God Chooses Abram

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s family. Go to the land I will show you.

⁴ So Abram went, just as the Lord had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Harran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. They took all the people and possessions they had acquired in Harran. They started out for the land of Canaan. And they arrived there.

⁶ Abram traveled through the land. He went as far as the large tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were living in the land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram at Shechem. He said, “I will give this land to your family who comes after you.” So Abram built an altar there to honor the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there, Abram went on toward the hills east of Bethel. He set up his tent there. Bethel was to the west, and Ai was to the east. Abram built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram left and continued south toward the Negev Desert.

⁸ Abraham had faith. So he obeyed God. God called him to go to a place he would later receive as his own. So he went. He did it even though he didn’t know where he was going. ⁹ Because of his faith he made his home in the land God had promised him. Abraham was like an outsider in a strange country. He lived there in tents. So did Isaac and Jacob. They received the same promise he did. ¹⁰ Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations. He was waiting for the city that God planned and built. ¹¹ And Sarah had faith. So God made it possible for her to become a mother. She became a mother even though she was too old to have children. But Sarah believed that the God who made the promise was faithful. ¹² Abraham was past the time when he could have children. But many children came from that one man. They were as many as the stars in the sky. They were as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one could count them.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They didn’t receive the things God had promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a long way off. They openly said that they were outsiders and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say things like that show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ What if they had been thinking of the country they had left? Then they could have returned to it. ¹⁶ Instead, they longed for a better country. They wanted a heavenly one. So God is pleased when they call him their God. In fact, he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ Abraham had faith. So when God tested him, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham had held on tightly to the promises. But he was about to offer his one and only son. ¹⁸ God had said to him, “Your family line will continue through Isaac.” (Genesis 21:12) Even so, Abraham was going to offer him up. ¹⁹ Abraham did this, because he believed that God could even raise the dead. In a way, he did receive Isaac back from death.