Genesis 12

Genesis 12:1 says, "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you'." Genesis 12:4 says, "So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him." So we that God called Abraham to another land. God told Abraham to leave everything, and Abraham obeyed. I am reminded of Mark 8:24, which says, "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'." Luke 14:26 also comes to mind, which says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."

Here, Jesus is telling the crowds and His disciples that to be one of His followers, they need to "deny themselves" and "hate their fathers and mothers". It is very similar to Abraham's call is it not? I believe that God calling Abraham was a picture of Christ calling all people. In order to follow Christ, we need to:

1. Be listening to the call
   
2. Obey the call
   
3. Deny ourselves by taking up our cross
   

When God said "leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family" He was saying "take up your cross". Are we getting it? We are only four verses in!

Twice in Genesis 12:5-9 Abraham stops to prepare an altar to the Lord. The first time was after God showed him the Promised Land. The second time was when he set up camp in the hill country. Abraham was blessing, worshipping, and thanking the Lord. Abraham knew the value of worship. We ought to stop to worship the Lord after everything. After every step of our "journey, after a revelation, or after a blessing, we need to "sacrifice to the Lord" through worship and praise.

Verses 10-20 are very interesting. Abraham (currently known as Abram) and his wife Sarai were forced to go into Egypt because of a famine in Canaan, which happened to be the land in which they were residing. Abram told Sarai that because she was so beautiful, they needed to tell the people that she was his sister so they would not kill him and take her. (Uh-oh! Abram is turning to lying. You think that God could have protected them had they not lied? It is a good thing God still took care of them.) Sure enough, Sarai is taken into the palace and Abram is lavished with gifts. God, however, did not like this foolishness. He sent plagues to Pharaoh, who soon became angry. Pharaoh asked Abram why he lied and then kicked him out of the country. Back into the famine goes Abram.

I do not think God EVER likes lying. Sure, there are noble lies, like Corrie ten Boom's lie about keeping Jews in the house, and God still blessed her. Corrie's niece, however, told the soldiers that she was hiding Jews, and she even told them where they were hiding. God blessed her honesty and protected the Jews. God blesses honesty; He could have protected Abram.