Angie Smith puts it this way:
"God called Abraham-- to create Israel-- to give birth to Jesus-- to save you" (p37)
This was a sovereign call. God commanded Abram to leave his family and his homeland and to go ... to an unknown land. God didn't tell him where, He just said to go "to a land I will show you."
Abram went.
He didn't question or argue. He was obedient and trusted God. The Bible says, "he went".
"Over and over, you're going to see a theme of obedience by God's finest men and women, and a majority of the time it's not because they have all of the details. It's because they trust God. I don't know about you, but I could stand a little more "she went" moments in my own life." (p37)
So Abram traveled to several different countries. His journey was 1500 miles long. He was a foreigner in these lands, and at times he feared for his life.
This was more than just a man and his wife traveling along, he had 318 trained servants (Gen. 14:14). This was a huge caravan. Some scholars say that he could've had over 2000 people with him. What a testimony of faith- to step out, lead, and trust God to show you where to go.
God promised to make Abram's name great. There's probably no one more honored than him, for the Christians, Jews and Muslims honor him.
On this journey they briefly move to Egypt, but he makes the mistake of calling Sarai, his wife, his sister in order to protect himself. He feared that he would be killed because she was so beautiful. They leave there and continue on. Once they are back in Canaan, they realize that the land cannot sustain both Abram and Lot, his cousin, so they split up. Lot is given he choice of which way he wants to go and he chooses the fertile land of Sodom. This choice is not good for Lot. We all know the story of how God destroyed this sinful city.
God establishes His covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. It is a promise that He will keep for all time.
What do we get from this story? How can we apply it to our life?
We need to realize that we may not always know all of the particulars of God's plan for our life. More often than not, we must step out in faith. We must base our life on what we know. We know that God promised to never leave us nor forsake us and that He will be there with us. We just need to obey. Trust and obey.
"Strong, growing, God-sized faith begins with a a simple step
of obedience based on all we know of God." (Henry Blackaby)
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