"Lord, I will go but could you at least tell me where?"
Genesis 12:1 “The Lord said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you.”
Genesis 12:4 “So Abram went, as the lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.”
I hate surprises. I just hate them. I am the person who looks up spoilers to movies before I watch them because I do not want to be surprised by the death of a character that I love or a crazy plot twist. I know, this is not one of my best traits. But if I can help it, I will avoid being surprised at all costs. I would rather know what is going to happen, how it is going to happen, and plan accordingly.
Imagine being Abram. God told him to leave everything that he knew and go until he told him to stop. This command was followed by a big promise that God made to Abram.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all people on Earth will be blessed through you. Genesis 1:2-3
Abram was 75 years old when God asked him to leave everything familiar to him and promised to make a great nation through him. As I try to put myself in Abram’s shoes, I get stuck at the end of verse one. I would like to think that I would be willing to leave what I know to follow God but there is no destination. How will I know when to stop? Where will we sleep? How will I provide for my family along the way? And those are just initial questions that I would be tempted to ask. But we do not see anywhere in Scripture where Abram wavered. He trusted in the promises of God and decided then that those promises were enough.
If you know Abram’s story, you know that he does not always get it right. There are times when he looks at the reality of his situation and tries to take control. But every time he takes matters into his own hands, it doesn’t work out. Overall, though, Abraham's faith is one that even the New Testament acknowledges.
“By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8
In Hebrews, we see that Abraham obeyed. He did not ask questions. He did not google what would happen at the end of his story. He trusted in the promises of God and walked one small step of faith at a time.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
Another thing that I noticed as I was reading was God’s assurance to Abram. Right after God makes a huge ask of Abram, he makes a big promise. He promises to make Abram into a great nation. He promises to bless him and protect him. Throughout Abram’s journey, God is quick to remind him that he is not alone. God is walking with him through every step of the process. Abram had something greater than himself to hold onto.
Abram’s response is beautiful. As Abram traveled, he set up altars to the Lord when he appeared to him. He did not want to forget the faithfulness of God. He wanted to acknowledge who was walking with him and rightly prioritize his mind. I imagine that resources were scarce so Abram could have saved what he had for himself and his family. But he thought it would be worth it to use what he had to build an altar to God. We see in following verses of chapter 12 that there was a famine in the land so he did not have an overabundance of resources.
I think Abram understood what faith was. As we see in Hebrews 11:1, faith is confidence in what we cannot see. He knew that there would be times that he could not see how God was working. He knew that there would be times that did not make sense. He knew that he would become weary and be tempted to question God. This is why taking the time to build altars to God and worship is so important. Worship rightly orients our heart to our Father and when we do not take time to do this, we lose perspective.
Obviously, we are not Abram. God is not asking most of us to leave our family and go until he tells us to stop. But he may be asking us to take a step of faith. He may be asking us to let go of what is familiar to us and trust him. Maybe this looks like giving up on our ideal version of life. Maybe it looks like trusting in the Lord to sustain us, not our followers on social media. Only you can decide what the Lord is asking you to do, but know that every step of the way God wants to assure you of his promises. He wants to bless you and make you look more like him.
Application:
What does this passage say about our Father?
What are you going to do about it?
