🌹Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family
And from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
[Genesis 12:1-4, ES]
🌹By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
[Hebrews 11:8]
Abram means “Exalted father”. It was an irony because the exalted father had no children even at age 75. We’ll get into the details of that in due course.
Abram was living in Mesopotamia, present day Iraq. Then God asks him to move to a place God was going to show him. Ah! Why does God do His things some way? Why not specific details of the journey from the outset, so one is clear in his/her mind? We know the journey landed Abraham in Canaan, over one thousand kilometres away. That’s a long journey to be made on foot or on the back of beasts of burden.
It took several months to get there. However, the length of the journey isn’t as difficult as the lack of clarity in the instruction. What are you going to tell your wife and household to convince them to follow you? What about your business partners? You’ll hit the news headlines as a fool at 75. We’ll digest that also later, God willing.
The promises to Abram were certainly mouthwatering (verses 2&3). Who doesn’t want to be great? And these are coming from the mouth of the Almighty God and not from an politician, seeking your vote. However, it could be a great challenge to believe and obey this God that can’t give just a simple instruction with clarity. What’s the guarantee that the lofty promises will be fulfilled?
Friends, God called Abram to leave his comfort zone (his father’s house, his kindred and old-time friends, his businesses and investments etc.) and take up a new challenge at age 75. In the same vein, God is calling us also to move out of our comfort zones. It may be a job, a relationship, a location, anything. Just as Abram obeyed without a word, may we also obey, once we’re convinced it’s God who is instructing us. Obeying God always ends in peace and fulfillment. It never ends in regrets. We receive the grace to so do. Amen
