After the death of Abraham’s father (Gen. 11:32), God appeared to Abraham and called him the second time (see note Gen. 11:31¹ ). God’s repeated appearing to Abraham was a strong attraction to him, motivating and strengthening him to accept God’s calling. It is the same with the New Testament believers (see note Matt. 4:20^1a and note Matt. 4:22^1a, note Matt. 9:9³, note Heb. 12:2², and note 2 Pet. 1:3⁸).

The records of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (with Joseph — see note Gen. 37:2¹) overlap. Genesis does not portray them as three separate individuals but as constituents of one corporate person. The experiences of these three men portray different aspects of one complete person’s experience of the Triune God. “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” is Jehovah, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Exo. 3:15; Matt. 28:19). The experience of Abraham signifies the experience of God the Father in His calling man, justifying man, and equipping man to live by faith and to live in fellowship with Him (Gen. 12:1; 15:6 chs. 17—18; Gen. 19:29; 21:1-13; 22:1-18). The experience of Isaac signifies the experience of God the Son in His redeeming man (Gen. 22:1-14) and His blessing man with the inheritance of all His riches, with a life of the enjoyment of His abundance, and with a life in peace (Gen. 25:5; 26:3-4, 12-33). The experience of Jacob (with Joseph) signifies the experience of God the Father in His loving man and choosing man (Mal. 1:2; Rom. 9:10-13) and of God the Spirit in His working all things for the good of His lovers, in His transforming man, and in His making man mature in the divine life that man may be able to bless all the people, to rule over all the earth, and to satisfy all the people with God the Son as the life supply (27:41; 28:1—35:10; chs. 37, 39—49; Rom. 8:28-29).

When God appeared to Abraham, He also called him. God’s speaking to Abraham was also a factor that motivated and strengthened him to accept God’s calling (cf. Rom. 1:6; 8:30; 1 Cor. 1:9). Cf. note Gen. 12:1¹, par. 1.

In His second appearing to Abraham, God called Abraham to come out not only from his country and his relatives but also from his father’s house (cf. Acts 7:3 see note Gen. 11:31¹). This means that God called only Abraham and his wife, Sarai. However, when Abraham left Haran, he took his nephew Lot with him (vv. 4-5). This again shows Abraham’s lack of absoluteness in accepting God’s calling.

God’s promise to Abraham in vv. 2-3 was the preaching of the gospel (Gal. 3:8 and note Gal. 3:8¹). God not only appeared to Abraham and called him, but He also gave him the promise of the gospel as an incentive to encourage Abraham to answer His calling.

In His preaching of the gospel to Abraham, God promised to make of him a great nation. This great nation is the kingdom of God, composed of the nation of Israel as God’s kingdom in the Old Testament (Matt. 21:43), the church as God’s kingdom in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18-19a; Rom. 14:17), the millennial kingdom in the coming age (Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6), and the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 22:3, 5).

From the time that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem until now, every nation, people, race, or individual who has cursed the Jewish people has received a curse, and whoever has blessed the Jews has received a blessing.

In His calling God turned from Adam to Abraham, but in His promise He made another turn, from Abraham back to all the families of the Adamic race through Christ, the seed of Abraham.

The blessing here consists of the blessings of God’s creation and redemption, including all that God wants to give man — God Himself and all that He has in this age and in the age to come. According to Gal. 3:14 (see notes there), the promised blessing is actually God Himself as the Spirit. Thus, in His preaching of the gospel to Abraham (Gal. 3:8), God promised that He would give Himself to the called ones as a blessing. According to Gen. 22:18, this blessing would come to all the nations through Abraham’s seed, who is Christ (Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:16). God’s blessing to Abraham, which made him a blessing to others, implies the tents of Shem (see note Gal. 9:27¹).

According to Heb. 11:8, Abraham went out by faith, not knowing where he was going. See note there.

See note Acts 7:4¹.

God’s goal with Abraham was not merely to save him out of his environment and his background but to bring him into the land of Canaan for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Likewise, God’s goal with the New Testament believers is not merely to save them from their fallen condition but to bring them into the reality of the good land, which is the all-inclusive Christ as the portion allotted by God to all the called ones (Deut. 8:7-10 and note Deut. 8:7¹; Col. 1:12 and note Col. 1:12²). See note Gen. 15:3^1a.

This was the third time God appeared to Abraham. Here God’s reappearing confirmed to Abraham that he had answered God’s calling and had arrived at the place where God intended him to be. God’s reappearing also strengthened Abraham to live by faith (Heb. 11:8-10) as an anti-testimony to the godless living developed by mankind at Babel.

Both the seed and the land typify Christ, who is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy. See note Gen. 15:3^1a.

Christ, the incarnated God, is the threefold seed: the seed of woman (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14; Gal. 4:4), the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:7; Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:16), and the seed of David (2 Sam. 7:12-14; Matt. 1:1; 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16). As the seed of woman, the seed of Mary (Matt. 1:16), Christ accomplished redemption to destroy Satan, the serpent, and to save the believers in Christ from sin and death (Heb. 2:14; Matt. 1:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:53-57). As the seed of Abraham, Christ became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) that the believers in Christ, who are Abraham’s seed (Gal. 3:29), may inherit the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God, as their divine inheritance, their spiritual blessing for eternity (Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14a; Gal. 3:14). As the seed of David, Christ brings His believers into the kingdom and causes them to share in His kingship in His resurrection in the eternal kingdom of God (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6; 22:5b). The revelation of Christ as the threefold seed is the contents of the full gospel.

This was the first altar that Abraham built. An altar is for worshipping God by offering all that we are and have to God for His purpose. Abraham’s building of an altar was motivated by God’s reappearing and can be considered an anti-testimony to the building of the tower of Babel.

Bethel means house of God and Ai means a heap of ruins. Bethel and Ai stand in contrast to each other, signifying that in the eyes of God’s called ones only God’s house is worthwhile; everything else is a heap of ruins.

Abraham first built an altar for the worship of God; then he pitched a tent for his living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob each lived in a tent (Gen. 12:8; 26:25; 35:21). Their dwelling in tents was a declaration that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth who were seeking a better country and eagerly waiting for “the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God” (Heb. 11:9-10, 13-16). Both the better country and the city which has the foundations are the New Jerusalem (see note Heb. 11:10^1a and note Heb. 11:13²).

See note Gen. 4:26^2b.

I.e., the dry southern desert of Canaan.

The famine, prepared by God in His sovereignty, was a test to see whether or not Abraham would live by faith, trusting in God for his daily necessities (cf. 1 Pet. 1:6-7). Instead of trusting in God, Abraham went down to Egypt, which signifies the world under Satan’s rule.

Lit., my soul.

While Abraham was in Egypt, he experienced God’s keeping grace. Although Abraham had failed to trust in Him, God blessed Abraham, making him rich (v. 16; 13:2), and preserved Sarai, his wife. By this experience in Egypt Abraham learned that the God who called Him also took care of him and that everything was in His sovereign hand.