January 4, 2024

Genesis 12.1, 4  (NIV)

The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” . . . So Abram left, as the Lord told him.

I’m weary of attempting to override the fathomless mind of God with our feeble intellectual protests and insights.*

Abram/Abraham’s amazing story begins with very little background information. The record of his family tree is followed by a brief account of his family’s settling in Haran. The next thing we know, God is telling him to pack up his and his father’s households and go – and that’s all. God says that he will show them where to go but he doesn’t say where.

We are not told how Abram came to know of God,* leaving me with a few unanswered questions. 

• What was it in Abram’s past that taught him that God was to be trusted? (I trust God because of his track record.  He has never let me down.) 
• Was this his first test – Abram testing God’s faithfulness; God testing Abram’s faith? (My testing began on a smaller scale than this example from Abram’s life, but as my faith grows, so does my testing. Do you remember your first test?) 
• How did God speak to him? (He speaks to me through his Word, through his creation, through other Christians, and sometimes he is a voice inside my head.) 
• Everyone around him was heathen; did he worship God and/or idols? (We also live in a pagan world. While we may not bow down to idols, we have gods that come between us and God.)

God may not be arranging for us to pack up and move to an unspecified foreign country but each of us is called to leave our old life with its temptations and distractions. Jesus said we can’t be his disciples unless we are willing to leave everything behind – including family (Luke 14.26). Would you still be willing to follow him if that is what he required of you?

We should remember this about the life of Abram/Abraham: it wasn’t his obedience that earned him his place in God’s hall of fame; it was the faith behind his actions.

We do not obey only as far as we have no questions left unanswered. That would be a pitiably small degree of obedience.*

*Quote sources available upon request.