Genesis 12:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 12:7

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This is the first appearance of the Lord to anyone in the Bible, the first time we read of an appearance. Previously, the Lord had spoken either in a vision or dream or audibly to Abraham, but now he appears to him. How, or in what form? It is a theophany; it must be. In John 1:18 we are told that no one has seen God – meaning the Father – at any time. Only the Son has revealed him. Every pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord God is a theophany, an appearance in some human form of the pre-incarnate Son of God. The Lord appeared to Abraham and promised that the land would actually be the property passed to his seed. It's going to be fulfilled in the future. This is the land to which I intended to bring you. You are here. But the fulfilment of the promise will not be in your lifetime, nor even, the words suggest, in your son's lifetime or in your grandson's lifetime. It will be a long way down the chain of descendants. It will be to your seed, a term which indicates a fulfilment rather a long way forward. What is his response? To build an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. That is altar number two. Altars feature a great deal in the pilgrimage of Abraham and all the patriarchs' memorials, memorials of thanksgiving and of dedication. Now you might think that would disappoint Abram considerably. He has taken the journey and the first communication of God in appearance seems to puts off the fulfilment of the promise, and yet we read these beautiful words, ‘there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.’ He was so humbled and so overwhelmed by an appearance of the Lord, and whatever God said, would be wonderful to him. If God said, ‘Not yet, not for generations will I fulfil the land promise’, then because God unmistakably said it, it was perfect and good and excellent, and Abram was humbled and he built an altar of thanksgiving. He built a memorial. He is doing a number of things at once here. He is worshipping; he is thanking God; he is building something that would last. Perhaps if he passed that way again or into the future, he would remember it. Here is the place where God communicated with me. He is a great man for memorials, indeed all the patriarchs were, and so should we be. What about Sarai? When they were in Ur of the Chaldees and Abraham said to her, ‘God has called me out, and he's called me to leave this place of comfort and plenty, and relations and friends, and health care, and banks’, and all the rest of it that they discovered in Ur of the Chaldees. ‘Oh, where to?’ said Sarai. ‘To a wretched place which is full of enemies and hostile people.’ ‘Oh, will we have a smaller house?’ ‘We won't have any house. We'll live from now on for the rest of our days in a tent.’ You can imagine the rest. And Sarah went. They went together. The word together is used in this chapter. They were one in this. And the land? Well, he doesn't mind about the land. He is being taught already that this land is a token. Some people make a great fuss about the land. ‘The land promises, the land promises – were they perfectly fulfilled by the time of David?’ they ask. ‘Were they to be more fully fulfilled? Are they fulfilled in the present location of physical Israel? Will they be more grandly fulfilled in the future?’ And people just fix their heads on the land promises. The land promises were only a token of the eternal land promises, when all the glorified earth will be for the Jewish and Gentile converts, for ever with the Lord. So yes, a literal land was given to the nation of Israel before Messiah came, but that was only a token prophecy which is to be completely fulfilled in the eternal glorified land that we occupy. Abram is learning this. We see this again in the letter to the Hebrews, where the writer states quite clearly that what Abram really looked to was a heavenly land, not an earthly one. ‘He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God … that is, an heavenly’, says the inspired word. So we are in no doubt that the land fulfilments on earth were only concrete predictions of something much better.

Application

Remember the places of special visitation, great answers to prayer, wonderful events. Not by building monuments – we can well understand why they did that – but remember them to strengthen your own faith. Remember places where you had very significant spiritual appearances or blessings of God to you; not literal appearances, but God dealt with you. Remember the place. If you had a sudden conversion, remember the place. Remember the place when your eyes were first open to some great truth, when you were blessed with a particularly wonderful answer to prayer which delivered you from a thousand fears. Perhaps you have the opportunity to visit and to pray and to give thanks. Perhaps it'll make you much more loyal to people who've been instrumental in places that have been instrumental in your life and more prayerful for them, too. Abram builds an altar of gratitude and thanksgiving. ‘He removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.’ So another stage of the journey takes place and more worship, another memorial, and so it should be with us. Every stage of the journey God moves us from one place to another, a great turning point in life, and there we make a memorial and we remember God's goodness to us up to this point and commit ourselves to him for the next phase of the earthly journey. This father of the faithful is always worshipping and building his altars.

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Genesis 12:7 Commentary and Bible Study