A New Beginning with Abram
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. Genesis 12:1
Read Acts 7:1-7
Hundreds of years after the great Flood, the Lord makes a new beginning with Abram. In the meantime, evil has multiplied in the world. During the time of Noah, one could speak of God-fearing ancestors, and Noah himself was a righteous man. This was all of grace.
In Abram’s lifetime it had become much worse. Joshua tells us that Abraham and his father served other gods (Joshua 24:2). They were heathens. Even though they were descendants of Shem, faith in God as the Creator of heaven and earth had disappeared. Abram was a worshiper of idols, a child of Adam and a child of wrath that could not enter into the kingdom of God except he was born again. Yet the Lord makes a covenant with Abram. When the sacrament of baptism is administered to children in church, we sing, “The word of grace which He commands, to thousand generations stands.” (Psalter 425:5) But all those children are children of wrath, just as Abram was. So when God called Abram, it was merely of grace.
But how did Abram know that the Lord was not an idol? The deacon Stephen tells us this in Acts 7:2, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia.” The Lord revealed Himself to Abram, and he saw something of God’s glory. He understood that it was the Lord who was calling him. This was a call he could not refuse. We are reminded here of an important truth: God calls man. He does so through His Word, by means of the preaching and sometimes through providence. How imperative it is to know that God calls us. Do you also know this in your life? Is your answer, “Speak Lord?”
Thought: When God makes a new beginning, sinners forsake their idols.
Psalter 125:4, 5 (based on Psalm 45) Enthroned in royal state, All glorious thou shalt dwell, With garments fair, in-wrought with gold, The Church He loveth well. And they that honor Thee, Shall in Thy train attend; And to the palace of the King, Shall joyfully ascend.