Seder 10: Genesis 12:1-9---"...The Land that I Will Show You"

 God directed Abram to go "to the land that I will show you" (Ge 12:1).  We are not told how much advance information Abram was given about his destination.  Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik suggests that the journey was meant to develop Abram's "spiritual radar" for detecting holiness.  In this scenario, Abram followed the lead of this radar until he reached the intended destination, and then God appeared to him and confirmed his choice (Gen 12:7).  

Abram would have entered the Promised Land in the north, the most fertile region, but he continued on to the arid southern part of the land (v 9).  This raises the question of why Abram didn't stay in the north.  One proposed answer is that the holiness of Jerusalem drew him to continue southward.  

On his journey Abram came "to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh" (v 6).  Soloveitchik notes that in the patriarchal narrative, the word for place (makom) sometimes refers to a place of prayer (e.g., Ge 19:27; 28:11).  Perhaps Abram prayed  that his great-grandchildren would resist the possibility of assimilation with the Shechemites raised by Hamor's proposal (Ge 34:9-10). Perhaps he also prayed that his descendants would come again safely to the oak of Moreh (Dt 11:30) to confirm the covenant there. 

Seder 10: Genesis 12:1---Go Forth in Faith

 We read in Genesis 12:1 that God said to Abram, "Go forth from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you."

Lech lecha, The Hebrew for "go forth," is a forceful way to tell Abram to go.  The connotation is that Abram was to make a decisive break with his past and step out on faith to follow where God led him.

At Church of the Messiah's Torah study on January 6, 2024, Frank Fenton pointed out that when Franz Delitzsch translated the New Testament into Hebrew, there were 5 places in the Gospels where Delitzsch used this Hebrew phrase:

Matthew 8:4:  "...go, show yourself to the priest..."

Matthew 9:6:  "Rise, pick up your bed and go home."

Mark 10:52 (cf. Luke 18:42):  "Go your way, your faith has made you well."

John 4:50:  "Go, your son will live."

In each of these instances Jesus has carried out an amazing healing, giving the one healed a new start in life, an opportunity to serve God. 

At the beginning of each year we have a similar opportunity.  In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on January 6, 2024, Kyle Kettering encouraged us to grow as disciples of Jesus in 2024.

Seder 10 Sermon----"Go for Yourself"

Abram's calling was a very important one, which has always made readers curious about Abram's background and previous experience with God. 

Joshua 24:2 suggests that one of the things Abram had to leave behind was idolatry. There is a large body of tradition that takes this verse as a jumping-off point.  (A good source on this tradition is David Klinghoffer's book The Discovery of God:  Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism--Doubleday, 2003).  In one such tradition, Abram's father was an idol maker, but Abram, like a philosopher, considered the heavens and reasoned that there must be a single Creator who had made the heavenly bodies and set them in motion.  After coming to this conviction, he tried to convince his family of the truth of monotheism.  At one point he broke all the idols in his father's shop except one and then told his father that the remaining idol had destroyed the others.  His father did not believe this assertion, and Abram asked him to reflect upon why he didn't believe it.

A further tradition has Abram persecuted by Nimrod and placed in a fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. 

In a sermon on Seder 10, David Waddle noted that in effect, Abram in accepting God's call had bought a one-way ticket without a known destination.  He placed his future in God's hands.  He left behind his key attachments, having faith that God would take care of him. 

New Testament descriptions of the Christian calling---e.g. Luke 14:26-33---suggest that those who decide to become disciples of Jesus are making a similar life-changing decision. 

Seder 10: Gen 12:1-9---the call of Abram

After the Tower of Babel rebellion, God focused his plan to bring blessing to all mankind on the family of Abram.  Calling Abram to separate from country, clan, and family, God made these promises:

1. "I will make of you a great nation"  This promise is striking, since up to this point Abram had no children.
2. "I will bless you"---in land, livestock, precious metals, and human labor in addition to offspring.
3. "and make your name great"--in contrast to the people at Babel, who wanted to make a name for themselves.
4. "you will be a blessing" (or perhaps, "Be a blessing!") People would make blessings in the name of Abraham.  ("May you be like Abraham.") Others would be blessed by a relationship with his family--e.g., Laban, Potiphar.
5. "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse."  God would deal with nations based on their treatment of his family.  
6. "in you all families of the earth shall be blessed"  Abram's family would be a vehicle for blessing the nations.  Christians see this blessing carried out especially through the coming of Jesus the Messiah--see Gal 3:8-9, 14, 29.  

There is some question about the proper translation of the final clause of Gen 12:3.  The ESV translation ("in you all families of the earth shall be blessed") is the traditional rendering of the clause in the passive voice, followed by the Septuagint (and thus the New Testament), Sirach 44:21, Targum Onkelos, and the Vulgate.

It can also be given a reflexive translation ("in you all families of the earth shall bless themselves"), as mentioned in the ESV footnote.  The meaning of this translation would be similar to number 4 above.

In a sense, both translations lead to the same result, as Richard Middleton has pointed out. As is pictured in prophecies like Zech 8:20-23, people who seek to be blessed like Abraham will also tend to seek the God of Abraham, which will lead to blessing.

Middleton also explains that there is a strong tradition in both Judaism and Christianity that Abram's family has a special mission to bring blessing to the nations.  We see this in the prophets in passages like Isa 42:6 and Isa 49:6.  This understanding is also reflected in Jewish traditions about Abraham as an evangelist.

One such tradition is based on Gen 12:5, which mentions Abram, Sarai and Lot traveling with "the people they had acquired in Haran".  Literally, the verse speaks of "souls that they made" in Haran.  The rabbis interpret this as a reference to converts that they had made, based on the idea that someone who has taught another about the true God is considered to have in some sense "made" that person.

Seder 10: Psalm 45---A Royal Wedding Psalm

Psalm 45 falls into the category of "royal psalms", psalms connected to the kings of Israel.  Traditionally, many references to the Messiah, the ultimate Davidic king, have been seen in the royal psalms, and that is true of this one in particular.

The occasion for Psalm 45 seems to have been a royal wedding.  The psalm speaks to both the king (vv 2-9) and his bride (vv 10-15), reminding them of the special privileges and responsibilities that go with occupying the throne of David.

To the king, the psalmist declares that "God has blessed you forever," a reference to the Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:16).  The king will be successful in battle as long as he is fighting for the cause of "truth and meekness and righteousness."  In meekness he should rely on God, the true King.

The message to the king points to an ideal of what the king of Israel should be.  The king is God's representative on earth, and he should be carrying out God's will, upholding righteousness (vv 6-7).

The bride is apparently from another nation, and the psalm instructs her to "forget your people and your father's house" (v 10), to follow the example of Abraham and Ruth.

The psalm concludes with God's promise that "I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever" (v 17).  This is a reaffirmation of God's promise to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3).

This psalm can also be read in reference to the Messiah. What is an ideal for a human king is a description of the Messiah. This psalm is quoted in Heb 1:8-9 as part of a chain of scriptures that the author of Hebrews claims are statements made by God the Father about Jesus the Son.  Specifically, Hebrews 1 quotes Ps 45:6-7:

"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.  The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.  Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

Early Christians noticed two divine figures in these verses, the God being addressed in verse 6 and the God who anoints that first God in verse 7.  They recognized this passage as an affirmation of the deity of Jesus.

If verses 2-9 of the Psalm can be seen as words about Christ, verses 10-11 can be seen as words about the Bride of Christ.  Like Abraham, Ruth, and the queen, Christians are called to be loyal first to the King and to submit to Him.