Scripture
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you….Genesis 12:1-2
Observation
I have just spent 45 leisurely minutes absorbing the story of Abraham’s journey, from the moving van in Haran to the midnight messages from God. There are just four short chapters but there is so much living and learning in them.
It began with the luring of Abram by the Lord out from his home and family on a journey to the ends of the earth at least as he knew it. Why did Abram have to leave his home, his relatives and his brothers and sisters? When God wants to speak to a person he will pull him or her into places where only the Lord’s voice can be heard. There is no group think; there is no fearful conformity. Instead there is room for God-sized ideas free from the finger prints of others. It is odd to think, but the love of those who care for us most can be an impediment to God being able to do his work in our lives. Abram had to make the uncomfortable decisions of peeling away embracing arms and walking away alone. When God wants someone he will call that person to be alone with him.
Abram obeyed God, but nothing happened immediately. Instead we trace our finger across our Bible atlas and find a man with a caravan of over 1,000 people bouncing about like bumper cars. There is no purpose to Abram’s zigzag route. What does stand out are the further decisions Abram made to cut himself free from anything he could depend upon other than the simple voice of God. Every time God spoke to Abram it was immediately after a painful choice he made between the status quo and following God.
When he built an altar to worship the one true God in the presence of his pagan neighbors, God spoke to him.
When he let the comfort of Lot go, God spoke to him.
When he turned down the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah on principle, God spoke to him.
God didn’t speak in Egypt, only in the place of promise. God didn’t speak until Abram had made choices that proved to God the worthiness of the man.
The land of Canaan was not all that it was cracked up to be. The country was already inhabited by others. Their ethics and religion were repugnant to Abram. The land of promise is an awkward place where we must live in the presence of what is not ours as if it were. Abram tried Egypt, but he was deported. The patriarch would have to be comfortable with the discomfort of waiting for God to act in a land that was not his own. Thankfully, he found an oak forest that gave him shelter and a sense of home. So too there will be places of nesting for us until the promise is fulfilled.
Application
The lessons are simple. If we want to hear God speak, we must follow, even if we must leave that which we love and loves us behind. The greatest act of prayer is not with our words but with our actions when when we make a step God-ward. So where is the one place we can be certain to hear God ? It is in the awkward place of promise we should be most expectant to hear God speak.
Prayer
Father, I am in just such a place today. And so I listen expectantly. I have done all a man can do to hear the voice of God. Now I listen. Amen.
