LECH LECHA (GO FORTH) Gen 12:1–17:27; Isa 40:27–41:16; Matt1:1–17
“Now the LORD had said to Abram, ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great. …’ So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him” (Gen.12:1-2, 4).
This week’s Torah portion from Gen.12 begins with an astounding promise from God to Abram that was contingent to his obedience. God commanded him to: “Lech Lecha” – Go! Go where? That was the problem! He had no idea where God would lead him but by faith he chose to place his full trust in God. Heb.11:8 states that “…By faith he (Abram) obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
And because of his obedience God rewarded him with a promise that He would establish the birth of a new nation and his descendants would be as the stars in the sky. God’s promise to Abram was impossible since both he and his wife Sarai were sterile – no children, no heir! But he learnt the principle that what is impossible for man is possible with God!
God commanded Abram to travel to an unknown place armed only with a promise of an inheritance for both himself and future generations and because he obeyed, it was accounted for him as righteousness.
God didn’t choose anyone famous to fulfil His commission, but rather someone who was nameless and faceless according to the world’s standards, though not so in the eyes of God: “… who has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise; he has chosen what the world calls weak to shame the strong. He has chosen things of little strength and small repute, yes and even things which have no real existence to explode the pretensions of the things that are—that no man may boast in the presence of God.” (I Cor.1:28-29)
Abram’s encounter with God followed a time during which the nations were living their lives independently from God believing they were their own little gods which led to the building of the Tower of Babel – it failed miserably. Abram was one of only a handful of people on earth at that time who walked in godliness? How quickly things had deteriorated following the Flood! God had to deal with the fickleness and self-centredness of humanity who had turned against Him.
Abram’s childhood, his youth, his relationship with other family members, or even how he came to marry Sarai are never mentioned except through anecdotal stories that remain outside of the Torah but there is something striking about Abram’s background contained within his genealogy: “27 Here is the account of Terah’s descendants. Terah, as said, had fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 While Terah was still alive, Haran died in the same land in which he was born—in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. 29 However, Abram and Nahor lived on and married. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. Now Milcah was the daughter of Haran, who fathered both Milcah and Iscah. 30 But Sarai couldn’t conceive and didn’t have a child.”
From this genealogy we discover that Abram is vitally connected to Shem, Noah’s eldest son. Many of Shem’s later descendants slowly fell into paganism so that unsurprisingly by the time we reach Terah, Abram’s father, we learn how he had become fully assimilated into paganism. Abram was immersed into this culture yet chose to separate himself unto God facing (as is always the case) strong opposition from the wicked generation he was surrounded by. Yet he did not waver in his faith but trusted in the living God.
Between the 10 generations from Noah to Abram, God’s hand of mercy prevailed despite the spiritual condition of his descendants out of which the majority sank to lower and lower levels of depravity and ungodliness. But there still remained a handful of Abram’s descendants who clearly influenced him who acted as godly role models. It was this which prepared him for a commissioning from God that would transform his future and the future of his descendants. We determine this simply from a brief look at the genealogies.
The genealogy from Shem to Abraham is the 5th one in sequence in the Book of Genesis. It begins with itemising the lineage of Cain (Gen.4), Seth (Gen.5), Japheth and Ham (Gen.10). The genealogy from Shem to Abram was 118-year period spanning 10 generations between 2091 and 1973B.C. (cf.,Gen.11:10-26) Bear in mind that In 2091 Noah would have still alive aged 822. Shem, his son, was 320 and his grandson Arph-axad was 220. The youngest of this group representing the descendant still alive after the flood, was Terah (Abram’s father) who had just been born.
Shem lived such a long life after the flood that when he died in 1811 B.C. Abram would have been 149 years old. Isaac, Abram’s son, was 49 years old and had already been married to Rivka for 9 years. https://www.biblestudy.org/maps/genealogy-shem-to-abraham.html
Here is the point. The biblical genealogies demonstrate that Abram’s forefathers, comprised of godly descendants such as Noah and Shem who were still alive at God’s calling of Abram. An important purpose of this genealogy was to link them – those who had survived the flood with Abram.
It is not unreasonable to conclude that Abram’s godly forbears would have exerted a godly influence over Abram. It was this which caused him to arise out of the garbage heap of ungodliness surrounding him from all sides and respond in faith and obedience when God commanded him to simply “lech l’echa”?
Abram’s home place of Ur was considered one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, located in Mesopotamia south of Babylon. It was in this region that the Tower of Babel was built and where the Babylonian Empire later emerged. Abram’s father, Terah took his family on a journey away from Ur northwards heading towards Canaan but made a wide detour in Haran: “Then Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but they stopped instead at the city of Haran and settled there. And there, Terah died at the age of 205.” (Gen.11:29-32)
Terah, settled in the city of Haran and remained there. Haran was part of a prominent trade route. But it was also in a region known as the ‘armpit of the ancient world’ submerged in rampant evil. No deodorant could disguise it. Terah compromised his destiny for a comfortable and easy lifestyle within a godless culture and environment that was rotten to the core. Although he was originally heading for Canaan, the same location God had destined for Abram, he ended in anonymity and is remembered only for being the godless father of the Patriarch Abram. Despite all our human frailties every true believer seeks to reflect God’s full and perfect plans and dares not stop half-way as did Terah.
Unlike Terah, Abram placed his full trust in the One true God in a pagan world saturated with mini-gods, unlike his extended family who happily chose to submerge themselves within their pagan surroundings. Here is an extract from “Police for Christ” reflecting on a verse from Prov.3:8: ”Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
– Trust in God and His promises (as did Abram) despite what we can see. This empowers us to receive more by living in faith as if we already have what we asked for.
– Take heed that we do not reason or speak ourselves out of God’s blessings (as did Abram) as our thoughts and speech determine our reality.
– Be renewed to align with our positions as redeemed, seated and at rest with Yeshua (as was Abram) in heavenly places.
– Let God be LORD in our lives (as did Abram) and realize that all we will ever have has already been deposited in us by His indwelling Holy Spirit.
Here was God’s promise to Abram: “Get yourself out (‘lech lecha’) of your country, away from your kinsmen and away from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great; and you are to be a blessing.” Gen.12:1-2. There is always a great reward stored up for those who choose to obey God. Because of Abram’s obedience, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him wherein he brokered an unconditional covenant.
“12 As the sun was setting in the west, Abram fell into a deep sleep. A terrifying darkness descended upon him…17 When the sun had gone down and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the animal carcasses. 18 With this ritual and on this day, the Eternal One made a covenant with Abram.” (Gen.15:17-18)
In our Haftarah reading from Isa 41:8 God described Abram as ‘My Friend’ an incredible statement, and this friendship was forged through his faith and obedience further developed in the course of time in the episode of the ‘akedah’ where God instructed Abram too sacrifice his only son Isaac. Gen.22.
(Heb11:8-10) states that, “… By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he migrated to the land of promise as if it were foreign, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob—fellow heirs of the same promise. 10 For he was waiting for the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Abram’s obedience changed the course of history because he trusted God and walked unconditionally in His ways. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
God chose Canaan to be Abram’s inheritance, the land overflowing with ‘milk and honey.’ Milk represents nourishment and sustenance, while honey symbolises sweetness. The Land of Milk and Honey was a fertile land, offering an abundance rich in blessings for those who dwelt there. It also represents the fulfilling of God’s covenant with His chosen people that offers a place of rest and redemption that will spill over into the Millennium and become a Paradise under the reign of Yeshua.
The promised land of Canaan reinforces the importance of the biblical covenant between God and His people conveying God’s everlasting promises to His people. Canaan represents a foreshadowing of the promise awaiting every true believer of eternal life to rule and reign with Him.
But there is something else, a different overriding reason highly significant which is normally overlooked which Nevil will now share with us.
Abram was a man of deep faith which in Heb.11:1 is defined as “…the substance of things hoped for and the reality of things not seen.” It’s a deep conviction that God’s words are true (substantial) and that He will perform all that He promises (a reality).
Abram was a stranger and a pilgrim in a foreign land and had no clue where God was leading him but he trusted and believed the promise that one day he and his descendants would inherit the land promised to him.
God told Abram, ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and width, for I give it to you.” (Gen.13:14-15)
God used Abram to spread monotheism declared in the “Shema.” Deut.6:4 “Hear O Israel the Lord your God the Lord is One!” the cornerstone that would continue to spread directly through the line of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) to His covenant people who were called to be a ‘Light unto the nations.’ This was later fulfilled literally by Yeshua the “Light of the World.” In Isa.42:5-8 “Thus says God, Adonai, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and Ruach to those who walk in it—6 “I, Adonai, called You in righteousness, I will take hold of Your hand, I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, 7 by opening blind eyes, bringing prisoners out of the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house.”
The portion of ‘Lech Lecha’ spans Abram’s life from the age of 75 to 99. For most of his life his destiny was hidden until God revealed it to him through a covenant that led to a name change, Abram to Abraham (Gen.17:5). And then he had to wait again many years before he began to see its fulfilment through his son Isaac.
With the addition of only one Hebrew letter — the letter ‘heh’ (ה) — Abram (exalted father) became Abraham—father of a many nations.
The Hebrew consonant ה is often used as an abbreviation for the name of God and is found twice in God’s personal name (YHVH). By adding this letter to Abram’s name, God added Himself to Abraham’s status and function. The same also for Abram’s wife’s whose name God changed from Sarai (‘barren’) to Sarah (‘princess’).
In Rev. 2:17 the Lord spoke these words to the Church of Pergamum: “To the one who conquers through faithfulness even unto death, I will feed you with hidden manna and give you a white stone. Upon this stone, a new name is engraved. No one knows this name except for its recipient.”
To receive a white stone was a judicial term used in a court of law for a person tried and found innocent. The new name represents the identity of a person washed in the blood of Yeshua and everything in our past that has been forgiven that is known completely only by us and God.
Abram was a man of faith who simply took God at His word and ‘crossed over’ into the fullness of his destiny. He became the first person to be called a Hebrew (Ivri) meaning, ‘ one who crossed over.’ Yeshua declared in Jn.5: “… whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent me has eternal life — that is, he will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life!”
Aside from Moses, no person in the Tanakh is given greater coverage in the New Covenant Scriptures than Abram. James.2:23 describes him as “God’s friend,” a title used of no one else in the Tanakh. Even more staggering is when Yeshua spoke collectively to His disciples (and by default to every person who is a true disciple of the Lord) as being His friends. (Jn.15:15)
God is seeking a people called unto Him who choose to walk in obedience to His Word. He will turn our weaknesses into strengths that in everything we will learn to depend entirely upon Him even as Abram did – God’s friend.
