From: Genesis 12:1-4a
The Call of Abram and God's Promise to Him
[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 curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." [4a] So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.
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Commentary:
12:1-6. God's call to Abaham (the name he would give him instead of Abram:
cf. 17:5) marks the start of a new stage in his dealings with mankind,
because his covenant with Abraham will prove a blessing to all nations. It
means that Abraham has to break earthly ties, ties with family and place,
and put his trust entirely in God's promise--an unknown country, many
descendants (even though his wife is barren: cf. 11:30) and God's constant
protection. This divine calling also involves a break with the idolatrous
cult followed by Abraham's family in the city of Haran (apparently a moon
cult) so as to worship the true God.
Abraham responds to God's call; believing and trusting totally in the divine
word, he leaves his country and heads for Canaan. Abraham's attitude is in
sharp contrast with the human pride described earlier in connection with the
tower of Babel (cf. 11:1-9), and even more so with the disobedience of Adam
and Eve which was the cause of mankind's break with God.
The divine plan of salvation begins to operate by requiring man to make an
act of obedience: in Abraham's case, he is asked to set out on a journey.
This plan will reach its ultimate goal with the perfect obedience shown by
Jesus Christ "made obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8),
whereby all mankind will obtain the mercy of God (cf. Rom 5:19). Everyone
who listens and obeys the voice of the Lord, all believers, can therefore be
regarded as children of Abraham. "Thus Abraham 'believed God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness.' So you see that it is men of faith who
are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify
the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
'In you shall all the nations be blessed.' So then, those who are men of
faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith" (Gal 3:6-9).
Jewish and Christian tradition sees the three things God requires Abram to
give up as epitomizing the demands of faith: "Through these three
departures--from country, kindred and father's house," according to Alcuin's
interpretation, "is meant that we have to leave behind the earthly man, the
ties of our vices, and the world under the devil's power" ("Interrogationes
in Genesim", 154).
Abraham's response also involves an attitude of prayer, an intimate
relationship with God. Although prayer makes its appearance at the very
start of the Old Testament (cf. 4:4, 26; 5:24; etc.), it really comes into
its own with our father Abraham, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church
teaches: "When God calls him, Abraham goes forth 'as the Lord had told him'
(Gen 12:4). Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he
obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according
to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in
relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of
silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey.
Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint
reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled (cf. Gen 15:2-3). Thus
one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of
faith in the fidelity of God" (no. 2570).
Abraham gets as far as the central part of Palestine, from where he moves
south, building as he goes altars to the Lord, to the true God, in places
which will become important shrines in later periods. The biblical text
shows that Yahweh accompanies Abraham and that the latter renders him acceptable worship, in contrast with the idolatrous cult practised by the inhabitants of the country (given the generic name of "Canaanites"). God, for his part, in all his appearances to the patriarch, promises to give this land to his descendants (cf. 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 26:4). In this way the text is showing the radical source at the legitimacy of Israel's possession of the land of Canaan. However, this promise of a land to the descendants of Abraham goes beyond the empirical fact of acquiring territory, and becomes a symbol of the blessings and the divine gifts in which all mankind will share.
Speaking about Abraham's faith in the word of God, Saul interprets Abraham's "descendant in the singular, as referring to one descendant only, Jesus
Christ, because only he, being the Son of God and making himself obedient
unto death, possesses all the divine goods and communicates them to man:
"Christ redeemed us [...] that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might
come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
[...] Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does
not say, 'And to offsprings,' referring to many; but, referring to one, 'And
to your offspring,' which is Christ" (Gal 3:13-16).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
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