12:1—And Yehovah said to Avram, “Go forth from your land and your birthplace and your father’s house to the land I will show you.

12:2-And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you (I.e., with all goodness) and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing (I.e., a blessing to humanity as a result of the goodness—the righteousness of Yah—that manifests in and from Avram as a result of His obedience of faith).

12:3-And I will bless those who bless you (I.e., those who come after you Avram, will enjoy My favor), and those who damn you, I will curse, and all the clans of the earth through you shall be blessed.

12:4-And Avram went forth as Yehovah had spoken to him (I.e., without question, Avram obeyed Yah) and Lot went forth with him, Avram being seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

12:5-And Avram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all the goods they had gotten and the folk they had bought in Haran, and they set out on the way to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.

Here, Avram becomes the main, individual focus of the Genesis storyline, whereas in the previous chapter and verses, he was simply a footnote of Shem’s genealogy.

Avram is essentially the first official patriarch of the True Faith once delivered. For here in this opening verse, it is Yehovah who appears to Him (how He appears to Avram is not spelled out in the text, but clearly Abba manifests Himself to Avram in a very personal and direct way; not in a dream or vision, but in a clear and personal way), the appearance unprovoked, if you will, by anything specific that Avram had done. Which suggests to me that Avram was selected/chosen of Yehovah to be the father of a new creation of people who would be set apart from all humanity as a special possession unto Him.

The text does not reveal anything that Avram says in response to Yehovah’s Words and instructions. Avram’s words are instead manifested in Avram’s unquestioning obedience to the Creator’s instructions.

At this early juncture in the storyline, Avram is not told where he was to go. And Avram’s obedience speaks volumes as to his trusting faith, not just in the Words of Elohim here, but also trusting faith in the very Being, the very Person of Yehovah. That same miraculous trusting faith will be manifested later on the Avrahamic-story line when he is called upon by Yah to offer up His son Yitshaq as a sacrifice (chapter 22).

Here, Avram is instructed by Yehovah to separate himself entirely from the life that he knew as a son of Terach in pagan, evil Ur of the Chaldees. Yah’s instructions could not be more clear and precise: Leave your land, your birthplace and your daddy’s home and go to a place I will show you, period. These, as described by J. H. Hertz in his Torah-Haftorah commentary, are “the main influences which mold a person’s thoughts and actions” in life.

And Avram responds with simple trusting obedience. This is the foundation upon which a covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe is built. Yah sets the terms and we in response obey without question. Certainly not an easy thing for any rational human to have to experience.

Let us not be blind to the fact that this abrupt, powerful instruction given by Yah to Avram was the very start of a series of tests that the Eternal would bring upon Avram. He was being instructed by Yah to completely cut himself off from all that he knew growing up and living as a younger adult before the call.

And certainly, this is not in the least an aberration of history. For each of us who are called to Faith are instructed to spiritually do the very thing Avram was being instructed of Yah to do. This is especially underscored in the renewed covenant, as we are called to die to self—abandon our former life with all the baggage therein, and walk in His footsteps, as He leads us to a land and introduces us to a life of His making. And the thing He requires of us, as He did of Avram, is to trust Him and obey. And when this circuit is complete, we enter into and operate in covenant relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Like Avram, we don’t know starting off where we’re going or what life is going to be like from that point moving forward, but our trust in Yah is all we need to function.

And so, we have here in our reading the beginning of a new nation of peoples, starting with just a single man of faith. And from this single man of faith would emerge a nation that would become a “light to the world/the nations” (Isa. 42:6):

“I, Yehovah, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will hold you by your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations” (CSB).

Has Yisra’el always excelled in this calling? No. More times than not, she has faltered in her call. But Yah will always be shown to be true and every man a liar. For despite Yisra’el failures at times to be a light to the world, Yah has always maintained unto Himself a remnant, whose light has shined ever so brightly for the world to see. Yah, in the end, will always receive the glory and honor He so justly deserves.

And so, all the families of the earth have been blessed through Avram’s seed’s possessing and living and teaching of Yah’s holy and righteous oracles. But even more so, the families of the earth are blessed through the seed of woman (Gen. 3:15), coming down through the lineage of Avram, ultimately coming on the scene and crushing the serpent’s head and making unto humanity a way to become sons and daughters of Yehovah Elohim.

What we have here in the story of Avram and the Avrahamic covenant, is the Gospel. It is the good news of the Kingdom of Yehovah. Indeed, despite the work of the enemy and the evil that seemed to dominate the world at the time, Yah was announcing that He was indeed, getting the band back together (I.e., the first announcement of the coming Kingdom of Yah to the earth and to humanity). And this Gospel message would be inaugurated through a single man from Ur of the Chaldees: Avram.

Another interesting history-spiritual parallel to be drawn from our reading is that with Yah’s instructions to Avram, and the establishing of His unconditional covenant with Avram, Avram would live the remainder of his life as a pilgrim; a sojourner; despite Yah granting Him title-deed to the Land of Promise. He himself would not fully realize that possession apart from implication and promise; a promise that existed as though it was an existing reality.

We, like Avram, are called to dwell in this world as though we are sojourners. For to remain attached to the world (e.g., uncoverted family and the old way of life) while being called to walk in a covenant relationship with the Creator is but a fool’s errand at best. It can never work out.

This world is not our home, so says the writers of Hebrews:

 ¹³ Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. ¹⁴ For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. ¹⁵ By him therefore let us offer the  sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. ¹⁶ But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Heb 13:13-16 KJV)

The same writer of Hebrews described Avraham’s faith in some of the most brilliant prose every written:

⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.  ⁹ By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: ¹⁰ For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ¹¹ Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. ¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Heb 11:8-13 KJV)

This is the level of trust we must all aspire to. For this is the faith that our Master is returning to this earth to find:

 when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luk 18:8 KJV)

The tragedy that is modern day denominationalism and religiosity is the insistence that Torah and the whole of the Tanach has been done away with, and replaced by the writings of Paul and bolstered and underwritten by hyper-grace. This mindset is such that Torah/Tanach is of no consequence to anyone’s salvation. But the truth of the matter is, my friends, that what we have embodied here within the Avrahamic Covenant is the Plan of Salvation. For without the Avrahamic Covenant, there is no Plan of Salvation. The Avrahamic Covenant spells out Yah’s Plan of Salvation. This is the very essence of what Abba meant when He told Avram that all of the clans of the earth through him would be blessed (12:3).

The Avrahamic Covenant, as well as the Mosaic, the Davidic and the Renewed Covenants, are all founded upon two essential elements: Trusting Faith and Obedience. Without these elements, there is no covenant and no basis for salvation. The Avrahamic Covenant in essence holds the very key to Yah’s Plan of Salvation. But this is seen only by those who possess eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts and minds to receive and implement these eternal principles in their walk with Mashiyach.

That trusting obedience is the stimulus by which we receive Yah’s blessings; Yah’s goodness; Yah’s eternal mercies; Yah’s Righteousness (12:3).

Practical Halachah

I have reflected of Avram and the other patriarchs of our Faith, whether these were spiritual superheroes. And the answer is a resounding yes, but these were flawed superheroes. These were no different than us. Each had their own, individual issues that Abba was not at all hesitant to reveal to us in His Words.

Avram had miraculous faith if you ask me. But Avram also stumbled at times in his Faith walk. Just within this Torah reading, we find that because he did not trust Yah to protect him during his sojourn in Mitsrayim (aka Egypt), he coerced Sarai to essentially deny to the Egyptians that she was married to Avram. Later, Avram’s faith also wavered in him taking matters in his own hands, so to speak, to bear a promised son, not through his wife Sarah, but through Sarah’s handmaid Hagar.

Avram’s trusting faith, regardless was legendary. But regardless his couple faith missteps, Yah did not waver one tittle in his honoring of the covenant He made with Avram.

And so, Yah, under the auspices of the renewed covenant, expects nothing less from us: if you will, Avrahamic level faith.

Some of you may be saying to yourself: I don’t have anywhere near this level of faith: The faith to pick-up my entire life and head to an unknown place that Yah says He will show me. I don’t have that level of faith that would take me to the very brink of carrying out the sacrifice of my only beloved as commanded by Yah. And so forth.

And that’s okay. I don’t possess that level of faithful obedience either. But I know Yah is working with me in that department.

The question is not whether we possess and exercise such a high-level of faithful obedience today, but rather, until we get to that Avram level of faith, what do we do in the meantime? Well, we exercise and operate in the faithful obedience level we currently possess. It’s not hard at all. Simply keep and honor Torah. Keep the feasts; keep the weekly Sabbath; eat clean; keep the moral laws; love Yah with our whole hearts, minds and souls and love our neighbors as ourselves; walk in covenant with Yehovah our Elohim. I tell you, if we simply focus on excelling in these fundamental elements of our faith, we will lay the groundwork within for the Ruach Kodesh to broaden and deepen our faith to that of an Avram and the other heroes of faith noted in Hebrews 11.

Indeed, many of us are being made to grow up in our faith a little quicker than maybe we would feel comfortable with. It’s one thing to keep the instructions of righteousness, but it’s an entirely different matter to stand toe-to-toe against the enemy and refuse to bow a knee to Ba’al. Many of us are being oppressed today and coerced into taking vaccines and conforming to certain mandates in order to operate in society and even to provide for our families. And so, those of us who find ourselves in such a position are having to step out in faith and exercise faithful obedience that is on par with that of some of the biblical patriarchs. And don’t be fooled beloved, what’s happening right now to some of our dear brethren may not be happening to us today, but it’s only a matter of time before the badboys come a’calling for the rest of us.

So it behooves us to step up our faithful obedience game. And I can’t think of any better template for such a stepped up game than that which is recorded in 1 Thessalonians 5:

 ⁶ Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. ⁷ For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. ⁸ But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. ¹¹ Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. ¹² And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; ¹³ And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. ¹⁵ See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. ¹⁶ Rejoice evermore. ¹⁷ Pray without ceasing. ¹⁸ In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. ¹⁹ Quench not the Spirit. ²⁰ Despise not prophesyings. ²¹ Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. ²² Abstain from all appearance of evil. ²³ And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Th 5:6-23 KJV)

Beloved, when we honor Yah, He will honor us.

Hold on to your faith, come what may.

 ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. ⁷ Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. (Pro 3:5-7 KJV)

And know, salvation comes to those who endure to the end through a faithful, obedient covenant relationship with the Almighty (Mat. 24:13).