is. He has set His kingdom up around a man He has chosen. All people will be blessed or cursed based on how they treat this man and his offspring. The implication is that how people treat this man is how they see God. Think Matthew 25. Think sheep and goats. Think "come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me." Remember the sheep were all when did we ever see you? And they are told it is all about how they treated the people around them?

See what God did there? He did consistent. He did steadfast. He did unchanging. God has always picked a man and said how you treat this man is how you see me. Oh, think two commands. Think love God and love your neighbor. Think who is this God that He would choose a man, in a town and say move to a new town. Start a new place. Meet new people. He would tell this man I will send you sheep. I will make you known in all the world. And here is how we will do it. We will choose who is for us and who is against us based only on how they treat you. God does this thing just like He did with Adam. He does this "us" and "we" thing. It is always Him but He is always saying look what we did. Think God making people so he can be with them. Think God letting man name stuff.Think unchanging again. This is who He is . . . Always.