Having been introduced at the end of chapter 11, Abraham now steps centre stage. Except he's not called Abraham yet. He's just plain old Abram. And at the age of seventy-five, Abram is called to leave his country, his people and his family, and follow God to a new land. It must have been a terrifying prospect, but God never asks without giving something in return, and so He gives Abram His assurance. He promises that He will bless him and make him into a great nation, and bless all people on earth through him. (Make a note of that - all people. It was always God's plan to bless the Gentiles as well as the Jews.) So Abram faithfully packs up and leaves with his wife (Sarai), his nephew (Lot) and his entire household.
As Abram is travelling through the land of the Canaanites, God tells him that He will give the land to his offspring, "so he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him" (chapter 12, verse 7). Abram worshipped God where He saw Him and built an altar as a lasting reminder. Later on (chapter 13, verse 4) Abram returns to the altar and worships God there. It seems that worship was a central part of Abram's life, but is it the same for us? Do we remember to worship God where we see Him? Do we leave reminders for ourselves and signs for others? Do we revisit important moments in our walk with God and thank Him for them? Something to think about, maybe.
But back to the story. Before Abram returns to the altar he has a slight detour into Egypt, where he pretends that Sarai is his sister so that the Egyptians will treat him well instead of killing him in order to get her. It seems to work and Pharaoh takes Sarai into his palace and gives Abram all sorts of animals and servants, but God clearly isn't too happy about the situation and so He strikes Pharaoh and his household down with unspecified serious diseases. When Pharaoh realises that Abram and Sarai have lied to him, he is understandably annoyed and orders them to leave the country. No serious harm is done to the pair, but I should imagine they wouldn't be welcome in Egypt again. Abram only lied to protect himself, but it still lead to trouble. A sin is a sin no matter what the reason - the end does not justify the means.
Having left Egypt and revisited the altar, Abram and Lot decide to go their separate ways in order to ensure they have enough space and to prevent conflict between their households. Abram lets Lot choose which direction he wants to head in, and he selfishly chooses the fertile looking valley of Jordan. At this point he probably thinks he's got it made, but that plan backfires when he gets caught up in a war between various kings, and Abram has to rescue him when he is carried off by the victors. It just goes to show, appearances can be deceptive.
It also shows just how little changes. Kings united in order to fight other kings, a war motivated by a greedy desire for power and land, innocent civilians caught up in it all...it all sounds depressingly familiar, doesn't it? It seems that human nature leads generation after generation into violence and destruction. But that is only our fallen nature. We were not designed to be like this, and so there is hope if we can get back to that original design. If only there were a 'restore factory settings' button, it would be so much easier. But there isn't, so we must do it the long way - we must work at it.
In chapter 15, God makes a covenant with Abram. This comes in two parts - firstly, He promises Abram that his descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky; and secondly, He promises that He will give the land He marks out to Abram's descendants. He even gives Abram a miraculous sign so that he may know that His word is true, like putting His seal on a document or His signature on a contract. God has already made a covenant with all of mankind, but He still makes covenants with us as individuals. Our relationship with God may not be exclusive, but it is still personal.
At the point at which this covenant is made, Abram is eighty-six and childless. If his descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars in the sky, he needs to work fast. Sarai appears to be unable to conceive, so she decides to speed things up by giving Abram her servant, Hagar, who soon falls pregnant. Despite this being the aim of the exercise, it makes things rather awkward between Sarai and Hagar, and so Sarai ill-treats her until she runs away, but the Angel of the Lord finds her and sends her back to Sarai. She runs, and God chases after her. How awesome is that? Hagar's response is to call God "the God who sees me" - she gives Him a new name because she suddenly knows Him in a different way. There are so many different aspects to God and we can all know Him in our own way, and we'll know Him in different ways at different times in our lives.
And so Hagar gives birth to a son, Ishmael, and God renews His covenant with Abram. He repeats the promises He made before, and just as Hagar gave God a new name because she has seen a new side to him, so God gives Abram and Sarai new names - from now on they will be Abraham and Sarah, because they have entered a new stage of their lives. He also introduces Abraham's side of the covenant - he and all of his males descendants must be circumcised, and anyone who does not do so will be cut off from his people. This isn't God being petty. He's not saying "you have to be nice to me or I won't be nice to you", He's saying "I need to know you're as dedicated to me as I am to you". And I think that's only fair.
Genesis 17 ends with God promising Abraham that Sarah, his ninety year old seemingly barren wife, will bear him a child. It's no surprise that he fell on his face laughing. It must have seemed ridiculous. But something in Abraham must have believed Him because that very day, he and all the males of his household were circumcised. Abraham held up his end of the bargain, trusting that God would do the same. Do we have that same faith? Or do we wait for God to do something for us before we will do something for Him, just to make sure?
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