Gen 12, 1-4 I will make of you a great nation

Genesis 12 (chosen pages)

(Gen 12, 1-4) I will make of you a great nation

[1] The LORD said to Abram: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. [2] "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you." [4] Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

(CCC 59) In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and his father's house (Gen 12:1), and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a multitude of nations". "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8). (CCC 145) The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go" (Heb 11:8; cf. Gen 12:1-4). By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land (Cf. Gen 23:4). By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice (Cf. Heb 11:17).