This week’s parasha is entitled Lech L’cha, which is translated, “Go forth!” and spans Genesis chapters 12 through 17. The focus is Abraham – the father not only of the Jewish people, but in a real way the father in the faith to all who follow Messiah Yeshua. Just as Noah was a uniquely righteous man in his generation, so Abraham had a singular relationship with God. So what made this one man so different? One word: obedience. In chapter 12, God tells Avram:
Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house…
Now maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big deal to we “moderns” who think nothing of moving across the country as our careers demand of us, and being thousands of miles from our parents and siblings. We can always fly home to visit. But in the ancient world, the idea of picking up and moving away from one’s ancestral home was difficult, to say the least. In this case, however, the journey had begun with his father, Terah. We are not told why Terah left Ur of the Chaldees. What we do know is that he intended to bring his family to Canaan, but got only as far as Haran (11:31), where he settled. Even that journey was lengthy – nearly 550 miles – on foot (or camel). Terah would remain there another sixty years before dying.
But not long after settling in Haran, God summons Abram out, saying, “Go forth… to the land which I will show you.” At the same time, God makes a series of amazing promises to Abram:
“I will make you a great nation”
“I will bless you, and make your name great” (honor, renown)
“I will bless those who bless you”
“The one who curses you I will curse”
“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”
So Abram went forth in obedience to the Lord’s command – at age 75! Never accept the excuse from anyone that they’re “too old” to change. Remind them about Abraham. In fact, Abraham is the exact model of what it means to be a ‘believer’. He trusted and loved God, and consistently obeyed His directives.
Abram left Haran and his father, setting out into the unknown, but trusting in God, and taking with him his nephew, Lot. When they arrived at Shechem, God appeared to Abram, promising that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. A famine in the land forced them to sojourn for a time in Egypt, where he lied to Pharaoh about Sarai, saying she was his sister. When the truth finally emerged, Abram and Sari were unceremoniously escorted out of town! It wouldn’t be the last time they tried to manipulate events instead of simply trusting in God.
They journeyed to the Negev, at which point it became apparent to Abram and Lot that their flocks were too numerous to occupy the same pastureland. Rather than quarrel over it, Abram suggested that he and Lot separate, giving Lot the choice of which direction he preferred. Lot took a fancy to the (then) lush Jordan valley to the east, and settled in the vicinity of Sodom – described here in Genesis as an exceedingly wicked city.
Chapter 14 chronicles the war between nine kings of that region, during which Lot is captured. Abram takes 318 trained men, enters the battle and rescues his nephew. Returning victorious from battle, an extremely important encounter takes place. Abram is met by two different kings, and presented two different offers. The king of Sodom offers him riches – the spoils of war. Malki-tzedek (Melchizedek), king of Salem, offers him bread and wine. Abram chooses wisely. He breaks bread with Malki-tzedek and rejects any alliance with Sodom’s king. He even pays Malki-tzedek a tithe (remember, Melchizedek was not only a king, but a priest of the Most High God).
In chapters 15 and 17, God promises a son to the still childless Abram, even telling him in advance to name his son Yitzchak (Isaac: ‘laughter’), probably because both he and Sarai at different times would laugh at such news. God seals the promise with a covenant. But Abram gets more than he bargained for. He is shown the future. In chapter 15 God declares that his descendants will be enslaved four hundred years in a foreign country, but afterwards will return to Canaan, and take possession of the land.
Chapter 16 is an object lesson on so many levels. Sarai grew impatient at not having children, and convinced Abram to take her handmaid, Hagar, as a concubine to bear children to Sarai by proxy. Abram did what Sarai said, and the result was Ishmael… and the further result was many ensuing generations of contention between Ishmael’s descendants and those of their not-yet-conceived son, Isaac. If it’s true that “those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength,” then I suggest those who will not wait upon the Lord will renew tzuris – troubles for themselves.
Finally, in chapter 17 God tells Avram, now 99 years old and still childless, that his name is to be changed to Avraham, meaning, ‘father of a multitude’. Likewise, Sarai’s name is to be changed to Sarah. Each acquire the addition of the letter % into their name, possibly from the Hebrew word 0&/% (hamon – “multitude”) since God promises each of them that multitudes of peoples will descend from them. Avraham still has a hard time believing that he and Sarah will have a son together, and suggests to God that Ishmael be the heir. God promises that Ishmael will also be blessed and become a great nation, but the Covenant would continue through Isaac.
And Avraham is given the physical sign of the covenant: circumcision. Every one of Abraham’s male descendants, for all generations to come, is to be circumcised on the 8th day following their birth. Covenants ceremonies always involved blood. In fact, when you read, for example, in Genesis 15:18 that God “made” a covenant with Abraham, you should know that the Hebrew word (;9) is translated to “cut” a covenant.
It was this very question that propelled our brother of blessed memory, Stan Telchin, a wealthy Jewish insurance salesman, to faith in Yeshua. Having studied these things extensively, he asked himself, “If circumcision was the ‘cutting’ on man’s end, where was the ‘cutting’ on God’s end?” Then it suddenly dawned on him – he envisioned Yeshua dying, shedding His own blood, much like the innocent animals sacrificed at the mizbeach (altar) of the Temple. Abraham’s sons would be cut as a token. God’s Son would be cut in the ultimate way. This, in fact, is how all the families of the Earth would be blessed through Abraham (Genesis 12:3) – by the atoning death and glorious resurrection of the greatest of his descendants: Messiah Yeshua.