“God told Abram: ‘Leave your
country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a
blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All
the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.’ So Abram left just
as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he
left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with
all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the
land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound”
(Genesis 12:1-5,
The Message)
Abram (later named as Abraham)
was from somewhere in modern-day Iraq and most likely from a tribe of
moon-worshippers. Nothing in the Bible indicates what kind of person Abram was,
either his personality or moral behaviour that attract God’s attention among so
many pagans. In fact, few chapters ahead suggest that Abram was flawed in his
character and integrity.
But God called Abram
anyway. Abram, this childlike seventy-five-years-old, would be an ancestor of a
great nation someday, and through him God would bless all the nations. All
Abram had to do was leave everything he had ever known and follow this
mysterious Voice to a new country. It was not an easy task. The Voice doesn’t
mention, by the way, where this new country is, or how long it will take to get
there.
Amazingly, almost
unbelievably, Abram obeyed the Voice. Whatever
his shortcomings, Abram, no doubt, had an astonishing capacity for belief. He
was faith-full. He risked his whole life on the conviction that God’s promise
will come true. Again and again, Abram made a mess of things (if you followed
our Bible Studies on the Book of Genesis,
you’ll know how frustrated I was about Abraham’s character and conduct). But he
always returned to this first conviction: God’s
promises are true. That trust and capacity for belief are what made Abram
the father of our faith. God’s promises to His people – Christ-followers – are
always true… The question is… Do you
believe?
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
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