[Text: Genesis 11:10-12:3]

It’s been a long time since God promised that sin wouldn’t have the final word in his creation and the promise from 3:15 (that the offspring of the woman would defeat the power of darkness) would be looming large in the minds of the original audience. When would that child be born? When would the promise be fulfilled? How would God do it when no one seems to be following him? We’re confronted with yet another genealogy in 11:10. Could one of these be the one?

[read and pray]

I’m guessing that some of us have heard a relationship end with the words, “It’s not you. It’s me.” When Amanda said that to Rob, she meant it to be a gentle let down; a kinder, gentler way of breaking his heart. Whether it was true or not, Amanda meant that Rob shouldn’t beat himself up as if the break-up was his fault. The choice and the reason, perhaps even the fault for the breaking of the relationship was being claimed by Amanda. She used the phrase, “It’s not you. It’s me” to let him know that that her decision really wasn’t about him. Rob couldn’t do anything to change her mind. She made the choice, and the choice was hers to make.

God uses that phrase, too. Okay, maybe he doesn’t use the exact wording but the concept is there in Scripture. Only he says, “It’s not you. It’s me.” at the beginning of his relationship with people. It’s meant to be a gentle way of saying, “Look, I just want you to know that the love that I’m choosing to give to you isn’t based on anything you’ve done or will do. I’m choosing you because I have the choice. And I choose to give you (in the words of Sally Lloyd-Jones) “my never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.” God gives his love to people and says, “It’s not you. It’s me” to show the greatness of his love that is given where it isn’t deserved or expected. That’s why we call it “Grace.”

In chapter 12 we see the LORD setting his love and blessing on Abram. The question we need to ask is, “Why?” It’s the same question Israel would have been asking when they read this Story. “Why did God choose our ancestor? Why has he put his love on us?”

FCF: Israel needed to know how God’s love came to rest on Abraham and his family and we need to know how His love comes to rest on us as well. If we believe that God loves us, what is that love based upon? If it’s based on something in me, then there’s a problem. I change. I fail. I fall desperately short of deserving any love because of how deep my sinfulness goes. This passage shows us that the “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love” of God is based only on his powerful grace; grace that is able to turn unexpected, undeserving nobodies into the family of God and into a blessing to the whole world. To the last person you’d expect, God says in love, “It’s not you. It’s me.” in order to begin a relationship that lasts forever.

As we go through the genealogy at the end of chapter 11, there are a few things to think about. And those little points set us up for an unexpected turn in the Story:

- There aren’t really any pattern breaks to speak of in this genealogy, but there are three main differences between this one and the previous genealogy in chapter 5, which has a similar structure.

People don’t seem to be living as long. I’m not sure what to make of that, but perhaps it is pointing us to the reality of sin still corrupting life. Chapter 5 had a refrain of “and he died” at the end of each person’s account. This is missing that refrain. We know that each of them died since it tells us how long they lived after their children were born, but it doesn’t emphasize their death the same way that the previous genealogy did. It could be serving to build anticipation in the reader’s heart that perhaps the removal of the curse of sin is on the horizon.But after mankind’s rebellion and scattering at Babel, there are few options left for the line of the Covenant people to remain intact. No one is said to walk with God, like Enoch did. No one stands out as righteous like Noah. All of humanity was implicated in the rebellion at Babel. Now we have a list of names and no mention of the LORD. We only have the connection to Shem, Noah’s son who had embraced the LORD.

- We’ve seen how God has kept the Story moving forward by his goodness, always keeping someone for himself in the Covenant of Grace. Adam experienced grace. So did his son, Seth. So did Noah and Shem.

So who would it be? If our attention is being focused on this family and God was going to continue his work through them, who would it be? Who are the options?Remember that these accounts of “generations” are usually meant to focus the reader’s attention on the person at the end of the account. So at the end of 11:10-26, we are left with three options: Abram, Nahor and Haran.Pretty quickly in vv. 27-32, those options begin to play out.V. 27 – Haran fathers Lot but then dies in v. 28. Haran is out of the equation.V. 29 – Abram and Nahor take wivesNahor marries his niece, Milcah, which wasn’t as uncommon back then as it is (and should be) today.Abram marries Sarai, who, in v. 30, we discover is barren – not able to have children. If the promise of God depends on offspring, then it’s kinda hard to be the line of the promise when you can’t have any kids.Still, we’re left with three options now: Lot, Nahor and Abram.

In v. 31, Nahor drops out of the story as he stays behind in Ur. Terah takes Abram, Sarai and Lot and they together travel to Canaan, but settle along the way for a town called Haran. So at the end of chapter 11, we basically have two options left if God is going to choose to work through this family as he has been working already. There’s Lot, the grandson of Terah. He’s younger and unmarried, but compared to Abram, a childless 70 year old with a barren wife, Lot doesn’t seem to be a bad option.Later is Scripture we learn even more about Abram that makes him a less desirable choice for God’s love:Joshua 24:2 tell us that in his own land, Abram (with his father and brother) worshipped other gods (probably the moon god, which was common in Ur). Not only is Abram childless and old, but he’s a pagan idol worshipper!

So, how do you make choices? What are they based on? Some just go with their gut and trust their feelings. Others collect as much data as possible, make lists of pros and cons and reason their way to a decision. Most of us do a little of both. But what about God? What are his decisions based upon? How does he choose what he chooses?

If he made decisions like us, I think we know who the choice would be. It would be anyone except the old man with a barren wife who had spent most of his life worshipping the moon god in Ur of the Chaldeans.

But God isn’t like us.

The very first thing we see in chapter 12 is the LORD speaking to not Lot, but Abram. God chose Abram out of all the world to bring into the covenant of grace. Abram, the childless idol worshipper, was embraced by God and would be used by God to bless all the nations that had just gotten scattered throughout the world.

Some of you might be familiar with the bible. There are lots of other stories about Abram (who later became Abraham). He’s the father of the Jewish people, a friend of God who by faith did incredible things as we’ll soon find out. So, some of you might be thinking, “Of course God chose Abram! He was a great guy!” Really? Consider how scripture presents him: an unlikely choice, an idolater (probably a very dedicated moon god worshiper), we’ll see he’s pretty quick to bend the truth when it suits him…. By human standards, he shouldn’t have been picked.

And still God picks him. God chooses to embrace him and to bless him and use him out of the whole world to officially begin the rescue of his children that he had been planning since the beginning.

Come back to our question, “Why would God choose Abram?”

When God created the world, he did it without our help in a display of incredible power. And he graciously entered into a relationship with his creatures to give us life in Him. When our first father chose fruit and autonomy from God in the Garden and rebelled against God; there were consequences and there was also grace! Death and all misery we endure entered the world, but God promised that it would not always be so. When Cain murdered his brother, there was right justice against him, but there was also grace for him and opportunity to repent. When God sent the flood to wipe out rebellious humanity, except for eight humans and a boatload of animals, God showed his grace by sustaining life so that the promised redemption of the whole earth could come about! There are two common threads. In all of this, God shows himself to be sovereign; powerful without limitation. And in all of this, God shows himself to be gracious; willing to give and bless life so that restoration can take place.

God is sovereign and God is gracious. That’s the answer.

I can’t tell you why God chose Abram in particular because the Scriptures don’t. There is a line between us and God and whatever is above that line is beyond me and mysterious. But what is below the line is for us to know and believe because God has revealed it in His Word.

And what I know is this. God redemptively loves some people and not others. But what I also know is that no one deserves or could possibly earn that gift of love from God. And if no one can earn it or deserve it, then he is under no obligation. The Giver of a gift is free to give or not to give. So if he chooses to give it, all the gratefulness, all the humble loyalty, all the worship should be directed toward him.

Listen to what Scripture says:

And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, (Deuteronomy 4:37 ESV)

Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. (Deuteronomy 10:14-15 ESV)

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 14:2 ESV)

Some people take this truth about God’s power to choose and abuse it. They become proud and cold toward others whom they believe God hasn’t loved in the same way as them.

But understood rightly, this truth always has the exact opposite effect. Proud hearts are broken by such undeserved love and grace. Hard hearts melt away in humble reliance upon such a free gift given by such a gracious God.

God spoke and revealed himself and his plan to save to Abram. Abram believed God and the Scriptures tell us that God counted him as righteous because he believed God. God unexpectedly gave his grace to an undeserving man and the man gladly welcomed it. That’s the kind of God we see in this passage. And that’s how he always works.

Consider what Paul writes in Romans 4:

“For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

“That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

(Romans 4:13-25 ESV)

If anyone deserved to be saved because of following the rules best, it was Paul. But Paul understood what we need to live in everyday…

In Jesus, God again promises that those who believe in him will be counted as right before God; their shame covered, their old names gone forever and replaced with names like, Beloved, My People, and Sons of the Living God. And like Abram, it isn’t based on anything in us that is good or on anything God thinks we might do in the future. It isn’t based on how well you keep the rules. It’s not based on what you’re able to do (like have kids when you’re 100, in Abram’s case). It’s always based on the promise of God and the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus. It’s always based on grace alone.

Just like he chose Abram, God always chooses people based on grace so that when he sets his truly unconditional, redemptive love on someone in Jesus, they are transformed from a humble sinner broken in sin into a humble sinner, who has been redeemed by grace with no reason to be afraid anymore.

And he always chooses people based on grace so that all the glory belongs to him.

And he always chooses people based on grace so that they can know that they are secure in him. Because our salvation doesn’t depend on our faithfulness to God…it depends on Jesus’ perfect faithfulness on our behalf.

Are there things in your life that you believe make God love you more? Are there things in your life that you believe make God love you less? Whatever it is that came to mind; it isn’t true. For you who believe in Jesus, you are so secure because of his death and resurrection that nothing can stop God’s “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love” from resting upon you. You can’t add to it and you certainly can’t take away from it. By God’s grace it is yours. And what can you say?

I love Waffle House. (No, don’t say that to God. Well I guess you could, but that’s not what I meant you should say to God). But I do love Waffle House. The later at night, the better it seems to be. Sure there are better places to eat that deserve my business. There are fancier places; places with exotic food or atmosphere. But I love going there. You walk in and make your way past the juke box (pausing to see if you like any songs). You take your seat and the waitress sets the table and takes your order: orange juice, two eggs (scrambled), a side of bacon, jelly for toast and hash browns (scattered, smothered, covered and chunked). She shouts it out to the cook with an amazing memory and fast hands and before you know it you’ve got a plate of greasy, cheesy goodness right in front of you. When you’re finished, the bill comes. Next time you go there, look on the back, somewhere in the middle. It says on the bill, “You had a choice. You chose us. Thank you!”

When you put your faith in Jesus, don’t believe the lie that you had something to do with it. Just swim in the grace that has been poured all over you, won for you by the love of God shown through Jesus Christ. As you understand how God drew you to himself by his grace and you hear him through his word telling you, with deep love in his eyes, “It’s not you. It’s me. And I want you to be with me forever;” welcome that love and say, “Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit for choosing me and setting your love on me. You know I don’t deserve it and yet you give it anyway. Thank you.” And let the thanksgiving in your heart and on your lips then spill out into action as you follow your God into His work in the world. That’s why we love obedience to Jesus. That’s why we use our gifts to bless each other and seek to bless our town and our world. We live in gratitude to Jesus and say “Thank you” with our very lives. But it all starts with God working through Jesus, saying to us, “It’s not you. It’s me.”