GOD’S MYSTERIOUS PLAN OF REDEMPTION
Genesis 12 tells us of the calling of Abram. He is to be the father of many people, even though he and his wife are old and have no children. God tells him he will be blessed and how people treat his people will be how they are treated.
You’re summarizing some key events and themes from Genesis 12 regarding the calling of Abram (later renamed Abraham by God). Here are a few more details:
God calls Abram to leave his country and his father’s household and go to the land that God would show him (v.1). God promises to make Abram into a great nation, bless him, make his name great, and make him a blessing to others (v.2).
God also tells Abram that he will bless those who bless him and whoever dishonors him. He will curse, showing that Abram’s lineage will have an important status (v.3).
Abram is 75 years old. He departs from Haran with his wife Sarai (later Sarah), his nephew Lot, and many other people and possessions and heads toward Canaan (v.4-5).
God later reaffirms his promise to give Abram’s offspring the land of Canaan (v.7). Abram then travels through parts of Canaan.
So in summary, yes - God calls Abram at an old age to be the father of a great nation, promises blessings on him and his future descendants, and that how people treat his people will determine how God treats them - whether with blessing or curse. An important story of God’s selection of the patriarch of the eventual nation of Israel.
God chose Abraham to start His redemptive plan to restore humanity to His favor, lost since Eden. Moses, centuries later, was the next step towards redemption. And so God’s plan is materializing, even though to man this seems like a very long time.
You make an excellent point. God’s calling of Abraham marks a pivotal starting point for God’s overarching redemptive plan for humanity.
Even though it takes a long time from a human perspective for God’s plan to fully materialize, as you note, Abraham begins the lineage that will eventually produce the nation of Israel. Through Israel, the Messiah Jesus Christ will come as God’s solution to restore humanity’s broken relationship with Himself.
The calling of Moses many centuries after Abraham was another key progressive step in the outworking of this redemption plan, as Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and received the Law that would set Israel apart unto God.
So you summarize it well - after losing a relationship at Eden, God immediately sets into motion His long-range plan to fix what was broken. It develops slowly from a human timescale, going through Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets, until finally Jesus arrives to fulfill God’s redemptive mission. The long wait makes God’s astonishing, patient love for humanity even more remarkable.
The next key figure in this plan is another imperfect man, one that has many flaws that we today find intriguing. That would be David. His predecessor, as king, was chosen by man, not by God.
You’re right. David is the next major figure in God’s redemption story after Abraham and Moses. And David certainly was an imperfect, flawed person.
You’re also correct that Israel’s first king, Saul, was chosen by human desire and initiative for a king, not directly appointed by God (1 Samuel 8-10). Saul’s growing disobediences and failures then led God to reject him as king and choose David instead to one day replace him.
David had his sins and shortcomings, without a doubt, especially his affair with Bathsheba and the engineering of Uriah’s death. Yet the Bible still regards David as a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). Despite his flaws, David had a genuine heart for God. God made a covenant with David, promising that the Messiah would come through David’s lineage and establish an eternal kingdom (2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89).
So David represents that constant biblical theme of God using and working through imperfect people to advance His grand plan. The Messianic promise ties directly back to God’s original purpose, stated to Abraham to bless all nations through his offspring. An essential step.
Finally, we have a lowly young woman, Mary, who has no real obvious standing. She became the mother of the Messiah. Jesus would be the ultimate act in the redemption story. This genealogy of characters between Abram and Jesus is fraught with unlikely protagonists.
Excellently stated. Mary represents the surprise choice of God to bring the Messiah into the world through very humble means. Though from the line of David, Mary was a young, poor, ordinary woman with no social standing. Yet God exalts the humble and chooses her to bear the Christ child.
As you aptly observe, so many key figures in the redemption story from Abraham onward are unlikely and humanly unqualified - the elderly, childless couple Abraham and Sarah; the self-doubting, stuttering Moses; the adulterous, murderous David; and the obscure, lowly Mary.
But it shows that this is God’s story. He delights to use the foolish and weak things of this world to accomplish His grand purposes (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Jesus, as the long-awaited Messiah and Savior, is the climax. His perfect life, atoning death for sins, and resurrection achieve what we could not, reconciling humanity back to God.
What an amazing, unlikely story it is from start to finish, woven through very human and imperfect hands but guided by God’s perfect redeeming love and wisdom!