Genesis 12:1-9 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Build on the Rock Summer Series 3 June 17, 2018 “An Altar by a Tent”
As we look at a number of biblical building projects this summer during our summer worship series, it offers us an opportunity to review a good deal of Bible History. Certainly that does not mean to imply that we will cover everything in the Bible in a matter of the roughly 15 weeks of this series. Instead, as we look at major building projects, that will help us to see the major eras of the history of salvation and the history of God’s people as it is recorded in scripture. Especially if you are able to join us each week, you will see the major events from the beginning of creation through the end of the Holy book God has given to us. The building projects that we are considering often mark milestones in the history of God’s people. And that is true about today’s project, even though it doesn’t seem so impressive. It isn’t a tall towering building like the tower of Babel we considered last week. It isn’t a building that is revisited at other times in the course of history because of its lasting significance. Without pausing to consider, it might not look like a very important building at all. The building project is the building of an altar, a place to offer sacrifices. It was built by Abraham, though in our text he is still called by his former name, Abram. I’ll mention now that I might use those names interchangeably just because the newer name is much more familiar than the one in our verses. As we consider why Abram built his altar near his tent, we find one important and significant factor at this point in salvation history: the promise of God. Of course, even at this time the promise was nothing new. It goes back all the way to almost the very beginning. God’s promise goes back to Adam and Eve, the very first people and their very first sin. At that time a promise was needed. Adam and Eve had done what God had forbidden them to do. They had disobeyed him and were doomed to death. But God loved them in spite of what they had done, so he made the promise. He promised that he would send someone to destroy their enemy, the devil. He would be the offspring of the woman. He would be a very special person who would carry out and fulfill this promise. From the time of the Fall, of the first sin, sin affected everything. It destroyed relationships. It caused hardship and all sorts of troubles. It brought suffering into the world. We see the effects of sin as we consider the flood and the great wickedness all over the world that made it necessary. Even after the flood, wickedness prevailed. Just last week we considered the building of the Tower of Babel and how that act was direct rebellion against God. The need was clear, for Adam and Eve and for every one of their descendants. God needed to step in to end the rebellion and the sin. God needed to step in to do what he had promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So he introduced the next step, the next stage of salvation history. He gave the promise to someone new. That person we have already mentioned, Abram who later became Abraham. God gave him an amazing promise, full of blessings for him, for those who would bless him, and for the whole world. God had selected this one man to carry the promise forward. He would be an ancestor of the Savior. Through his offspring all nations on earth would be blessed. This was the promise. And to carry out the promise, God invited Abraham to leave his homeland, his people, his parents, and to go to a new land, a land that God would show him. In that land, God would keep the promise that he was making. That is what God promised to Abraham. But the question could easily be asked, “Why?” Out of all the people, why Abraham? Why this man and not someone else? There is no other reason that we can find, no other reason that God gives except for this one: because God loved Abraham and chose him. This is the very definition of grace. God did not pick Abraham because of who he was or what he had accomplished. God chose Abraham in spite of his sinfulness and his background. God tells us that this is what grace means, that God chooses people just because of his love and not for any other reason.