Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 12: 1-3, NRSV
Gracious God, as we come before you today please be merciful to us as sinners. Please help us to grasp the lessons that will make a positive difference in our lives, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Beginning today, we will be looking at the life of Abram, who will later become Abraham. We will continue until Father’s Day. We invite all the males who visit our site to join us, every day, for this week. If you have a friend who is a dad, and even if he is not, invite him to join us this week. God may have a message, and a blessing, for you! The title for the week is taken from a message I preached for a Men’s Day at a church in Los Angeles, CA. I may use some of the same material, as well as the Lord, might bless us with all brand new information. Our God delights in blessing His children in some of the most wonderful ways!
Our study begins with a call. Abraham has been called out from his homeland, and from everything that is familiar! He must leave his country, his blood relatives, the house of his parents, and go to “a land” that God would show him. This sounds like a complete uprooting of Abram. Getting rid of everything that is familiar, God is moving him out of his comfort zone. The beauty of the way God deals with us, will become very visible in the life of Abram. Oh, I am so glad, that God remembers that we are dust! This is such a consolation! It is not an excuse to sin. This reality constitutes the difference between a life of hopefulness, and one of helplessness!
The Scriptures tells us, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him” (4). That is remarkable! I am not sure how many of us would have obeyed as promptly, and as faithfully, as Abram did! He went in search of that land that God promised him. Many of you may have heard people say, “I am not leaving what I am sure of, for what is uncertain.” And we can’t really blame them for taking that stand! It is oftentimes the responsible thing to do.
It is not as if Abraham was going by himself on an adventure! It was an adventure all right, but he was accompanied! He was taking his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot, and an entire host of extended family members, plus servants, and handmaidens, and the list goes on. As the head of his household, he was responsible for the lives of these people. This was quite an undertaking! Add to all of this, the fact that Abram is now seventy-five years old (4, 5)!
The Scripture reads as follows, “So they came to the land of Canaan” (5). Getting to the land of Canaan was obviously not a problem. God said “Go to the land that I will show you.” And God took him to the land that he showed him. Abram enters the land, continues on to Shechem, and arrives at the oak of Moreh. The Canaanites are in the land (6). God repeats the promise to Abram, and Abram builds “an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him” (7).
Tomorrow we will continue on the journey with Abram.