Turn Again to the One Who Created All

By Paul Keim, professor of Bible and religion

There is a back story to the call of Abraham not found in the biblical account. While still in Mesopotamia Abraham became a believer in the one true God, rejecting the idol worship of his kindred and countrymen. He smashed their images and tried to demonstrate to them the folly of worshipping their own handiwork. They did not respond well and Abraham, having been saved from the fire, was called to leave. The book of Jubilees (12), the Great Midrash of Genesis (Ch. 38) and the Noble Quran (Surah 21) all contain accounts of this ancient tradition. And there are indeed echoes of it in the Bible. At the great covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem, Joshua reminds the people: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River (Josh 24:2-3).

The “Exalted Father” (Ab-ram) is on his way to becoming the “Father of a multitude” (Ab-raham). There will be greatness and blessing and renown, but not for its own sake. The verb form here expresses purpose: So that you will be a blessing. The ancestral benediction envisions that all the clans of the earth will thus bless themselves: May we be like Abraham and Sarah.

Could there be a better time for the heirs of the Abrahamic religions to reclaim their common roots of faith than in this season of estrangement? Could there be a better place to embrace our common mission than in this bountiful land of immigrants and refugees? Could there be a more fitting challenge for us than to abandon our idolatrous consumerism and turn again to the One who created all?

Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4a (NRSV)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.