This thread is for posting helpful notes for teachers and parents/caregivers about the story of Abraham's Call and Covenant. You are welcome to post your own insights, and those of your particular denomination. (If you have a lesson idea, please post it in the appropriate workshop thread in this forum.)

Please remember, if you quote a source, please only include a summary or short excerpts, and a citation.

Abraham & Sarah: Call & Covenant
God's Plan for Salvation: Blessed to be a Blessing

Scripture Passage

Genesis 12:1-9

Key/Memory Verse:

"I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Genesis 12:2-3  (NRSV)

Rotation Objectives

After completing this Rotation, participants will be able to:

• Tell the story of Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah in their own words, including their call to leave home to travel to a distant land, the promises God made to them, their name-change, the incident of the three visitors, and the birth of the promised son Isaac.
• Define covenant as a promise or agreement, and define blessing as a gift.
• Identify the covenant and the blessing and how they work in the story over a LONG time (blessed to be a blessing).
• Identify covenants and blessings in their own lives.
• Discuss how surprising God's promises seemed, and recognize that with God all things are possible.
• Find the stories of Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah in Genesis, in the Old Testament.
• (Older students) Connect the story with the New Testament including Acts 3, Romans 4, Galatians 3, Hebrews 11

Bible Background Notes from Rev. Neil MacQueen

• The Call and Covenant stories are the first installments on something bigger: “God's Plan for Salvation."
• The Call and Covenant with Abraham is the beginning of a plan that will bless ALL the families of the earth, and culminate in the cross of Christ.
• God wasn't just interacting with Abraham and Sarah as individuals. Rather, they were part of God's greater plan to send the world a message. This message would reach its apex in Christ.
• The concept of God having a PLAN also helps EXPLAIN the extraordinary choice of old Sarah as the mother of a nation, the strange patience of God with her laughter, the strange test of the near-sacrifice of Isaac, and the eventual stories of Jacob the Deceiver whom God works through IN SPITE OF his deceptions --- because God has a Plan! And it begs the question: how do YOU fit into that plan?