In the last message we saw that the Triune God dealt with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as one complete corporate man. If we are going to get into the last section of the book of Genesis, the section on God's calling, we need to remember that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not three separate and complete units but, under God's dispensation, are one complete corporate man. God dealt with each of them as a part of a complete unit. Their experiences are not three separate individual experiences but the aspects of one complete experience.
In this message we need to see the first aspect of the complete experience of God's called ones. This aspect is fully shown in Abraham's life (11:10—25:18). This is quite basic. Abraham's life is an illustration of the first aspect of the complete experience of God's called ones. His experience goes from being called, through the living by faith in fellowship, to the knowing of grace.
In his experience Abraham firstly was called by God. As we have seen, God's calling was not originated or initiated by the called one. It was initiated by the God who called. God was the originator of His calling.
As God's calling did not originate with the called one but with the God who calls, so the motive and strength to receive God's calling did not originate from the side of the called one but from the side of the calling One. The motive and the strength whereby Abraham could answer God's calling came from God Himself. What was this motive and strength? If we look into the situation in a detailed way, we can see three things that motivated Abraham to accept God's calling: God's appearing, God's calling, and God's promise. Now we need to consider each of these items.