Saints: Life & Times

Lesson 1: Holiness

Person Specific

“The Lord appeared to Abram, and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” (Gen. 12:7) After duly worshiping the Lord, Abram moved on to find good camping and grazing land. He “pitched his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east.” (Gen. 12:8) “He built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord,” (Gen. 12:8) invoking His power and protection, and expressing a total dedication to and dependence upon so generous a god. We don’t know how long Abram resided there, but when a famine came on the land, he headed for the Negeb Desert and from there to Egypt. After a brief scuffle with the Pharaoh, he returned to his camping ground between Bethel and Ai, and at the altar he had previously built, Abram once more called upon the name of the Lord.

At this juncture, Abram separated from his nephew Lot, generously giving him the better pasture land he requested.

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, “Raise your eyes, and from where you are now look to the north and the south and the east and the west. All the land which you see I will give to you and your posterity forever. I will make your posterity as the dust of the earth; if anyone can count the grains of dust, your posterity can also be counted. Arise, walk the length and breadth of the land, for to you I will give it.” (Gen. 13:14-17),

Was such generosity, such particular favor, ever extended to a mere mortal? Adam knew the extent of his sin and its consequences, but was left with the hope of one, born of the Woman, who would destroy the serpent and the effects of its lie. Noah obeyed God, saved a remnant of human and animal life, and was rewarded with the solemn covenant that never again would all flesh perish by a flood. Both the promise and the covenant were focused on the human race and nature as a whole, but with Abram, God is focused on the man. “I will make a great nation of you. I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you shall be a blessing. I will bless them that bless you, and curse them that curse you. In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” There is a certain excitement in these words, a growing specificity of persons and events. Hope had lost its tentative character; the promise of a Redeemer was to be fulfilled through one man: this man. “I will make your posterity as the dust of the earth; if anyone can count the grains of dust, your posterity can also be counted.” The very nature of these promises has changed. No longer is God concerned about physically saving mankind; He has gone directly to the source of our woe, our spiritual death through sin. Abram’s posterity would be more than the physical legacy of one man; Abram was to be Abraham, the father of many nations, the father of all who walk by faith. Through Abraham would come the Savior; but first, Abram needed a sign.

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