DWDP - Gen 12:1 Abrams's Call

God’s first words to Abram in Genesis 12 are simple and disruptive: leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, then walk toward a land God will show you. We sit with that tension the way real people have to, because obedience is rarely abstract. When God calls, He often asks us to loosen our grip on comfort, identity, and control, and to trust His promise before we see the full plan.

We also step back and trace the bigger storyline from Babel to God preserving a witness in the world. Human hearts drift toward idols, yet God does not fail, and He chooses a man through whom He will form a people and ultimately bring the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Along the way we address the hard questions that surface when God’s choices feel unfair, reminding ourselves that the Lord is King over the nations and we are not the authors of the story.

Then the devotion turns personal and practical. I share what answering God’s call can look like on the ground: my wife serving as a nurse missionary in Gaza, the dangers she faced, and our daughters serving overseas in places like Yemen and Venezuela. We talk honestly about the fear parents carry, and we ask the blunt question many believers avoid: if disaster strikes, does that mean the call was foolish?

Jesus sends His people as lambs among wolves, and Revelation 12:11 reminds us how believers overcome: by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, even when the cost is high. If this challenges you, good. Listen, share it with a friend, and leave a review, then tell me: what is God calling you to obey right now?

Transcript

Welcome And Scripture Reading

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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr. Robert Jackson. Papa, can you tell me a story?

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Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Genesis 12 And God’s Call

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Today we're at Genesis chapter twelve. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. Now let's stop there. And I'm going to call this the call of Abraham. If you think about it, until the dispersion at Babel and for some time afterwards, God had dealt with mankind pretty much as a whole, as a single entity. After the flood, the population started over with Noah and his three sons and their three wives, all of whom had a knowledge of the one true God and his laws and purposes. Nevertheless, true to human nature, rebellion against God and God's law began to prevail once again, causing God to intervene a second time at Babel. Human language was confused, and all the tribes were dispersed, but there was no repentance, and there was no return to the true God. Many of the dispersed tribes carried from Babel their idle worshiping ways. There were some who retained a knowledge of the true God and worshiped him alone, such as Job, such as Melchizedek. However, these were few and far between. Why? Because as Jeremiah the prophet tells us many, many years later, the heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? Who can comprehend it? Who can explain it? But that's why there were so few who sought after God. It seemed that the knowledge of God might vanish from the earth. But remember, dear listener, God never fails. And as Paul told the men of Lystra, in the former generations, God permitted all the nations to gather to well he said he permitted all the former generations to go their own ways. And yet he did not leave himself without a witness, as chapter as Acts chapter fourteen and verse seventeen. God did not leave himself without a witness. And so God began to choose a man, a descendant of Shem and Tira, who had kept the genealogical records, and through this man he would prepare a nation, a chosen people, through whom he would deliver his revealed word to all the nations of the world. This nation, this chosen people, would reveal both the written

From Babel To A Chosen People

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word and ultimately the living word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the redeemer of all mankind. So in Genesis twelve and verse one, God calls Abram, telling him to leave his home place, to leave his relatives, and specifically to leave his father's household. Now, why did he have to depart from the household of Tera, his father? You will recall from last week's lesson that archaeologists inform us that Haran, where Terra had settled, was an idol worshiping commercial port city at that time. Well then more than that, Joshua twenty four in verse two informs us this. Let me read the Joshua twenty four in verse two. It says that Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, from ancient times, your fathers live beyond the river, namely Tira, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and get this, and they served other gods. So Tirah obviously had fallen into the idol worshiping practices of the city of Haran. And so God commanded Abram to leave the idol worshiping city and the idol worshiping family of his father Tirah.

Leaving An Idolatrous Household

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Now let's change subjects a second. Answering God's call is never an easy thing, especially if he calls you to another country, another culture, another language group. And that's exactly what he was calling Abram to do. He had to leave his family, he had to leave Ur of the Chaldees, and then he had to leave Haran, and he had to leave his family. Here's what's strange. The people of Canaan were idol worshipers also. Nevertheless, in eternity past, God had predetermined that the land of Canaan was going to belong to a chosen people, through whom he would reveal himself to all nations. Do you think that's unfair? Listen, God is the potter, we are the clay, both as individuals and as nations. God gets to choose as the sovereign Lord of the heavens and the earth. Listen, he is the king of all the nations, and he gets to choose. More than that, it's not easy to answer God's call to be a messenger, to be a missionary to the nations, a missionary to other cultures, to other language

Missionary Life And Real Risk

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groups, in other parts of the world. Before my wife and I married, Miss Carlotta served as a nurse missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, Elamostashfeld Matamadani Fi Gaza in Gaza, Israel, teaching nursing and working in the hospital on the medical surgical floor for two years. She also was a Bible teacher and disciple maker among the Arab and Greek Orthodox students. God gave her a great ministry while she was there, but it was not without danger. A terrorist bomb exploded in the souk in the market one day when she was at the market. On another occasion, her little Volkswagen that Lottie Moon purchased for her was hit head on by a large fruit truck, and she ended up unconscious in an Arab hospital in Nazareth. She recovered quickly, thanks be to God, but her time there was not without danger. My two oldest daughters both served as missionaries, like their mother, for two to three years after college, one in Yemen and one in Venezuela. Neither one of them were the safest of places. They considered their time in both places mostly great ministry experiences, although Rebecca had to leave Yemen early due to the Arab uprising known as the Arab Spring. What made their experience difficult was the angst in the heart of their parents as we watched them get on airplanes and fly away without our protection to a third world country. Oh my. We had to learn to cut the apron springs and give them to God every day. Answering God's call can be hard on the parents and on the extended family. Carlotta and Rachel and Rebecca came home safely after their missionary journeys filled with stories of ministry adventures. But let me ask you a hard question. What if disaster had befallen one of

Wolves, Martyrdom, And Revelation 12

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them? What if a serious injury or even death or kidnapping while overseas in unfriendly places had befallen them? Would that invalidate their call by God to take the gospel to all the world? Would they suddenly become foolish? Would my daughter's parents have been foolish to have allowed them to go? Would their parents that allowed such suddenly become foolish? But I remind you and urge you to recall that Jesus said I send you out as lambs among wolves. This was what he told his disciples when he sent them out two by two to share the good news. He told you and me right up front that he was sending us into the midst of a people who would hate us because they already hated him. He acknowledged in advance that he is sending us into danger. Now you and I like to say that the safest place in the world is in the center of God's will, which I like to say myself sounds very trite when you are one of thousands of Christians being martyred daily around the globe for their testimony for Jesus Christ. Are they not in the center of God's will? Are they not in the center of God's will proclaiming Jesus' name and clinging to the blood of the cross as they are being killed for the name of Jesus? You know, Revelation chapter twelve and verse eleven is a verse that is dear to the heart of every Christian family who has lost a family member as a martyr for the cross of Jesus. And that verse says, and they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony. Who did they overcome? They overcame Satan. And they overcame Satan because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. Even when faced with death, they did not cling to their life. They did not love their life. They gladly gave their life for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, Samuel told Saul that obedience

Obedience Over Sacrifice And Closing

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is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better than just showing up on Sunday morning to sing a few songs or put a little money in the plate. Abram obeyed God when God called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to a land of which he did not know. Let me ask you a very important question. What is God calling you to do? What is God's word calling you to obey? For you see obedience is better than sacrifice. You're listening to devotions with doctor Papa. If you like what you hear, or if it's too hard to hear and you maybe don't even like it, ha, I trust that you will follow, like, or share. And tell your friends about it. And until next week, remember that Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you. And may the Lord bless you real good.

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Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at Jackson Family Medistry.com. Also, don't forget to check out the