Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In America, this month of July is the month when more people relocate from one place to another, during the entire year. Sometimes it’s adults pursuing a new job opportunity or families moving before fall school starts for the children. Sometimes it’s retirees moving to new places as they finish their work careers ready to begin a season of life they’ve awaited a long time! How about you? When was the last time you packed up everything and moved to a new place? Remember the emotions of goodbyes and the anxiety, maybe even the worry about what was ahead?
We’ve begun a new journey in our “Walking with Jesus” and you might title these next days, ‘Walking with Abraham and God”. In Genesis chapter 12 Abram does something radical! At some point in his past he had received a very clear invitation from God to pack up all he owned and move…to a place he’d never seen, Canaan. Today that place is called Israel. About 2100bc it was a vast wilderness frontier with few towns. Why did God challenge Abram to do one of the most terrifying of all human endeavors… leave home, family, friends and all that is familiar, and move hundreds of miles to a place you’ve never seen; a place you know no one? Do you know this great truth my friends: “The eyes of the LORD roam to and fro across the whole earth, looking to strengthen those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)?
Did you know God is always working to accomplish His global, eternal purposes…and God works His plans THROUGH people? Especially people whose hearts are ‘fully devoted to Him’. In the days of Abram and Sarai, God’s plan was huge and very complex, and God was searching for just the right couple to launch this plan through. God wanted to bless a special couple with a miracle child, and teach this family to live in such a strong relationship with God that no matter what would ever happen in their life journey, they would fully trust God! In many ways about 2100 years later, God did it again with another old, childless couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth, and God instructed them to name their son, John, remember? (Luke 1) That miracle son was John the Baptizer, the forerunner of Jesus!? So I have a question, my good friends… as God looks around the world today, another 2000 years later, is God looking once again for people like Abram and Sarai, Zechariah and Elizabeth, to join with Him in amazing things God is wanting to accomplish in our world, in our generation? And when God looks into your heart and mine, does God see someone like them? Does God see in us someone He could invite into His great purposes, with confidence that we’d say YES and walk with God into a God adventure?
Notice my friends, God invited Abram and Sarai to take a huge step of faith with Him, leaving all they knew and follow ‘the voice of God’ to a place He would identify only after they arrived at that God selected place! Now ponder that. If you’ve packed up everything and moved, probably you developed a very detailed plan with very few unanswered questions, especially if you moved a family! But for Abram and Sarai, this journey wasn’t as much about where their new home would be… as it was much more about developing their ability to follow God to an unknown destination! Has God helped you develop that ability yet?
As part of the invitation, God made some promises, significant promises, do you see them in Genesis 12:1-3? “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great (famous) and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” We have no record of God having a conversation quite like this with any other person who had lived up to that point of history. God was launching a movement, a really big, world wide movement, do you see that in what God said? Even though Abram and Sarai were childless, with no medical hope of having a child, somehow they would be parents to a great nation! How could that possibly be? And even though Abram was traveling from his homeland to an unknown destination in a foreign land, where he would be a stranger, somehow his name would become famous, not just there but around the world! How could that possibly happen?
And God promised to pour out great blessing and protection from harm for Abram and Sarai! And finally the most astounding statement of all: “All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you!” I imagine Abram and Sarai simply passed that statement off as outrageous, ridiculous, beyond imagination, so why bother even thinking about it!? But have you learned my friends that God doesn’t forget His promises, nor does He make such radical statements without deep thought and a plan! You see, God was inviting Abram and Sarai to come to know Him personally, deeply, more closely than any person since Noah had known Him! And God was promising to do the unimaginable in and through them, as they would grow this amazing relationship of their full trust in God. Now consider this for a moment: there was no living person with whom they could discuss this experience with God… the promises God had made, the invitation to leave home and follow God to a new unknown location. No one would understand! Everyone else worshiped the sun or moon or stars or man fabricated objects of gold or silver as their gods! Lifeless, speechless, immovable statues. (Psalm 115) No one imagined God actually talked with humans!
So how much time do you suppose lapsed between Genesis 12:3 and verse 4…between the promises and invitation of God, and Abram’s obedient, courageous response? How many late night conversations between Abram and Sarai as they discussed what moving would mean, especially when they had no idea where they were going, how long it would take, or how they would know when they arrived? Finally, the record says: “So Abram left, as the LORD had told him… Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan…” (Gen. 12:4, 5) That, my friends, is what outrageous, courageous, radical TRUST in God looks like. Have you ever seen it in someone? Have you ever experienced it, done something radical in full trust & obedience to God?
Abram had become a herdsman. Sheep, camels, goats, and probably some donkeys were his business. He needed three things for this business to be successful… grass, pastureland for the herds to graze / water for them to drink / shepherds to care for them and protect them. Evidently Abram found these things in Haran, so can you see the ‘caravan’ heading down the road from Haran that day? Perhaps hundreds of animals and two or three dozen herdsmen, Abram and his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot who was an apprentice herdsman…. heading down the dusty road toward only God knows where! As you can imagine, such a caravan cannot move very quickly. The sun was hot, water rare, and none of them had ever been this way before, so I imagine Abram or one of his servants spent quite a bit of time on camelback scouting the road ahead, making sure there was always water every night, wherever they stopped, under the stars.
Let’s join this remarkable caravan for a while. Sarai was likely riding on a camel at her age, Lot was working the sheep along with a mature shepherd, learning, Abram was calculating every step…and listening. Listening for what? Listening for God to speak, to guide them, to assure them they were heading the right direction.
As we walk along with them, go ahead, ask Abram any questions you have about this adventure. Don’t be surprised if quite often his answer to you is “I don’t know…“, as he travels along waiting to hear the next word from God! You women, go ahead and have a conversation with barren Sarai about what she’s thinking as she ponders God’s promises to them and her husband’s faith?
What about you my friends, all over the world. Has God invited you to take steps of faith with Him? What did you do? What did God do? Is your heart in such a good place with God right now that if TODAY God called your name and invited you, you are ready to step forward in great faith, following what you believe is God’s leading of you, even to a place you have no idea where you are going? What might cause you to hold back? Why didn’t that hold Abram and Sarai back from leaving home and following God?
Here’s a new song to help us consider these questions. Listen carefully to the lyrics my friends, are they words you can say today?
Today’s Scripture is Genesis 12:1-5.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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