October 5, 2015

Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”

Thus starts the path of blessing that will lead to Jesus. Abram and his extended family have already moved from Ur in the ancient Fertile Crescent to a place that they name Haran after Abram’s brother. Abram will become Abraham and his son will return there to find a wife “of his people.” But in the beginning of the narrative the command is to go and if “Abraham believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness” as we are told in Genesis 15:6 and quoted by Paul in Galatians 3:6, it was because he went when he was told. After checking out the land of the promise, Abram is forced to flee to Egypt because of a famine- not a great way to get excited about what he has gotten himself into. I often wonder what it means when they say in the Bible that someone heard God speak. My experience has been “hearing” God speak to me through the scriptures or preachers or teachers or others. The words impacted my heart in a special way and grew faith- but I never heard an audible sound. What did Abram experience? I guess we won’t really know; only that it made such an impression that he was willing to leave once again on a journey into the unknown to follow a promise that he would not live to see fulfilled. What will it mean for you to “believe the Lord” this week? Is there a “go” in it for you?