The Call of Abraham: Divine Initiative and Human Response

The narrative of Abraham’s call stands as one of the most pivotal moments in biblical history, marking the beginning of God’s redemptive plan through a chosen people. The author of Hebrews captures the essence of this moment: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). This profound statement directs our attention to Genesis 12, where God’s divine initiative meets Abraham’s faithful response, establishing a new paradigm for the relationship between God and humanity. Understanding this call requires examining both the sovereign work of God in choosing Abraham and the remarkable faith demonstrated by a childless nomad who would become the father of nations.

The Divine Initiative: God’s Sovereign Choice

Abraham’s importance does not stem from his own merits but from God’s sovereign choice. When he was called, Abraham was neither a mighty king nor a wealthy landowner; he was a childless nomad whose life, though successful, did not stand out among many other semi-nomadic groups roaming the ancient Near East. What makes Abraham truly unique is that he was the first person called into a personal relationship with God. God chose Abraham as the foundation of his new chosen people, speaking to him directly several times and promising to make his family great in the land he would give him.

This divine election reveals something fundamental about God’s character and methodology. God does not wait for human perfection or achievement before acting; rather, he initiates a relationship based on his own purposes and timing. The text provides no clear explanation of why God chose Abraham specifically, nor does it detail the precise method through which God communicated his call. This ambiguity itself is instructive: it emphasizes that the foundation of Abraham’s story rests not in human deservingness but in divine grace.

The threefold command of Genesis 12:1 demonstrates the comprehensiveness of God’s initiative: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Each element of separation—from country, from kindred, from father’s house—represented a progressive severing of Abraham’s attachments to the familiar and secure. These attachments were too strong and tangible for Abraham to retain while simultaneously developing the capacity to hear and follow God’s message. God’s call demanded total dependence, creating space for the divine to provide guidance, strength, and fellowship that would mold Abraham into the person God needed him to become.

The destination itself remained unspecified: “to the land that I will show you.” This was akin to purchasing a traveling ticket without knowing the destination. God’s initiative thus required not merely obedience but trust, a willingness to move forward into uncertainty based solely on the character and promise of the God who called him. This pattern of divine initiative leading into human uncertainty would characterize Abraham’s entire journey and establish a model for faith that resonates throughout Scripture.

The Cultural Context: A Man Shaped by Two Worlds

To fully appreciate Abraham’s response, we must understand the cultural and religious environment that shaped him. Abraham emerged from a sophisticated Sumerian civilization in southern Mesopotamia, most likely from the renowned city of Ur. This ancient city, with a history dating back to the fourth millennium B.C., represented the pinnacle of urban development, culture, and learning in the ancient world. When Abraham’s family left Ur to move to Haran, they abandoned not only their physical location but also the sophistication of city life, the splendor of Ur, and the rich Sumerian culture of their ancestors.

Abraham’s background as a son of this advanced civilization had profound implications for his calling. He was exposed to a religion and socioeconomic culture far more developed than that of Canaan, the land to which God would send him. This sophistication would serve him well, explaining his ability to navigate between different cultures and kingdoms, his mercantile interests, and his capacity to accumulate wealth and prestige. The text indicates Abraham possessed considerable resources—flocks, silver, gold, and servants—suggesting a man of prosperity and business acumen.

However, this same sophisticated culture was thoroughly pagan. Both Ur and Haran served as major centers of moon worship. Joshua 24:2 explicitly states that Terah, Abraham’s father, and his other relatives were idolaters. Abraham grew up in a polytheistic environment where devotion to false gods was the norm. This religious context makes God’s call all the more remarkable. What spiritual experience impelled Abraham to heed the voice of this “new” God who spoke to him? What led him to renounce the cults of his fathers and venture out at the divine bidding into a strange land? The Old Testament does not provide detailed answers, leaving us to recognize that Abraham’s personal experience with Yahweh entailed much more than is revealed in the biblical text.

The death of Abraham’s brother Haran, which occurred before the family’s departure from Ur, may have contributed to Abraham’s spiritual awakening. This tragedy could have exposed the spiritual poverty of his culture’s religious system, creating an openness to divine revelation. Regardless of the specific catalysts, it is clear that God’s initiative broke through the darkness of paganism to reach a man whose heart was somehow prepared to respond.

The Human Response: Faith in Action

Abraham’s response to God’s call exemplifies what it means to walk by faith. When God spoke, Abraham listened and obeyed, setting out for an unknown destination with remarkable trust. This faith was not passive belief but active obedience: Abraham physically uprooted himself from familiar surroundings and began a journey through the wilderness that would define the rest of his life. His obedience manifested in immediate, concrete action: “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him” (Gen. 12:4a).

Yet we must acknowledge the complexity of Abraham’s response. While he is rightly celebrated as a man of faith, Abraham was far from perfect. Throughout his journey, he demonstrated moments of weakness—lying about his wife’s identity out of fear, taking matters into his own hands by fathering Ishmael through Hagar, and showing impatience with God’s timing. These failures reveal Abraham as authentically human, struggling with the same temptations and doubts that plague all people. His greatness lies not in flawless obedience but in his willingness, at the critical moments of his life, to remain faithful and trust God with reckless abandon.

The ultimate test arose when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise through whom all of God’s covenant promises would be fulfilled. Abraham’s readiness to offer what was most precious to him showed the depth of his faith and his full surrender to God’s will. Although God stepped in to spare Isaac, Abraham had proved he was willing to give up everything for the God who called him. This story reveals faith at its purest, trusting God even when circumstances seem to contradict his promises, obeying even when the command appears to go against the very purpose for which one was called.

Abraham’s response also involved learning to live in the tension between promise and fulfillment. God promised him land, descendants, and blessing, yet Abraham spent his life as a nomad, living in tents and moving from place to place. He received only one small piece of property in Canaan, the burial plot he purchased for his wife, Sarah. The great nation God promised would not emerge for generations. Abraham lived and died without seeing the full realization of God’s promises, yet he continued to believe. The author of Hebrews commends him for precisely this faith that looks beyond the visible present to embrace the unseen future: “By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents . . . For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:9–10).

The Journey: From Ur to Haran to Canaan

The geographical journey from Ur through Haran to Canaan illustrates the progressive nature of God’s call and Abraham’s response. Whether Abraham received his initial divine prompting while still in Ur or after settling in Haran has been debated by scholars, but the biblical narrative suggests God’s call may have come in stages. Genesis 11:31 indicates that Terah took his family from Ur with the intention of going to Canaan, though they settled in Haran instead. Genesis 15:7 and Nehemiah 9:7 both state that God brought Abraham from Ur, implying divine communication occurred there. However, the explicit call recorded in Genesis 12:1 comes after the family had settled in Haran.

This geographical progression held spiritual significance. Haran, like Ur, was a center of moon worship, suggesting Abraham had not yet fully separated from his pagan past. The call from Haran represented a more complete break with idolatry and a fuller embrace of exclusive devotion to Yahweh. The nearly thousand-mile journey from Ur to Haran had already demonstrated the family’s mobility and willingness to relocate, yet the call to leave Haran demanded something more: a departure not merely from one location to another but from the last vestige of ancestral connections and cultural security.

Abraham’s lifestyle as a semi-nomad, living in tents and seeking pasture for flocks and herds, fitted perfectly into the cultural and political climate of the early second millennium B.C. Yet his life differed from typical nomadic patterns in crucial ways. He was not simply wandering in search of resources; he was following divine direction toward a specific, promised land. His movements were purposeful, guided by the voice of God and oriented toward the fulfillment of covenant promises.

The journey required not only physical endurance but spiritual perseverance. Abraham faced hostile peoples, engaged in conflicts, and navigated complex political situations. His prosperity grew as he moved through the land, yet he never possessed it during his lifetime. This paradox—being promised a land but never owning it, being called to father nations while remaining childless into old age—required sustained faith that could endure tension and delay.

The Significance: Foundation for God’s Redemptive Plan

Abraham’s call and response established patterns that would echo throughout salvation history. God marked Abraham as his possession through circumcision, indicating that his descendants would forever be known as “God’s people.” Through Abraham’s life of faith and through the transmission of covenant signs to subsequent generations, God’s chosen people continued until the written law was introduced through Moses. Abraham became the conduit through which divine blessing would flow to all nations, a promise that found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham born two thousand years later.

The author of Hebrews places Abraham at the head of the great cloud of witnesses who lived by faith. His example teaches that faith involves trusting God’s promises even when circumstances seem impossible, obeying God’s commands even when the path is unclear, and persevering in hope even when fulfillment is delayed. Abraham’s faithful response to divine initiative became the template for a relationship with God, not earned through human achievement but received through trusting surrender to the One who calls.

Conclusion

The call of Abraham represents the meeting of divine sovereignty and human faith. God took the initiative, choosing an unlikely nomad from a pagan culture and calling him into a covenant relationship. Abraham responded with remarkable faith, leaving behind everything familiar to follow God into uncertainty. Though imperfect, Abraham’s obedience at crucial moments demonstrated what it means to walk by faith rather than sight. His willingness to trust God’s promises, even without seeing their fulfillment, established him as the father of all who believe.

Abraham’s story challenges modern readers to consider their own response to divine initiative—will we, like Abraham, step forward in faith when God calls, trusting that he who promises is faithful? Abraham’s journey reminds us that authentic faith involves risk, requires patience, and ultimately rests not on our strength but on the character of the God who calls us into relationship with himself.

Completed Studies on Abraham’s Failures

The Five Failures of Abraham (June 14, 2022)
Ur and Haran: Abraham’s Background (February 16, 2023)
The Failures of Faith in Abraham’s Journey
Abraham and Terah: Family Dynamics and Divine Calling
Abraham Before His Call: The Mesopotamian Context
The Call of Abraham: Divine Initiative and Human Response
Abraham and Lot: Separation and Its Implications
Abraham’s First Failure: Egypt and the Wife-Sister Deception
Abraham’s Second Failure: The Eliezer Solution
Abraham’s Third Failure: The Hagar Alternative
Abraham’s Fourth Failure: Laughter at Divine Promise
Abraham’s Fifth Failure: Gerar and Repeated Deception
The Testing of Abraham: From Failure to Faith

NOTE: For a comprehensive list of studies on Abraham, read my post Studies on Abraham.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

If you enjoyed reading this post, you will enjoy reading my books.

VISIT MY AMAZON AUTHOR’S PAGE

BUY MY BOOKS ON AMAZON (Click here).

NOTE: Did you like this post? Do you think other people would like to read this post? Be sure to share this post on Facebook and share a link on X so that others may enjoy reading it too!

If you are looking for other series of studies on the Old Testament, visit the Archive section and you will find many studies that deal with a variety of Old Testament topics.