Now the LORD said to Abram1, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great3, so that you will be a blessing4. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse5; and in you all the families6 of the earth shall be blessed."
So Abram went, as the LORD had told him7; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old8 when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD9, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
[1] As far as we know, Abram had done nothing special to deserve this special word from the Lord. I feel like the way I've been taught, Abram must have been very righteous to get such a special blessing from God. But the author certainly doesn't clarify that.
[2] The entire command to Abram is to "go", to leave the country, family, and home he has known.
[3] God will give him what the Babelites tried to get for themselves.
[4] He not only will be blessed, but will be a blessing as well.
[5] Blessings and curses often seem like they need to come together.
[6] ALL the families on earth. Only a chapter after the scattering of the people's, we see God's promise to bless all the peoples through one man. My study Bible points out that an alternative translation is possible, where the sentence says, "in you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves", which carries a quite different meaning.
[7] Like the other righteous, Abram's faith is marked by his simple obedience to what God had commanded him.
[8] So old when he starts! We know nothing of how he spent his first 75 years, other than not having children.
[9] Abram did not need to be commanded to worship - just the fact that he interacted with God appeared to be reason enough to build the alter and invoke his name.
Take-home: God wants to bless Abram, and only needs his trust. The strength of this blessing is that it is not meant for Abram alone, but many others will be blessed through him, perhaps all the peoples of the Earth. We don't know if Abram did anything to deserve this special covenant, but he faithfully obeyed his part of it and found occasions to spontaneously worship the Lord.
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