Gen 11:27-12:9
Key Verse 12:1-3
Introduction:
God called Terah and his
family in order to bless them. But out of five family members, only Abram held
on to God’s call for blessing and became the blessing of God while three of his
family fell out of God’s blessing. God’s blessing is greater than the blessings
that we can make by our own strength. So today, I want you to consider the
blessings of God for He is calling to each of us not only to bless us but also
to make us a blessing for the people of the world.
In the first part, we
will learn about God’s call for Terah and his family and their responses to it.
On the second part, we will learn Abram’s response to God’s call. Positive
response to God’s is the first step toward God. This first step changes one’s
life from the world of sin and ungodliness to the world of God’s blessing. Since
we all are called by God as Abraham was, by knowing God’s call in its full
scope of meaning, I pray that each of you may make the first step toward God’s
call for His rich blessing.
A.
Terah settled at Harran.
Today’s passage starts
with a brief summary of Terah’s life, saying ‘this is the account of Terah.’ He had three sons, Abram,
Nahor and Haran, living in the land of Chaldeans. This is the place where people
built the babel tower in order not to be scattered but to make their name
reaching to heavens (11:4). So this was the heart land where people expressed
their rejection of God’s utmost authority. Terah and his family also were not
much different from the people of that land, serving idols. (Jos 24:2). Yet,
God chose Terah and his family in order to bless; i.e. God made his call to
Terah and his family. This noted in v 12.
12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your
country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
This passage indicates
that the call had been made to Abram some time before. Often it is misread
that the call was made to Abram at this time, and then as soon as he received
this call, Abram responded to the call immediately. But the call addressed in past perfect tense
tell otherwise, i.e. the call was made some time before this time when Abram responded.
Because of that call that had been made sometime before, Abram now decided to
follow God’s command now. This is more
clear when we examine v11:31. Terah left
Ur with a clear intention to go to Canaan. But Verse 30 reads, “But
when they came to Harran, they settled there”. So instead of going all the way
to Canaan, the stopped at Harran and settled there. Terah was 145 years old
when Abram left Haran to go to Canaan in obedience to God’s call (v29, 12:4). He
lived another 60 year at Harran after Abram left for the Promised Land for it
says that (v32) Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran. This is a clear
indictment of Terah’s failure to follow through God’s call all the way to the Land
of God’s promise. Though God called Terah and his family, five members (Haran,
Nahor and his wife, Haran, and Terah) did not follow through God’s call. Only
three, Abram/Sarai and Lot, his grandson, entered the land of God’s blessing. Why
did they fell out of God’s call?
First, Haran could not take God’s call because he died before
receiving the call. It might be simply
because “it happened to be”. But God does not make his call to some one in a
half-hazard way. Also God gives life and sustains life according to His will
and grace. According to such understanding, Haran’s premature death was a form
of God’s judgment for before receiving God’s call he died.
Second, Nahor and his wife left behind in their homeland and did not
follow his father Terah. No reason was given. He decided not to follow his
father Terah because he liked the life in Ur and did not feel that there was
anything better out there for him. Or he was skeptical of “the promises in God’s
call”. Or he had many plausible reasons to stay behind! But whatever was the
reason, he never saw God’s blessing. What can we say about all these two?
We do not want to be another Haran who never saw the light in God’s call. Also,
we do not want to be like Nahor who might have thought that the call of God was
not for him or did not want to bother with God’s call because he was happy with
what he had.
What about Terah? He was 145 years old when Abram left Ur of Chaldeans with a clear
intention to go to Canaan in obedience to God’s call (v29, 12:4). Then why did
he settle in Harran and eventually die there? He could have said to himself
that, “we have come a half way. Here we can take a break just for a night or
just for a week.” Or he might have thought that he needed more supply to take
another long journey. When we have a reason to postpone our decision today,
then tomorrow we have more reasons to delay it further into next month, or next
year. So whatever the reasons might be, don’t entertain them as excuses to
delay to follow God’s call. There is no need for more supplies for this journey
to God’s call. Some people think that he or she has to clean up his or her bad
behaviors before getting up to set off to God’s promise of blessing. For godly
people, procrastination or delaying is the common lures from Satan. Do
not delay your decision. Now is the time to get up and move your feet to the
land of God’s promise! Another possible reason for staying there was that he
liked Harran much better than Ur of Chaldeans. People there were kinder
and godlier than the people of Ur of Chaldeans. “It may be ok” to God that he
stayed there because the people of that place were reasonably good and
acceptable to God. But God’s command was very clear. He was to go to
the land God will show. Until he shows, he must go, and go! If not, that is a compromise of God’s command.
That compromise always resides in one’s own interpretation and will. These are possible reasons behind of
the delay for in the scripture no specific reasons were given. Nevertheless, for many, these two were the
common reasons for not following through God’s call. So God speaks powerfully
through Terah; “Do stop on the way! Do not put it off! Do not compromise God’s
command with you own! Now is the time, not tomorrow, not next week or next
month! Get up and Go! Find out God’s wonderful blessing!” Do not settle in the middle!
B.
God’s call to bless
Here we will look into the details of God’s call
to Terah and then to Abram. We assess two aspects of this call. First one is a
command to go. The Second one is God’s unconditional offer of blessing.
a.
God’s command to go to
the land of God’s promise, Canaan.
12 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people
and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
When God commanded
Abram, he specified what he was to leave behind. He listed three things; first
his country, second his people, and third his father’s household. When God told
him to leave each of these things, God meant something specific. Country is the
one that provides a place of security and comfort where our lives can maintain
ordinary and worry free lives, engaging freedom and all kinds of activities. A
country is under an authority of a king or a ruler or a government. They are to
provide the security for their people. In exchange for this, they hold
authority over the people and in that authority they set the rule of their own.
Most often then not, these rules bear little or no concern for God’s authority
or God’s purpose for the world.
Second one is to leave
his people. People are united with common goal because they share the same language;
the same culture and the same goal as far as keeping or securing lives are
concerned. Also they are closely related and woven together. They are
interdependent. In order to maintain life in America, telephone, TV
and cars, as well as job is needed. I depend on my coworkers at work every day.
Without them, I cannot keep my normal works. In one way or another, we
share common chances, common risks, and common fates. This is the middle layer
of our security and protection of life.
The first and most inner
layer of our security is father’s household, i.e. family. This is bound by blood and is inseparable
unless one willfully tears it apart. Also this is where we grow up and learn
the basic and fundamental principles of life. It is a birthplace of our
philosophy about life. Father has authority to govern and impose what was
necessary for their children. So children cannot escape father’s
influence. So the Ten Commandments say that God would bless over 1000
generations of a godly father. But bad
father will incur God’s curse for 3-4 generations. It is almost
impossible for any children not being influenced by his father. Nevertheless,
God told him to leave his father’s household. Abram’s father, Terah’s life is
described succinctly in ch 11. If Terah decided to settle in Haran, there was
no other way to follow God’s call unless he severed the bond with his father.
In this way God demanded to cut off all bonds that Abram had with the world,
the country, the people and the father’s household.
Why did God tell Abram
to leave each of these three? He could have said simply go to the land I will
show you! But God did not say that. The reason is that each of these three
harbors the principle or worldview or view of life that totally oppose to God’s
purpose or God’s will. As we look at these three things, these are what make us
as us, distinctively and characteristically. It is deeply rooted in human mind,
human goal and human ideals. But we know how empty they are. They are empty
because men in sin, who rejected God, run them. In these
kingdoms/nations/countries, people and family, there is nothing new and there
is no hope at all. Also the basic tenet of these three different levels of
collective units is the same as the purpose that men began to congregate.
(11:4) So as long as we are bound by the principles of this world that are
deeply ingrained in country, people, and father’s household, we will have
a hard time to welcome the blessings that God is offering to us.
Some think that America
is one of the best countries to live. She protects her people with respect and
honor. No country in human history supported her people as America has been
doing. Christianity is one of the major reasons that founding fathers of
America constructed such an almost ideal structure of nation. Yet this nation
runs still in the same principle as God pointed out about the nations of the
world in Gen 11:4. Men and their causes are the first and foremost priority. No
concern about God and God’s cause. In other word, materialism and humanism run
deeply throughout all governing rules and regulations an then out of these two
they want to make their name high above God.
So, God told Abraham to
leave all these so as for him to rely on God alone. So if he does so, what
would God do for him?
What does it mean to us?
There are three isms flows that energize
the world and its people; nationalism,
racism, and various beliefs in family. Without receiving God’s call, all of
these stand on materialistic humanism. These
isms are the basic fabrics of what we
know, believe and comfortable with that we use the principles of these in daily
lives. We must know that how empty these are and as long as we uphold these isms, we will be estranged from God’s
love and our minds will be shut off from the knowledge and all blessings of
God. God’s call starts with a command, ’go’ or “leave’. We must listen and
follow this command so as to take hold of rich blessings of God.
b.
God’s offer [12:2-3]
“I will
make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and
you will be a blessing.
This is God’s offer for him if he does leave his
country, his people and his father’s household.
First, God is going to make him a great nation. God would bless him. At
time of this call, he was 75 years old and did not have a single child. But God
will give him a child and his descendant will grow to be a great nation. At the age of seventy-five, Abram and his wife Sarah
had no child. An old couple is getting old and there was no one to give their
riches, there was no child who would take care of this couple when they become
so helpless. Childless is also hopelessness as well. How long did they endure
this? I looked up the ages when Abram’s ancestors bore their first child. It is
in the genealogy in ch 11:10-26. All of them bore the first child in their late
twenties to early thirties. At the time of God’s call to Abram he was 75 years
old. He has been waiting for more than 35 years to have a child. Yet still they
were barren. If they were barren last 35
years, how could it is possible for them to bear a child in the future? In such impossible condition, God said God
would make him a nation. This promise is heavily impregnated with
God’s assertion that he has life and he can and will give life to the barren
couple. In addition he will do it in abundance so as to make him a
great nation. This was a great offer!
Second, God will bless him. What
God meant in this is detailed in the next phrase: “I will make your name great, and you
will be a blessing.” We love and adore celebrities. We do so because
they have the things that we dream to have; riches, power and fame. You can be
like those celebrities not in what they are famous for but in godly truth. Once, Jesus called 72 disciples to him and gave
them the power of God in order to send them out to do three things; to heal the
sick, to drive out demons from people, and to preach the kingdom of God (Luke
10:1-20). So they went out and did as Jesus told them to do. They experienced
tremendous power of God in their personal lives. When they returned, they said
this in their joy; "Lord, even the
demons submit to us in your name." (Luke 10:17) They had firsthand
experiences in so much power and grace of God. So they felt great and famous.
Their hearts were filled with great joy for they became great! Jesus gave them the power and knowledge that no one
dreamed to have. They taught the truth, and excise that power and many, many
people ‘listened, and submitted to their teaching and the power of God. All these
came about because Jesus gave them power and they could use that power.
Likewise God will bless Abram. It means that God will give his blessing to
Abram. Then, what is the nature of God’s blessing? When God chose Israel, God
told them this;
Deuteronomy 28: 2 All these blessings will come on you and
accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: 3 You will be blessed in the
city and blessed in the country. 4 The fruit of your womb will be
blessed, and the crops of your land and the
young of your livestock-- 5 Your basket and your kneading trough
will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed
when you go out. 7 The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against
you will be defeated before you. They
will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. 8 The LORD will
send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD
your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
This blessing is far
beyond that we can expect from any other source, such as the most powerful man
of a country, such as the president of US. Choosing God, being associated with
God, or being blessed by God is far superior to associations that we make in
this world. I wish to be a friend of the President Trump, though I do not agree
with quite number of his policies. This is because a favorable relationship
with him will surely bring me many benefits. But no matter how powerful he is,
and no matter how favorable he would be to me, it cannot match with the
blessings from God, the creator of heaven and earth.
Third, God will make you a channel for his
blessing to the world. The significance of God’s blessing to Abram will
go further. This is said more explicitly in v3.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses
you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
As God
blesses Abram, eventually, he himself or his life itself will become
‘blessings’ to many others. Abram will become the conduit for God’s
blessing to the whole people of the world. Whatever God would give to Abram
would be given to those who become his family, either by birth or by adoption
or by association in trust. At the near the end of Abram’s life, a king of the region,
Abimelek, came to Abraham and said this to him, “God is with you everything you
do” (Gen 21:22b) In the past, this king tired his power over Abram’s life.(Gen
20:10) But at this time he wanted to make a peace treaty so that God’s curse
might not come to him. Like this,
God
will make Abram the blessing though which God’s blessing will flow into the
world.
Fourth,
God did not questioned what
kind of person Abram was. According to Joshua (24:2), Terah and his family
served idols while they were living at Ur of Chaldeans. They were not much
different from the people of their homeland, serving idols, and doing all kinds
of ungodly things. Yet, God did not ask Abram to repent or to do something before
coming to the land of God’s blessing. As they were, no matter how sinful or
ugly they were, they just needed to get up and go to the land of God’s
blessing. So in this aspect, there is no excuse for delayed responses.
As he
promised to bless the world through Abram, Christ came and calls all sinners
for his blessing. In his call, Jesus offered this; Matt 11: 28 “Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Also he
said this; Mark 2: 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It
is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners.”
As God
called Abram to bless, Jesus is calling all people of the world to his
blessing. Now is the time to get up and move your feet to respond to his call.
His blessing is great and includes forgiveness of our sins, power of
resurrection and victory in life. In Christ, we will experience rich blessings
of God and God’s blessing will flow out from each of us to many others; your
families, friends and to all those around you. It is because when God blesses
you, God wants His blessing flow out from you to all others around you. You
become the center of God’s work of blessing! Until now we all have striven to
succeed in this world with our own efforts and hard labor. We have done this in
order to make my blessing in my own hands. But the blessing God gives is far
better than the blessing you can make by your own hands. Also it is superior to
yours because God is the owner of this world and runs it with His will and
purpose. We must take a serious
consideration for God’s blessing!
c.
Abram went as the Lord
told him [4-5]
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
First, when we make a decision on something, we always measure benefits and
risks. If risks are greater than benefits, then we decide to drop the
offer. But when we believe that benefits far outweigh risks, then we take the
risk and choose the offer. For Abram, at
the age of seventy five, leaving his country, people and father’s household
was a great risk. His life was secured by the country, and by the people, and
by the father’s household. When I came to US, I was a novice to almost
everything. The language was different and new; the way people think and reason
was different. The custom that I lived with was so alien to the people of US. I
am so well accustomed to eat with much noise. I use chopsticks. But, at the
dinner table in America, no one make noise though they talk a lot. No one talks
while the food is in their mouth. When I picked up my fork, I did not know
whether I have to hold the knife with right hand or left hand. So I had to
learn everything like a baby. Fortunately I was young and had enough energy and
enthusiasm to do so. But Abram was 75 years old, at the age, when
everything of one’s life is set, then it is hard to change. In English
idiom says; you cannot teach an old dog a new trick. Abram was at the age of
old dog.
Despite of such old age,
he had to take God’s call seriously for his life had not much vision or hope as long
as he stayed where he was. The same old will go as usual. Tomorrow will
be the same as today. The next year will be not much different from this year.
In ten or twenty year from now, would it different? Practically speaking, the
life he would live out will be not much different from his fathers and his
grandfathers. Was there a meaningful and tangible hope for his life? Did he
have anything that he could look forward in hope? He even had no son! He and
his wife Sarah was getting old! The country, the people around him, and his
father’s household offered no other alternatives or anything new!
In comparison to this,
God’s offer was great! God will give him a son. He will become a great nation.
He will be blessed and become a blessing. He will become great! In this offer,
his life will be not a dead end. He can look forward years and generations ahead
of him. There is a HOPE, a hope that
extends to the generations after him and to the whole world! What else would be better than this?
Second, there is one more thing that Abram must consider. Can this
God deliver what he promises? Abram lived among the people of many
idols. They worshiped many different gods. Abram was one among them! One thing
Abram knew was that those who followed many gods of the time, their lives were not
any better than those without their gods. It is possible that hoping to find a
new life in Haran, Terah might have sat on God’s call in Haran a half way from the
land of God’s promise. Was the life in Haran any better? Did Terah get anything
better while sitting on God’s promise? In order to move his feet in action, he must
believe the God of power and authority. The author of the book of
Hebrews says about the faith of Abram;
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later
receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where
he was going. (Heb 11:8 NIV)
What is that faith? Abram did not hear from this God before. No one around his spoke
about this God before. Only thing he knew of this God was that this God spoke
to his father and then to him again. Who is this God and if this God can
deliver what he promises? Paul in his letter to Romans says this:
Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who
suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is
plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation
of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature--
have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that
people are without excuse. (Rom 1:18 NIV)
God speaks and
demonstrates his authority and power by his punishment on those how does wrong. This is a form of his judgment on godlessness and wickedness. He
does this because he is holy and righteous. This has been sine the fall of men
as long our human history remembers.
Also God
speaks of his authority and power through what he created. How great is
the God who created the heavens and the earth? The whole universe displays
God’s authority, power and his glory. His power and divine nature are clearly
discernable in and through all the things that he created. Abram acknowledged
this God. He also believed that He not only exists and also rewards those who
earnestly seek him. (Heb 11:6) These two characters of God could be known
through the flood as well. After the flood, Noah’s three children
multiplied and spread over the earth. The genealogies of Ham, Shem and Japheth
speak of how they spread over the world. But separately noted genealogy of Shem
(11:10-26) speaks of how the works of God was upheld and preserved and handed
down to the generations after them. So at the time of Terah, Shem was about 392
years only (he lived to 500 years) and served well as the witness of the flood.
The flood itself demonstrates God’s authority as the creator and as the judge
of the ungodly. In this way, as Paul noted in his letter to Romans, to Terah
and his family members, their great, great, and great…Grandfather Shem served
as living witness of God’s amazing power and authority and this should have
been counted as the foundation of faith in God and dare to obey to God’s call.
v4 “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him”
So it describes Abram’s
simple obedience and faith. As we note earlier, the two sentences in v1 and v4
are in the past perfect tense. This is not only to note that Abram had received
this call some time before but also held on this call for a while. But at this
time he made his final move in order to obey God’s call. Most likely this is to
give an idea that he had been waiting for his father to move forward with God’s
call. But when it became obvious that his father would not follow through the
call, Abram made decision of faith and went as God had told him leaving behind
his father in Harran. In this regard, God’s command “to leave your father’s household” is so meaningful and relevant. In
other word, a bond to his father’s household was the most difficult one to
sever and yet it must be in order to take hold of God’s blessing. Father is the
authority of a family. It is not good or even may be considered evil to go
against the will of the father as the Ten Commandments say. But Jesus quickened his disciples to make
unequalled loyalty to Jesus. The most formidable one against this is a family
tie (Luke 14:25-27). It wasn’t easy to leave behind an old father for any son,
especially when he is so old and fragile. Regardless, God’s call is more
important for it is a matter of life and death. Nothing must be in the way to
follow God’s call. So, Abram went as God had told him.
5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they
had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out
for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the
land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the
Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your
offspring[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD,
who had appeared to him.
So, He took Sari, and
his nephew Lot and all the possession that he had. He made decision of his own
before God and he chose to follow God and his command so as to seek His
blessing. Now he was in charge of the family and he entrusted his
life and lives of his family members including slaves on God’s hand! The author
of Hebrews notes his faith in this way:
Heb 11: 88 By faith Abraham, when called to go to
a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though
he did not know where he was going.
He obeyed and went.
Obedience to God’s command is the next thing that God is looking for from those
who seek God’s blessing! Many express their faith in something. But they fail
to move on that faith. This is because they are not willing to pay the cost of
hard work to get up and do it. A 400-mile journey is not an easy one. But there
must be a sweat and perseverance to go. So obedience is always inclusive of
some form of labor.
Many of us received God’s call for the first
time in life like Abram. There might be an opposition and ridicule from family
members and friends. They may raise doubt and skepticism. But we have to make
decision of faith based on God’s promise. As was to Abram, God offers us two
things through Jesus; Blessing and becoming part of the kingdom of God. This
call is made clear in Gal 3:7-9
7 Understand, then, that
those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture
foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel
in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”[a] 9 So
those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
4. God confirms his promise [6-7]
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of
the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the
Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and
said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So
he built an altar there to the Lord, who
had appeared to him.
Though God told him to
go, he did not know where exactly. When he got to Canaan, Abram waited for
God’s answer. But there was none. So he picked himself up again and went further
deeply into the land of Canaan. Like this he moved few times and finally he
reached to Shechem, deep into the heart of Canaan land. There were many
Canaanites and it was thought to be unlikely place that God would give. But at
this place, God appeared to him and said this to him; “To your offspring I will give
this land.” Until this time, he did not know where he was going and
which land God was giving to give. But now God confirms clearly that this is
the place that God would give to his descendants. By this confirmation,
God’s promise is not any more open ended or uncertain. It became clear and
concrete. At the confirmation of His promise, the emphasis is on ‘to your
offspring’. God’s concern for him was to
focus on his future generation; his son and descendants after him as was the
promise (12:1). The primary or even the
only concern of the people of this generation is their wellbeing now and for
themselves. Consideration and concern for the succeeding generations is only an
afterthought of his or her own plan for now. In this regard, any sacrifice and
hardship now for the sake of the future generation is rare to come by. But God
wanted Abram to live with the focus on the future, his son coming in the
future, and generations after the son. By focusing Abram’s mind in this way God
was asking him to endure any difficulties now with the hope for the blessings
that will only be realized in the future.
A quite number of smart young men plan to retire
early to enjoy the life while he has life now more. To do so, they work hard to
make a quick buck. One young man said that he would retire at the age 40. Dream
of being a millionaire or even billionaire is not uncommon. So they pour out
all their energy and resources in to a focused purpose in order to make a quick
buck. To do so, they neglect all else, their marriage, families, and friends.
They use all kinds of ungodly means and ways and justify doing so. But such life is short and will surely become
objects of God’s wrath. Ultimately they suffer from the power of death, either
by sicknesses or by failures. When our hope is now and present age, what we see
is only things that we know and concern about. Invariably we will be succumbed
to vanity of this life. I ask young students often a question; what do you wish
to be like doing in 20 or 50 or 100 years from now? Very, very rarely, I
encounter a student who gave such a thought to themselves. God’s promise is
always of future though he concerns our lives now as well. This is because God
is eternal and our perspective of life must be in line with God’s. Simply Abram
was looking forward to the life beyond his own generation, most likely the
generations extending to the eternity. This hope was seen in his action; “So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”(7b)
He accepted God’s word and was thankful for God’s reaffirmation of His promise.
Though he would not get any immediate tangible benefit, he was happy believing that
the coming generation after him will take this land. His eyes were on the
future generation after him. This is faith. Faith is believing something that
is coming in the future according to the promise. Building an altar is
to honor God as the Lord, the authority of life. This, building an altar, makes
the seal of one’s relationship with God. It begins with God’s promise, and move
forward with action in faith and is confirmed by God, and is finally
acknowledged and accepted by faith by building an altar. I will call this a
loop of our relationship with God. As we will recognize in forth coming life of
Abram, the life of faith is making many loops of relationship with God, staying
with the Lord in on-going life. Jesus expressed this a little differently in
John 16:24. The true joy comes when God fills in our heart, confirming himself
as our Lord and Master, owner of our lives. How did Abram follow through this
promise?
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of
Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on
the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and
called on the name of the Lord.
He went
further south to near Bethel and Ai. Most likely he was moving about within the
land of Canaan in search for a place to live. Even he did not find a place to
live permanently he built an altar and call on the name of the Lord. He was
giving thanks to God even though the present conditions were not favorable at
all for him. He trusted God and believed God’s promise for the future blessing.
So in this belief he was rejoicing even then. So the life of faith is building
an altar as we travel through the land of God’s blessing. By building an altar
repeatedly we express our faith in God’s promise, showing unwavering resolve
and trust in the Lord.
God
calls us through the grace that he provided in Christ. He asks us to leave our
country, our people and our father’s household. There are risks and challenges
for us to do so. But considering the richness of His blessing, the risks that
we are to take are not much of anything. Also the blessing that God offers is
too great to miss out. In Christ we will live by the abundance of His
blessings. And we will become His
blessing and God will channel his blessings through us to the world.
Get up, go and be a blessing!
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