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We’ve been looking at the call of Abram these last few episode Remined you of where we are up to so far. God said leave your country Abram said Yes. God said leave your father's house and Abram said, Yes. God says, leave you family and Abram says, NO   He believed him and he obeyed him (But only partially at this point), but some would say that partial obedience is still disobedience. We shall see what the consequences of that are in the next verses.

Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

(Gen 12: 6) 

So, he gets to the land and the first thing he discovers is it's not an empty place. There's are people already living there.  I wonder if this gave him pause for thought. What perhaps he needs at this point then is confirmation. Perhaps he needed some assurance that he's where he is supposed to be. 

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

(Gen 12: 7) 

Looks like he got what he needed then doesn’t it. So, there are Canaanites in the land and then in verse seven the Lord appeared and says don't worry this is still the land I'm going to give to you. God confirms the call. The Lord clarified that this land that is going to be given to him and his descendants. But on yet. However, the Lord is clarifying and confirming the promise that he's already given him. So, the big point is that God called Abraham gave him promises and Abram stepped out in faith and later when he had doubts God confirmed his promise to him again. 

I began by telling you about a man named Melvin Dummar who claimed that Howard Hughes put him in his will. In June of 1978 the court threw out the will  Poor Melvin got nothing from the Howard Hughes estate. No one really contested that Howard Hughes had verbally told Melvin Dummar he would leave him a legacy. Records from the Hughes Corporation show he instructed workers to go round and collect the damaged bike from Dummar’s property. Some even accepted that maybe he had even written the scribbled note. However, Howard Hughes did not confirm it legally. So Melvin Dummar got nothing 

When God makes promises he repeats them, and he's confirms them legally. In a few chapters from now God is going to make a covenant [an ancient version of a legal contract] with Abram. God makes promises and he confirms them by covenant. Verse 8 gives us a clue to what is going on here.

From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

(Gen 8: 8-9)

He builds an altar to the Lord which means he responded with a sacrifice. In the Old Testament when the Lord gave a promise the people respond and confirmed it with a sacrifice. Usually of a new-born lamb. In the New Testament though it says when we make a sacrifice, we sacrifice something other than a lamb. It says that we offer a sacrifice of praise. (Heb. 13). In fact, Philippians chapter 4 also tells us we are to give a sacrifice of our financial resources in response to what God has done in our lives. So, Abram built an altar and he called on the name of the Lord  

Calling on the Lord is an interesting expression it probably primarily is referring to prayer, but experts say it also refers to proclamation. He prayed and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Part of our responding to God is about proclaiming what He has done in our lives to other people. Personal evangelism that is called. The Lord promised to make Abrams name great, and Abram responded by proclaiming the Lord’s name. The Lord promised to made Abraham well known. Abraham proclaimed the Lord making his name well known in the land seals that covenant.

So that the call of Abram, I’d like to summarise what this passage teaches us, however I would like to do that next time.