#6 abraham

The Road to Emmaus#6 Abraham Genesis 12:1-9

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 dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

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1. Put yourself into the story. How would you feel about being asked to leave your family, your friends and your whole life behind and go to a place that God hadn’t even showed you yet?

It isn’t always easy to follow God’s commandments, especially when it means leaving our comfort zone. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11 v 8)

Yet we are all called to leave behind our old lives and be completely changed in Christ and what he has done for us. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5 v17)

2. What does God promise Abraham?

God promises to make Abraham a great nation (his descendants) He promised to bless him He promised to give Abraham a great name He promised a new land All the people of the Earth would be blessed through him

These promises are all connected to the things that have been broken because of the fall and our sin: Sin spreads from generation to generation - from Adam to us At the Tower of Babel the people tried to make a great name for themselves but only brought about further condemnation The land itself was cursed after the fall

Yet through Abraham God is addressing all of the problems of sin – everything is restored by and through God

Rachael Gamble


3. Do you trust God to always keep His promises? Has there been a time in your life where this has been especially difficult?

Abraham wasn’t perfect and the promises seemed impossible! His wife was barren (she couldn’t have children) and without a son all of these promises were worthless: He couldn’t be the father of a great nation without a son His name couldn’t be great without a son to carry it on Land would be irrelevant without a son to leave it to “But Abram said, “Lord God what can you give me, since I am childless?” (Genesis 15 v 2)

Yet despite this Abraham had faith which was credited to him as righteousness!

We believe in God but in difficult circumstances we wonder if God can actually come through – this does not mean that we are not saved or we are “bad Christians”. Again Abraham asked “Lord God how can I know that I will possess it?” (Genesis 15 v 8)

Our saving faith brings us righteousness but we still have fears and doubts and struggles – everyone struggles! In our struggling our only hope is in God – God made a covenant with Abraham to show He would be completely faithful.

“When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land” (Genesis 15 v 17)

In Abraham’s time a covenant was made by two people passing through bits of cut up animal (eww) on the understanding that if one person broke their side of the bargain they would be treated like the dead animals!

However, God did something amazing here! God alone passed through – He alone took the responsibility of keeping His covenant. We are faithless and stupid and we mess up all the time…but God never does!

4. How did Abraham respond to God’s faithfulness?

“So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” (Genesis 12 v 7) Abraham is not the hero of this story…God is! When we understand that we are sinful and broken but God has taken on this covenant for us we can’t do anything except worship Him!

5. In what ways can you see Jesus in the story of Abraham?

“For I have come down from Heaven, not to do my own will but to do the will of Him who sent me” (John 6 v 38)

Jesus answered the call to leave that which was familiar and go into the unknown, however, unlike Abraham He didn’t just leave a comfortable setting – Jesus left the perfect Kingdom of Heaven to come to our broken, sinful world.

All of Abraham’s promises hinge on him having a son – and 2000 years later another son would be born to Abraham’s descendants and this son would become the ultimate blessing…JESUS

Rachael Gamble


“So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3 v 14) Just as Abraham was promised a reward which will benefit all people we benefit from the reward of Christ’s sacrifice and obedience – this is not something that we could ever earn ourselves but is given as a gift because of the amazing grace of God! Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross we are justified – declared innocent and set free!

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5 v 8)

When it comes to our salvation God didn’t make a promise with the blood of cut up animals – he did it with the blood of His son Jesus poured out for us. We’ve heard that Jesus died for us so many times we’ve probably stopped listening…but think about that gory image of the cut up animals and realise that God didn’t keep His promises to prevent Himself from becoming like that, He actually willingly became like a slaughtered animal so we could know that He will always keep His promises.

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Prayer Points

• Most of all thank God for Jesus whose obedience is transferred to us and sets us free from our sin!

• Pray for the courage to follow God out of comfort zones and live for Him more and more each day

• Pray for each other in your struggles and for the openness and honesty to share that with each other

• Thank God that He always keeps His promises and pray for the faith to trust Him

Rachael Gamble

#6 abraham

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