This is Who We Are.

Genesis 11:27 -- 12:9

Cascades Fellowship Nov 4, 2001

When I was in basic training, there was a song my company

commander used to play to whip us into a patriotic frenzy -- I'm proud to be
an American by Lee Greenwood. In the hands of our company commander
it was our battle cry, a call to arms. It stirred our souls.
On one occasion, we had really blown an inspection. After about two
hours of calisthenics -- or however long it takes the floor to get slippery
from all the sweat -- our commander called us to the front of our open bay
barracks and told us listen carefully. He was going to play a song that told
us why we were part of the world's finest navy. I'm proud to be an
American. The whole company cried like rats eating onions. It didn't
matter what the real reason was behind our entering the military, from that
day forward it was because we were proud to be Americans. We thought as
one organism. We displayed what is known as corporate personality.
Boot camp is designed to take a group of radically different
individuals and mold them into a cohesive -- almost familial -- unit. A
corporate personality. Despite the differences in race, creed, color, social
standing, or place of origin, the group of young men or women who come
into basic training as a disparate mass of pluralism must come out as a
manifest single -- a unity. To accomplish this, the services use a very
simple, yet very effective process. I call it identity deprivation therapy.
The therapy goes like this: first you're immediately put into formation
the minute you step off the bus. This is the first picture of the corporate
identity. Then, they begin stripping away everything that identifies you as
an individual. Your hair, your clothes, your personal toiletries are all taken
from you. At first, even your name is taken – you're simply called recruit.
By the time you are processed and formed up into a company, you have the
same haircut, same clothes, same toiletries, and same address as everybody
else. And the whole lot of you smell like mothballs.
Over the course of basic training you eat, breathe, and live the core
values of the military. In a real sense, all the barriers that you used to rely
on to keep distance between you and your neighbor are broken down and
made into bridges. Differences don't mean much, because you all have a
common experience -- there is a common goal. Graduate and become part
of the world's finest navy. As a result a real bond takes root between you
and the others in the company. When you graduate, you do so as a single,
unified entity -- a corporate personality.
One of the messages of Scripture is that the elect -- those who call
upon the name of Christ -- are to be a corporate personality. We are to be of
one mind and purpose -- Paul told us as much in the letter to the Philippians.
Part of what makes us so is a shared history. The reformed faith calls it
redemptive history. This morning, we are going to look at the foundation for
redemptive history -- particularly the promise made to Abraham when God
called him to a life of sojourning in the land of Canaan. To begin our foray
into the foundation of redemptive history - which, by the way, is our history
-- we will look at what led up to call of Abram, that is the first eleven
chapters of Genesis. Sounds like a tall order, doesn't it?
The second thing we will look at is the call of Abram itself. The final
point we will ponder is what the promise of a great nation means for us.
There is a lot of ground to cover in Genesis chapter 1-11, but I think
this morning we can narrow it down to three major events which provide the
framework we need to understand what happens in the rest of Genesis. The
first major event is the creation/fall story of Adam’s rebellion and the
resulting curse. The story is well known. God, in the beginning, brought
order out of chaos - out of the formless empty earth. Within that creation, he
created Adam and gave him dominion over the earth to keep and guard it.
He commanded man to be fruitful and fill the earth. Man was to be God’s
regent - his steward over the earth, maintaining the order God established.
Our first parents, however, chose to listen to the voice of the serpent
and their own whims rather than obey God. The result was the curse of sin
and expulsion from Eden. But not before God had given the mother promise
-- the promise that one would come who would "crush the head of the
serpent."
Chapter 6 records that the ramifications of the curse grew until the
Lord was grieved because every inclination of man was for evil. To relieve
the creation of the wickedness of man, God sent a flood -- a big flood.
But the Lord did not destroy all men. He found one man -- Noah --
who yet called upon his name and preserved him and his family plus a
representative collection of animals in the Ark to repopulate the earth once
the waters subsided. Once the Ark found dry ground and the animals and
people left the Ark, God reinstated what is known as the cultural mandate --
that is the original instructions given to our first parents. In Chapter 9 God
tells Noah to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." The same mandate
given to Adam and Eve in the Garden. What we see going on here is a
pattern of re-creation. God is re-instating order to his creation through the
removal of the free-radical -- man.
It doesn't take long, however, for Noah and his family to miss the
mark. Sin was still present, still breeding chaos in the midst of God's
created order. Which brings us to chapter 11, the Tower of Babel.
 At the time of Babel, man shared a common language. As they
moved eastward, they found and settled in a place called Shinar, so they also
shared a common community. In other words, they ceased to fill the earth as
God mandated. Then they decided to build a tower. A huge tower. A tower
that reached to the heavens. They built it to make a name for themselves.
Note that because it's important. They wanted others to whisper their name
in awe. They also wanted to ensure that they would not be scattered over
the earth.
You see, what the people of Babel were doing was keeping and
guarding the earth, but not because God told them to. It was so that they
could make a name for themselves. They wanted to draw everyone into one
place. They wanted to keep from being scattered, having their strength
diluted. They wanted to bring their order to the world. But bringing order
to chaos is God's job. They wanted to do God's job -- just like Adam and
Eve. What they didn't realize is that despite the greatness of human
accomplishment, it is always in the context of the curse.
So God stepped in, again. He confused their language, immediately
scattering their strength by making communication difficult, if not
impossible at that point. But that's not all. God scattered the people over
the face of the earth. He sent them out of Babel again to fill the earth as he
originally mandated. God restored his plan for bringing order to creation.
This is the history of the curse in a nutshell. Man aspires to be God, God
intervenes and restores his order to creation. Notice the pattern. God
creates, man rebels and attempts to usurp God and his order, God intervenes
and recreates.
Now there is a definite reason why we needed to look quickly at

these three major events in chapters 1 through 11. Notice who God is
dealing with in these chapters. He is dealing with the nations. All nations;

not just one nation, not just Israel. Now, think about who the message of

Genesis is intended for, why it was written. One nation. It was written for

the Israelites originally, so that they could know the God that brought them

out of Egypt. You see, what we have here is God's subtle reminder to Israel

that they are chosen for a purpose. God is deeply concerned about the

nations, not just the nation. He wants his chosen people – which includes us

– to understand their identity as a chosen nation comes in the context or

framework of his concern for the nations. It is because of God's concern for

all of creation that the call of Abram occurs. Abraham's narrative in Genesis

reveals the Creator's approach to addressing the problem that began in the

Garden. It is another act of re-creation. The Lord begins again with Abram.

In the same way that the Lord sent the flood to address man's

growing wickedness, he calls Abram to plant the seed of blessing among the

curse. But he does this by beginning a new stream of history, a subtext

within the history of the nations. Look at chapter 11 vv. 27-32.

This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of

Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of
Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of
the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both
married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of
Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the
father of both Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she
had no children. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot
son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son
Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to
go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
 I want us to notice the place of this genealogy in the Genesis
narrative. Right after Babel. It is after God has scattered the nations that he
calls Abram out from the midst of them to be the father of a new, chosen
nation. Now, what we have to remember concerning the first 11 chapters is
that the history of the nations is the history of the curse. It reveals the depth
of the curse, how it pervades throughout humankind. A history that is still
being made today. It is from this history -- from Ur the land of the
Chaldeans, a land of idolatry -- that God calls out one man to begin a new
nation, a new history: the history of blessing. But I want us to notice a few
peculiarities in this new history.
The first thing I want us to notice is that the call of God requires a

complete separation from the history of the nations -- that is the history of

the curse. Abram is to leave his country, his people, his father's household.

Everything that would have identified him in his culture, he is told to

abandon. What we see here is a precedent being set. Do you want to be a

part of the people of God? Do you want your history to be the history of

blessing? Then you must abandon the history of the curse. Everything you

use to identify yourself must be put aside for the sake of the call of God.

Like Paul in his letter to the Philippians, we must consider all things loss for

the sake of Christ -- the history of blessing. But I'm getting ahead of myself

here.

A second peculiarity we need to be aware of is Sarai's barrenness.

Look for a moment at vv.2-3.

“I will make you into a great nation

 and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

The call of God came with his promise; his promise to make Abram a
great nation. Only, there was a problem. The mother of the great nation was
barren. Sarai's barrenness stands in stark contrast to the continued posterity
of those who remain in the history of the curse. In a very real sense, Sarai
brings with her a part -- a symbol, if you will -- of that history with her. Her
barrenness is a reminder of the curse. It stands as a monument that only
God can turn curse into blessing. If there is going to be a new nation
intended for blessing, then it must be a nation of God's creation. You see,
the message here is that God must do wonderful things for Israel to exist.
Apart from his choosing, there can be no history of blessing.
What I want us to notice here is that the Lord starts over with Abram.
Abram and Sarai become the first parents of the new humanity -- those who
are redeemed in Christ -- just as Adam and Eve were the first parents of
humankind. This is what God is promising Abram when he says he will
make him into a great nation.
So what does all this mean for us? What are we supposed to draw
from all this history of the curse and history of the blessing stuff anyway?
Well, I'm glad I asked. There are a lot of points I would like us to get out
this passage, but for today I'll limit it to two.
The first concerns what is known as the scandal of particularity.
What this means in a nut-shell is that the church is marked by a scandal --
that one nation is essential if there is to be any saved among the nations. It
is to the seed of Abraham -- Jesus Christ -- that the promises were spoken.
In him, all the promises of God find their fulfillment. So apart from him,
there is no blessing. That one nation, one people, should be chosen as the
means through which salvation would come was to the rest of the world is
the epitome of arrogance. Then that one man -- Jesus Christ -- should be
necessary for salvation, to the rest of the world is unthinkable. It is a huge
stumbling block. Just try sometime telling someone in our pluralistic
society that Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life and you
will quickly learn how big a stumbling block it is. Yet, the apostle Paul
makes it abundantly clear in both the Romans 4 passage we read today and
in Galatians that the true children of Abraham -- those who inherit the
blessings of the promise -- are those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no other way to become part of the history of blessing. This is the
scandal of particularity and we're part of it.
The second point that we must draw from this passage is similar to
the first. Because of the scandal of particularity, in order for us to be a part
of the history of blessing we must become part of the corporate personality
that is the great nation. Now by this, I mean that we must remember to what
purpose God called us out of the history of the curse -- in order to be a
blessing to the nations. Just as in boot camp, where all the members of a
company share a goal and the experiences that lead up to that goal, we must
remember that we share a history with a goal – to be a blessing to the
nations. So, our people are not the people who were born in the same
community as us or during the same year. Our people are not those who we
work with or who share our skin color. No, our people are those who share
our history. Those who have joined Abraham in believing that the promises
God has made, he will keep. Our people are those who recognize that God
has called them to a purpose and who seek to be a bless others by sharing
the good news of Jesus Christ – by sharing our history.
Folks, I don't want us to miss this, because this is who we are. Part of
the great nation. A nation separated by God from the history of the curse to
take part in the history of blessing. Think with me for a moment about
Babel again. They sought to make a name for themselves through building a
tower. What does God promise Abram in Genesis 12, the last part of v.2?
That God will make Abram's name great. Here's the point -- oddly enough,
the same point that Paul wanted to communicate to the Philippians. We
often want to identify ourselves according to our human heritage or the
social strata we fit into. Today, we like to talk about diversity as if it is the
greatest good. It is -- in the context of the greatest nation -- but when we
absolutize diversity, we place walls which divide us from one another. We
cannot hold on to our personal heritage as the absolute means of identifying
ourselves and remain a great nation. We must subordinate all other things
that make us distinctive for the sake of the greater unity -- our unity in the
history of blessing and its purpose for existing. In a way, we must commit
cultural suicide. Just as Abraham left all that identified him and just as Paul
forgot what was behind and pressed on toward the goal, we, too, must
abandon everything else in light of the surpassing greatness of knowing
Jesus Christ, of being part of him -- of having a part in his history.
When my company graduated from boot camp the men that made up
that company were vastly different from the men whose names were on the
roster at the beginning. We went in as a motley group of individuals -- each
with different values and different agendas. When we came out, we came
out as Company C039, spit and polished -- we all walked the same, dressed
the same, were there for the same reason. We were proud to be Americans.
It didn't matter who we were before we came to boot camp. What mattered
was who we were coming out. That's the point. We came out as a corporate
personality. Our lives had been woven together through a common
experience, our minds melded together by a common cause. What we
brought to the table coming in was disregarded for the sake of the cause. In
a way, we began a new history.
Folks, God began a new history with the call of Abram. A new
narrative to run parallel to that of the nations. The history of the nations is
the history of the curse. Regardless of the good a man might do, it is always
in the context of the history of the curse, unless.... unless he abandons the
history of the curse and joins in the history of blessing. And what is the
history of blessing? The history of redemption. The story that takes us from
a promise being made to Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans to Jesus Christ being
born of a virgin, suffering under Pontius Pilate, being killed on a cross and
raising from the dead. The story that in Christ -- believing that his death
satisfied the wrath of God over our sin -- we are forgiven and become new
creatures with new histories. It is the history of God so loving the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son so that whosoever should believe on him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life. If you have trusted Christ as your
Lord and Savior, this is your history. This is who we are.
A final word here. If this is your history, remember that the purpose
of it is to be a blessing to the nations. We do that by telling people our
history in Jesus Christ. If you're not sure this is your history or if your not
sure how to tell someone about this history, come talk to me. I will help you
seek out what it means to a part in the history of blessing.