What is your favorite song or movie about unrequited love?
A Relationship at a Turning Point
This series will explore incredible direct encounters between people and God. But as we begin, God’s relationship with humans is at a turning point. The cutscene below explains the state of their relationship after the first 11 chapters of the Bible. Check it out below.
Think about how people respond when someone they love walks away.
God Starts Over With One Man
For the time being, God turned His attention to a relationship with one man. Watch the next cutscene to see what happened.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Discussion Questions
Look closely at the shelves in Abram’s tent. Joshua 24:2 says, “Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.”
God didn’t even give Abram a destination — just “go… to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Hebrews 11:8 puts it this way: “he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Paul quotes this exact promise in Galatians 3:8 and calls it the gospel itself: “the Scripture… preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’” From the very beginning, the plan was for Abram’s family to be a blessing to outsiders.
Why Did God Choose Abram?
Before Babel, God was directly pursuing a relationship with all people. But people did not reciprocate; they left God and pursued other gods instead. Still wanting a relationship with people, God switched tactics. Instead of directly pursuing a relationship with all people, God decided to start with one family and reach the rest of the world through them. That family was Abram’s family.
It’s unclear exactly how God spoke to Abram initially, whether audibly or through thoughts. All we know is that it was personal.
But why did God choose Abram, a guy from a totally different religion? It’s clear he wasn’t chosen because of any accomplishment or achieving a certain level of religiosity. Instead, he did the one thing people didn’t do at Babel: he reciprocated. Abram’s willingness to recognize a God he didn’t know and follow Him to another country is likely the reason God chose him.
But for what?
Notes to Yourself
I learned this about myself…
I learned this about God…
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway. Abram’s family background: Joshua 24:2. Abram’s departure “not knowing where he was going”: Hebrews 11:8. The promise to Abraham as the gospel: Galatians 3:8.
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