When some people travel, they like to be free, with little planning, just enjoying wherever the road takes them. That’s not me! Whenever I travel anywhere, I always like to have my route and destination completely mapped out ahead of time. Back in the days when using paper maps was common, I studied them carefully, noting which roads to take, and each and every turn I had to make. Nowadays I check the map online while my daughter, my faithful navigator, puts everything into her GPS on her phone which will tell me where to make my turns. I don’t know if I would have done so well with what the Lord called Abram (later known as Abraham) to do. Let’s take a look at what He called Abram to do.
As our Scripture opens, we read of God calling Abram to leave his extended family and the home that he had in the city of Haran. Right prior to our passage, in the last few verses of chapter 11, we read that Abram’s elderly father had taken the whole extended family out of Ur of the Chaldees and moved northwest to Haran. Ur was an ancient Sumerian city-state in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) near the mouth of the Euphrates River and the Persian Gulf. This was a very pagan culture, which worshipped the moon as its chief deity. Haran was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia (present day Turkey), also along the Euphrates River, about 650 miles northwest of Ur. After living in Haran for a number of years, God called Abram to pack up his belongings, take his wife, and leave (vs. 1). God did not tell him where he was going to, just that He would show him the land He would give to his descendants.
God commanded Abram to “get out” (vs. 1). This phrase was not a request or a suggestion. It was a command. Go! Now! Get up and move! Abram, at age 75, was told to leave everything that he knew - his land, any business he may have had, his relatives, and his home, and he was obedient. There were three layers of separation that Abram was called to make - from his country and the familiar culture of Ur and Haran, from his relatives and his family ties, and from his house, his earthly security. God uprooted him from idolatry and set him apart for His purposes. Separation unto God always involves separation from something else.
In verses 2 and 3 we read God’s promises to Abram, which form the core of the Abrahamic Covenant. God promised to make him a great nation, which implies physical descendants which he currently had none of. God promised to bless him and make his name great. This was fulfilled both historically and spiritually. Abram would be a blessing by becoming a channel of God’s grace. God promised to protect him and his seed, and through him the world would be blessed, which was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus (Galatians 3:8, 16). These promises are literal, unconditional, and everlasting.
Abram immediately obeyed the Lord (vs. 4-5). He obeyed without knowing the destination (Hebrews 11:8). God told him very little of where he was going, any description of the land, or how long it would take to get there. He just told Abram to go, and his obedience was credited to him as faith. Abram did not delay, and he left the comfort and security he had known, choosing faith and trust in God instead, solely relying on His Word.
Abram journeyed south of Haran, down to Shechem, which was in the hill country of Canaan (vs. 6-7). This location was about 35 miles north of where Jerusalem would later be, a journey of about 45o miles from Haran. Abram stopped at the plains of Moreh, where there were terebinth trees, a place associated with pagan Canaanite worship. Here God repeats His promises to Abram, and the patriarch builds an altar to the Lord.
Worship was Abram’s first act in the promised land. In faith he responded to God’s promise with worship, not in reliance upon himself. Abram journeyed a bit further south, to a spot between Bethel and Ai, just west of the Jordan River, where he built another altar to God (vs. 8). Not only were these altars that he built for his worship, but they were also public testimonies to the Canaanites, a witness to the one true God, Yahweh.
Abram was now living as a pilgrim (Hebrews 11:9-10), moving through the land God promised, but not yet possessing it. His life is a pattern of faith, obedience, worship, and witness. Obedience to God often requires us leaving our comfort zones. It may disrupt our routines, our relationships, or our plans. Faith trusts God’s promises, even when fulfillment seems distant, like it did for Abram. And like Abram, worship should always be our first response throughout our life, bearing public testimony to God’s Name. Remember, God’s promises are sure, even when circumstances seem contrary.
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