Genesis 12:1-20

Genesis 12, etc.

I. Notice first the call of Abraham. (1) The call was addressed to him suddenly; (2) it required him to forsake his country and his kindred, while giving him no hope of return; (3) it sent him on a long and difficult journey, to a country lying more than three hundred miles away. Yet Abraham obeyed in willing submission to the command of God.

II. Notice Abraham's conquest over the kings. This is the first battle recorded in the word of God. It was after his rescue of Lot that Abraham was met by the mysterious Melchizedek. An awful shade of supernaturalism still rests upon this man, to whom some of the attributes of the Godhead seem to be ascribed, and who is always named with God and with God's Son. There are two lessons deducible from Abraham's conquests: (1) that military skill and experience are often easily vanquished by untaught valour, when that is at once inspired by impulse, guided by wisdom, and connected with a good cause; (2) that Christian duty varies at different times and in different circumstances.

III. Notice the covenants which were established between Abraham and God. From them we learn: (1) God's infinite condescension; (2) our duty of entering into covenant with God in Christ.

From the history of Abraham we see that God's intention was: (1) to secure to Himself one great accession from the idolatrous camp; (2) to send Abraham as a forerunner and a first step into the land which God had selected as His peculiar property; (3) to create a family link of connection between God and a distinct race of people for long ages. Abraham was to be the microcosm to the coming macrocosm of the Jewish people, as they and their polity again were to be the microcosm to the sublimer macrocosm of Christianity.

G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega,vol. i., p. 308.

References: Genesis 12 Parker, vol. i., p. 192; F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis,p. 33; R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis,vol. i., p. 181; S. Leathes, Studies in Genesis,p. 96. Genesis 13:4. Parker, vol. i., p. 362