The Call of Abraham #8

God’s call of Abram, later renamed Abraham, marks the beginning of the covenant relationship between God and a chosen people, narrowing the focus of Genesis from the scattered nations after Babel to a single family through whom God’s redemptive purposes would unfold. Genesis introduces Abram as one of three sons of Terah, already an old man with a childless wife, called away from a settled life toward an unknown future on the strength of a promise alone.

Biblical Account

Terah had already set out from Ur of the Chaldees toward the land of Canaan, taking Abram, his wife Sarai, and his grandson Lot, but the family stopped short and settled in Haran, where Terah eventually died (Genesis 11:31-32). It was from Haran that God spoke to 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” (Genesis 12:1). The command carried a sweeping promise: “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing… and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed, taking Sarai, Lot, and the household and possessions he had gathered in Haran (Genesis 12:4-5).

Abram traveled through Canaan, building altars near Shechem and Bethel, then went down into Egypt during a famine before returning to the land (Genesis 12:6-13:4). Years passed with the promised son still unborn, and Abram at one point assumed his servant Eliezer would be his heir. God renewed the promise instead: “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them… So shall thy seed be.” Genesis marks Abram’s response as the turning point of the account: “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:5-6).

Years later, when Abram was ninety-nine, God appeared again, identifying himself as “the Almighty God” and calling Abram to “walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1). This time God renamed him: “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:5). The covenant was declared everlasting, the land of Canaan was promised to his offspring as a lasting possession, and circumcision was instituted as its sign in the flesh of every male in the household (Genesis 17:7-8). In the same conversation Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah, with a promise that nations and kings would descend from her as well.

Theological Significance

Abraham’s call establishes the pattern of faith as the basis of a right relationship with God, a theme the New Testament develops at length. Paul points to Abraham as the model of justification by faith rather than by works, arguing that the scripture “preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed,” so that those who share Abraham’s faith are “blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:8-9). Paul reaches the same conclusion in Romans, treating Abraham’s belief before he was circumcised as proof that righteousness comes through faith rather than through law-keeping or ritual.

Abraham is revered as the founding patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike, and each tradition traces its own spiritual or physical lineage back to the call recorded in Genesis 12. His willingness to leave a settled home for a land he had not yet seen, on the strength of a promise alone, has made him an enduring model of faith and obedience across all three traditions, even where they differ over how the rest of his story should be read.