God’s character and attributes are changeless. Even before delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, he was the God of the exodus. In this chapter, we will look at the major events in the life of Abraham and find that they were divinely stamped with an exodus impress.

LEKH! LEKH! Abram swung his  staff vigorously, yelling, “Lekh! Lekh!—Go! Go!” The vultures bounded back several yards, hopping with outspread wings. He turned back to the cutting Yahweh had bidden him to perform. There before him lay the bloody path between the split carcasses of a heifer, a female goat, a ram, and two birds. He had cut the animals in half, laying each side opposite the other, creating a pathway through death. Under the sweltering sun, much of the blood and offal had begun to congeal and the odor had already drawn a horde of flies, not so easily driven off as the vultures (though the vultures patiently lurched closer as soon as he turned his back).

The sun was now beginning to set, and Abram, the sweat of his brow having dried in rivulets of salt around his lids and down his cheeks, knew that soon both the dark and the cold would overtake him. He sat on a large stone, waving his staff rhythmically as a warning signal to the preying scavengers. He was drifting in and out of slumber when, suddenly, a deep sleep fell on him and he was plunged into thick darkness, black as pitch, submerging him in horrific dread—he was full of fear and terror.

Out of the primordial dark, Abram heard the voice of Yahweh: “You must know that your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own. They will slave for the inhabitants and be afflicted by them for four hundred years. But know also that I will judge the nation enslaving them, and afterward your descendants will come out with great possessions.” Then a fire appeared, pushing back the shroud of darkness. Abram watched intently, straining his eyes as the wonder unfolded: A pot with a billowing pillar of smoke and a torch whose flame ascended in a column of blazing fire stood before the cutting, spreading an auburn haze over the slaughter. Steadily, the pillars of smoke and fire began to pass between the carcasses, moving slowly through the path of death.

Silent and motionless, Abram exhaled. The cold sweat drenching his body jerked him into movement. Discarding sandals and staff, he sank onto his knees and bowed low until his forehead rested on the ground. Dust and the musky scent of shrubs entered his nostrils as he stretched out his arms before him.

The vision of Yahweh, as recorded in Genesis 15, had confirmed that one day Abram’s seed would be delivered through death and brought in to possess the land of God as an inheritance.

The Exodus of Abraham

God’s character and attributes are changeless. Even before delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, he was the God of the exodus. In this chapter, we will look at the major events in the life of Abraham and find that they were divinely stamped with an exodus impress.

Genesis 12:1-9: Abraham’s exodus out of Ur. Thankfully, Genesis 11 does not end with humanity’s exile from God and the scattering of nations from the ruined city of Babel. The Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11:1-9) and the call of Abram, whom we will come to know as “Abraham” (Genesis 12:1-3), are linked inseparably by the family line of Shem (Genesis 11:10-32). In Hebrew, Shem means “name,” connecting him not only to the primary motivation of the city builders, who wanted to make a name for themselves, but also to Shem’s descendant Abram, to whom God promises, “I will make your name [shem] great” (Genesis 12:2)—a hint that every human longing finds its end in God himself. Indeed, by his grace God offers Abram restoration in terms of everything humanity had sought through defiant self-assertion: his descendants would experience abundant life and security with God in the land.

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