In chapter 10 we have genealogies of the three sons of Noah. Now there is a repeat of the genealogy of Shem leading to Abram.

Who was Abram? Later in the story of Abram God changed his name to Abraham (Father of a multitude ). It is interesting the way God sometimes changes peoples names reflecting a change in their direction . A change brought about by God.

Firstly, What does the name `Abram' mean? Abram means "Exalted Father". That is a father who is looked up to. A father who is regarded as being very important.

Secondly, what can we learn about how Abram grew up? In Joshua 24:2,3 we read:

KJV Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

24:3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

So we see that Abram came from a family that worshipped other gods. We have moved from the situation at Babel, where the whole human race as one unit sought to reach up to heaven and stand where God stands, ( though they are rebelling against God yet they acknowledge Him. ), to a situation where they no longer want to acknowledge God as God. They were Idolaters. They did not worship the one true God. Abram was brought up to worship other gods. Yet in this situation, right in the middle of this place of idolatrous people. Among people who worshipped false gods, among people who did not want God in their knowledge, God chose one man to be the father of a special group of people who would worship God.

That is the way God works. He has His plan and he comes to men, women and children who are utterly opposed to Him. Who are dead in their trespasses and sins and by Grace, that unmerited favour of God, he grants them the gift of faith whereby they might believe.,.

God breathes life into the spiritually dead to bring them back to acknowledging him.

KJV Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

He did it with Abraham, he did it with you and me, and he will do it again and again. So often Christians want to talk about how bad things are. How bad the churches are. How nobody wants to listen, nobody wants to do anything. How nothing is happening. What a lot of wasted breath. God was active then and he is active now, and God is about his business.

Note how God worked in this situation. Did he get people leterbox droping the city of Ur? No . Did he get someone in there to preach on the street corner or to get around and talk to individual people. No he didn't he spoke to one man. He changed one man, and he changed the direction of that one man.

He did not convert Abram and leave him there to speak to others in Ur about God.

God told Abram to get out of the place:

Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Abram was to make a break with Ur and also a break with his family. The break with the family does not happen immediately but it happens.

We should notice that though it was Abram whom God called to leave Ur and go to the land that God would show him, and the Bible is very clear on that, yet we see in Genesis 11:31 that it was Terah, Abram's father who took the family out of Ur.

KJV Genesis 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

We can see that when God spoke to Abram, his whole family was effected. It is also true that when God speaks to a Christian and they obey God, there will be an influence on the rest of the family. We also see the honour given to Terah as the father and head of this family. They went with Terah and when he stopped in Haran the whole family stopped and they didn't move on from there until after Terah died. The honour due to parents and the headship of the father in the family are scriptural principles for children and young people to observe.

In Hebrews 11: 8 we see that Abram went in obedience to God, but he didn't know where he was going. God said "go!" so he went. He went in faith believing God would show the way. God first used Terah to lead the way, even though it was Abram God had chosen, and called, and directed to go.

KJV Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Abram saw beyond the earthly country he looked forward as we do to as the writer to the Hebrews puts it.

KJV Hebrews 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The Bible shows Abram as a man of faith, but what is faith.

The Bible defines faith in this way.

KJV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The Revised Standard version of the Bible puts it this way.

RSV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith is believing and acting on something that is absolutely true and sure. It is something of substance it is something that has evidence. Faith is not guess work. Nor is it working your self up to beleiving hard enough, Faith is a sure thing. God says it and it is so.

There is a chorus that goes like this: "Faith is just believing that what God says is so, is so. "

There are some terrible ideas about today in regard to faith. People are calling faith something which is not faith at all.

If I observe a chair and make a decision that if I sit on it, it will hold me and the chair is actually strong enough, then I can sit on the chair and it will hold me up. I am however only acting in faith in siting on the chair if I have the evidence that the chair is strong enough to hold me up. I need assurance by someone who's word can be trusted, or to have carefully examined for myself the evidence that it will hold me up.

If however someone gets a very fine saw and saws through the legs of the chair, I don't see the fine cuts, and it looks like a very strong chair to me. If I decide that the chair is strong enough and my decision is not based on truth (though I think it is) I am not acting in faith if I attempt to sit on that chair, and I will find to my dismay that I was not acting in faith at all.

There are people today who expect that God should do anything they tell him to do, like healing someone or performing some other miracle. They think that telling God what you think should happen and believing hard enough that it will happen is faith. That however is sin. Who is man to tell God what he ought to do?

When what they say should happen, doesn't, they decide that they did not have enough faith. All they are doing is trying to make God their slave, That is not faith because it is not based on truth. It is not in accordance with the will of God.

What happens does not depend on how much faith is involved but whether faith is involved. See what Jesus says in

KJV Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

You see you don't need great heaps of faith for big things to happen. If faith were as tiny as a Mustard seed that would be sufficient. It isn't the amount of faith. It is the existence of faith. Faith is acting on what is true and sure and the will of God. If God wills that something will happen and you believe, what God has shown you to be true and act on it you will see the works of God.

KJV 1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

So the secret of living by faith is knowing God so well that we know his will. Not that we will always know God's will but the more thoroughly we study the Bible the more of God's will, will be revealed to us.

For another important thing that we need to understand about faith. Have a look at

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (KJV)

How does faith come to a person?

Grace is unmerited favour whereby God gives to one who deserves nothing,

And what is the process by which faith becomes active in a persons life?

Read: Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name

of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Abram heard a word from God. He received the gift of faith from God. Faith acted on the sure truth of the word of God, and Abram went out, not knowing where he was going, but he went out in the full assurance of the certainty of the word that God had spoken. He believed God and that belief that he expressed in the truth of God's word was counted as righteousness. He acted in the faith that God had given Him and God blessed Him. Read Genesis 11:29-32.

KJV Genesis 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

We see that when they came to a place called Haran the family stayed there for a while. Perhaps Terah felt that he was getting too old for all this travelling. The fact that the place was called Haran, and a member of this family was called Haran may mean that they named the place but that is only guessing. Haran had died in Ur (11:28 ) So it is posible that Terah might have chosen to name the place Haran as a memorial to his son. Haran means Mountaineer.

Haran is 70 years old before he has sons. Going by the dates it would appear that the sons were born over quite a period of years rather than all at once after Terah turned 70. If we work backwards from Abraham being 75 when he leaves Haran after the death of Terah, his father and with Terah being 205 years old when he dies, that makes him about 130 years old when Abram was born. The last verses of chapter 11 indicate to me that Terah's sons are of a marriageble age before they leave Ur. In those times that could have been as early as 12 but probably older.

Anyway God spoke to Abram and told him to go. Terah leads them out but it looks like they probably spent 40 to 60 years moving from Ur to Haran and stopping in Haran until Terah died. So this faith process was not a fast thing. Obedience takes place when God speaks to Abram but it takes 40 to 60years to get to where God was telling him to go. It is natural to think in terms of fast action in relation to faith, but we need to recognise that a faith result may at times take the best part of a lifetime before it is realised.

Anyway the family stayed in Haran until Terah died. Then God led Abram forward once more. In chapter 12 we have further detail of God;s calling to Abram.

KJV Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Here are a couple of New Testament references that speak of God's calling of Abraham.

KJV Acts 7:2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

KJV Acts 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

Charran and Haran are the same word. The beginning sound is a guttural sound that we haven't an exact letter to represent in English. Our `H' sound is made by pushing the air from inside the mouth but this sound is made by pushing the air from deep in the throat, and trying to make an `H' sound.

Abram was Chosen by God, who saved him by Grace (He did not deserve to be saved) and Abram then responded to God in faith.

God's Covenant Promise to Abram.

Read Genesis 12:1-4

KJV Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

What can we learn from these verses?

1. Abram is told to leave where he is and go where God leads.

2. God will make a great nation of Abram. What we see coming from Abram is the nation of the Jews In the New Testament however we see a deeper meaning when we read in the book of Galations: Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. (KJV)

This passage is talking about Christians.

3. Abram would be blessed by God that is he would receive much from God.

4. Abram's name would be great. That is he would be well regarded by a lot of people. He would be famous, well known and well liked, highly respected.

5. He would be a blessing. Not only would he receive from God but he would be a means by which God would give to others.

6. Those who honoured Abram would be looked after by God. Those that were angry against Abram would experience God's Anger against them.

7. Through Abram would come a blessing or a benefit for all peoples. This refers to the blessing that would come to people of all nations through Jesus Christ.

Do you remember from Genesis 3:15 how when Adam and Eve sinned against God in the first place and sin entered into the human race like a disease, how God promised that a child of a woman would be hurt by Satan but who would defeat Satan.

That was the first promise of the coming of Jesus Christ. Now this promise comes to Abraham of a blessing for all peoples through Abram. There would be a special group of people who would be God's people.

First would come the Jewish nation from the immediate family of Abraham, but this would lead to Jesus Christ and through Him people from all over the earth would enter into God's special family. Jesus death for their sin would mean that people could believe in what Jesus had done for them, and be made right with God. Have their sin forgiven and be adopted into God's family. This would also mean that in one sense they would also be in the family of Abram.

God made another promise to Abram which we read about in several different passages.

Genesis 22:17, Genesis 26:4; Genesis 28:14;

KJV Genesis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

The seed who would possess the gate of his enemies is of course Christ. No enemy of God can stand before Him. Through his death and resurrection. He has a total victory over sin. A victory for all who are his. They need have no fear.

KJV Genesis 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

Through Christ comes the increase, and through the increase of the people of God will come the blessing of the nations. Wider and wider spreads the effect of the Gospel as God's grace reaches out from his own people to bring in more of his own and the acknowledgement of His Rule. For the true blessing is souls reunited to their Maker, their God.

KJV Genesis 28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

If you read the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel you will see that in human terms there is a family line that leads from Abram through to Joseph the husband of Mary. Mary the mother of Jesus.

In the book of Acts in the New Testament we read how Peter the apostle told the Jews how the different prophets spoke of this promise of Abram and how through the Jewish people God's promise to Abram would be fulfilled.

KJV Acts 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. 25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

When Jesus tells the story of the Rich man and the poor man who both die (in Luke 16:19-31) He speaks of the rich man going to Hell and the poor man safe in Abraham's bosom. That is the poor man was safe as a member of Abraham's family, while the rich man who no doubt thought of himself as a member of Abraham's family wasn't at all. He had just looked after himself first, had not cared about God so he went to be punished in Hell.

Through Abram God works out his eternal purpose. God turned an idolater into the father or generator of the people of God for through His family line would come the fulfilment of God's promise to Adam through Eve of one who would crush Satan's head.

The end result of God's work in Abram was that Abram worshipped God Verse 7.