Where everyone knows the Name (Genesis 12)

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The name of the Torah reading לֶךְ-לְךָ Lech Lecha (Genesis 12–17) can be translated in English as an emphatic “Get going!”  God called Abram from the ancient city of Ur in the Chaldean region (modern-day Iraq) to the land of Canaan. It was a land promised to Abram, making it Heaven’s Promised Land for humanity. 

We read that Abram and his family started moving together from their hometown of Ur to Canaan but the majority of the family stopped along the way in Aram and decided to settle there and did not go all the way with Abram. 

What is a “hometown”? Does it mean the place where you were born? Maybe it means the place you lived the longest? Or does it mean the place that formed your character? For example, I was born in New Jersey. So if someone asks me where I am from, if I answer “from New Jersey.” They might ask me when was the last time I lived there? I moved from New Jersey when I was 5 years old. I am in my late-40’s and and I haven’t lived there again. 

From New Jersey, my family moved to Southern California to follow my dad’s job. Then we moved to Northern California, for the same reason, following my father’s job. Then I moved with my mom to Alaska and lived there for 10-plus years. Is that my hometown? After I graduated from college and got married, I ended up settling in Northern California. Is the place where I have lived with my wife for the past 20-plus years my “hometown” now? 

Abram’s family followed with him out of Ur for a similar reason. Ur no longer had anything good to offer them so, in obedience to God, they moved to a place with more freedom to worship their Creator as He called them to do.  

In both ancient and modern times, people relocate for similar reasons: economic opportunity, religious freedom, etc. We establish a new identity, integrate into a new community. 

We see later after Abram and his nephew Lot, continued on from Aram to Canaan, both of their households and their wealth had grown exponentially to the point that Abram and Lot’s servants were locking heads with each other, arguing over grazing rights, water and farm land. The acrimony was reaching alarming levels to the point that the two men had to make the reluctant decision to separate. 

An important part of respect others is to respecting each other’s boundaries and not moving your neighbor’s boundaries. This is not only true of property lines but also true in terms of relationships. 

For example, at work, there are times when I get very irritated with my coworkers or my boss and I start wanting to lock horns with them. In those times, I have to ask myself if I am now starting to move from my territory into their territory? When I feel like I need to attack them verbally, or emotionally, I have to hit the pause button and evaluate what is going on. Are we coexisting within our own boundaries? Or am I just trying to move the other person’s boundary back and push myself into their space?

We read that Lot chose the “greener” side of the valley, not only figuratively, but literally. 

God is taking all of us somewhere. Yeshua gave us two main destinations for our character, who were are on the inside. What we are on the inside will inevitably come out. If you have a longing for a particular place or a particular habit you get stuck in, it’s very difficult to move yourself away from that position. 

The “greatest commandment” is the Shema (Deut. 6:4–9, etc.), which we recite in services every Shabbat. In the “second greatest commandment” (Lev. 19:18), we are also told not to hold a grudge against your neighbor, but to love him as you love yourself.

When God tells us to love others as we love ourselves, this is not the kind of narcissistic “love yourself” that modern self-help gurus promote, but the kind of love that releases grudges that we hold against others that we would want them to let go against us. 

One of the sad realities of human nature is that God wants to give us living water but many people prefer to live in brackish, swampy water. The sad thing is that they refuse the offer of living water. They don’t want to live in a place where life thrives, they want to live in a place of stagnation and death. They don’t want to live in community, they want to be off on their own and keep others at arms length. 

God calls us into community, not only with Him but with His people. This is why He establishes a land, a place of rest where people can come to meet and fellowship with Him. The land of Israel was meant to be a “home” for His people. 

What happens in a home where the people are toxic? People don’t want to stay there for very long. They look for any excuse to not stay in a home like that because it’s not a place of rest and refuge. 

The promise of the land and a home with God only matters if you stick to the agreement with God that make that home a pleasant restful place to live in the first place. God told the children of Israel that He was happily and willingly giving them the Promised Land to live with Him, but if they did not live in covenant with Him, the land itself would vomit them out, which unfortunately, happened several times during Israel’s history. God was blasphemed among the nations because of how the children of Israel refused to live in the covenant God made with them and they were sent into exile to live among the people they were trying to imitate. In their actions, they besmirched God’s reputation and His name was a name of derision to the gentiles. Moses had warned this would happen in his farewell address to the nation. 

The exiles who return to the Land of Israel need to realign their character to God’s character to make it not just a place to live, but a home of peace that attracts others who also want to live in peace with God. 

Heaven is the only lifeline for the world but because of ignorance, whether willful or unintentional, most of the world have no idea what will come in the future. 

We live in a time where to you can’t even speak emphatically to the truth that male is male and female is female, as we read in the first chapters of Genesis. We have major world leaders, supreme court justices and scientists who can’t even make that determination. 

Then we read the story of Noach, we read about the story of a mass water movement all over the planet. There’s evidence of this event in the geological record all over the world, yet because of the willful ignorance of those who should know better, we are told that these events happened gradually or that the records that show evidence of a flood were merely regional events, and not a part of a world-wide cataclysm.

We are told to ignore the warning from an Almighty God Who told us that although He will never judge the world to destroy it world with water because of its wickedness, that He will judge the world again and destroy it with fire. We are taught to ignore the evidence of mass destruction on this planet and how it came to happen. 

For example, when you visit the place where a famous battle occurred, you read about what happened in the battle. You learn who won, who lost but also what happened that lead up to that battle happening in the first place. When you read about the mass destruction of people, animals, buildings, etc., you should want to learn why that happened, not just say, “Oh, well, glad it wasn’t me” and move on. 

God told us that He would not destroy the world with a Flood again, but He warns us that He will have to destroy the world again, but many people will not be adequately prepared because they have been told to ignore the evidence of the Flood and to ignore what was going in the world that lead up to the flood.

God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants for all generations that the Flood will not happen this way again, but the story was recorded for us so we can understand why it happened this way. God promised that destruction will come again but it will come a different way next time. But it’s going to come for a lot of the same reasons that it came the first time. 

In the story of Abram, later Abraham, we see God’s re-entry into the world. God, through Abram, establishes a beach head into the world. Just like with D-Day during the Second World War. It was a very decisive victory for the Allies and a very decisive defeat for the agent of mayhem and destruction who had started World War II in the first place. Yet, it took almost two years to defeat the adversary, who refused to accept defeat and go away quietly. In the process, that generation suffered greatly. Many countries were destroyed and many people were victims of malevolence and genocide because of one man’s desire to inflict as much mayhem and destruction in as short of a period of time as possible.  

How did Europe get to that point? Complacency, they didn’t take the warning signs seriously. There were those who saw it coming. Those who were awake, saw it coming. When the churches in Germany replaced the crosses and crucifixes on the church altars with photos of Hitler, Bonhoeffer and other clerics warned what would happen. They spoke up loudly, but their prophetic warnings were ignored and eventually, they were forcibly silenced, thrown into concentration camps and murdered. 

For those under the spell of this evil, sin went from crouching outside the door to setting up residence right in their houses. 

The message of Abram is not only for his generation, but for all generations. Yeshua tells us that there is a home for us, a place of rest for us, but there is also a warning of the coming tumult that will precede our return to home, peace and rest. 

The Promised Land is not just a place on a map. When we say, “Next year in Jerusalem,” it’s not because of its GPS coordinates but because of Yeshua, who lived there, died there. We long for the Holy Land because it is the land from which Yeshua resurrected and ascended into Heaven. We long for Jerusalem because of Yeshua will return to Jerusalem to establish His kingdom there, forever and ever. May He be praised! Amen! 

Summary: Tammy