Article 2015-06 - Abram, Go, Leave Your Father’s House!
Chapter 9: Abram, Go, Leave Your Father’s House!
Introduction
God creates a need in man’s heart and wants to answer his prayers, because such a need often corresponds with a burden on God’s heart. God is more willing to answer us, than we are willing to ask Him. However, with accepting God’s promises we have to pay a price, as we see in Abram’s story. Like Abram, missionaries and their families face many questions. Like Abram, some make the mistake to leave the place God assigned them to. The ‘heritage’ from that other place may create problems later.
Scripture reference
The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 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 peoples on earth will be blessed through you’ (Gen. 12:1-3)
The story
Abram and his wife Sarai lived in Ur, a city in the country of the Chaldeans, known to us as south Iraq. The city was full of idols but Abram perceived that this was wrong, although he knew little more about God than what he may have heard from Noah’s son Sem, who was still alive.
Abram longed to hear God’s voice, like Noah had. His dismay about Ur’s idolatry grew every time he visited the market place, where many idol statues were sold. A few years later Abram’s father Terah moved with his whole family to the north, to a city called Haran. Abram hoped he would learn more about God in their new area.
One day he cried out to the God of Noah, wanting God to speak to him. He must have wondered why he was on earth and what God’s purpose with his life could be, if any. After all, He was a living God; that much Abram had understood from Sem’s stories. He also prayed that God would give them a son. He poured his heart out before a God he hardly knew, yet not doubting that this God knew him and would answer him one day.
And it happened. Often Abram called out to God. One night late, when he was sitting alone, God spoke. Abram told his wife about the far-stretching consequences of God’s words for their lives. God would make them into a great nation, meaning that they would have children. Sarai was very surprised, as she was already past the age of child-bearing. Abram told her that God had also said that He would bless them, make their name great and make them a blessing for all the peoples of the earth. It was too big for Sarai to comprehend. Besides, Abram told her they would have to leave Haran and the family. But Abram was thrilled to have a family of his own. Finally! They realized that in Haran they only had a house, but where God would send them He would give them the whole country. They became convinced that things would become better for them, not worse.
The next period was hard. They prepaired to move and of course got many questions from the family. Patiently Abram answered all questions, but everyone except a few thought he was out of his mind, and most did not believe a word of what Abram claimed God had promised him. But Abram believed God, no matter what people said or did, and he left Haran with all he had. His nephew Lot went with him.
Scripture reference
After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here … But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child (Acts 7:4,5)
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 (Hebr. 11:8)
The story, continued
After much traveling they reached Canaan, known to us as Palestine, or rather: Israel. They pitched their tents, and waiting for further revelations from God, Abram built Him an altar. They now expected a son, but none came. Abram’s wealth increased steadily: his heads of cattle and number of personnel grew. But when would he have an heir?
When a famine hit Canaan he left for Egypt, although God had not told him to do that. He got in trouble with the king of Egypt because of Sarai. Fortunately the problem was solved and he even came back with some useful slave girls. Lot had married, got two daughters and did well. But Abram became hungry for God’s voice again and God spoke to him anew, confirming His earlier promises, including that of descendants. Abram believed God but his patience would be tested for quite a long period. Time passed and Sarai wondered how, because she was past the age of seventy now. One day she talked about it with Abram, unaware that she was about to make a blunder of such magnitude that even today we still face its consequences…
Comment
Before we realize where our prayers come from, we often pray for certain needs we have seen or heard of. Later it turns out that God, Who saw that need before we did, confronted us with it in order to make us participants with Him in solving it. We will see the same principle later when we look at Daniel and Nehemiah. This is why God so readily answers when we respond to the need He showed us. Often He uses our own prayers by sending us to solve it in His power. Somebody once said ‘Be prepared to become God’s answer to your own prayers’. We see that often in the Bible.
When new missionaries get serious about going to the field, they usually hear critical questions and comments from family and friends. These help to test their patience and strengthen their inner resolve to obey God.
Sometimes it takes God a long time to prepare us for service and we may even wonder whether God still wants to use us. Sometimes it seems as if He forgot us altogether. Yet, time and suffering teach us invaluable lessons, as we see in the lives of many Bible persons. Sad is, that some so despair about God’s timing, that they want to ‘help’ Him a little bit, and that’s usually where the problems start.
It can be dangerous to leave the place God called you to, because problems will arise there also, although you thought it would be safer there. It may not be safe at all, and bring you things that seem advantageous, but turn out to be very disadvantageous in the end. We see this ‘Hagar-principle’ in the next chapter.
Although Abraham was not the first missionary in the Bible, some regard him as such. Many happenings in Abraham’s life are ‘typical missionary’: he had to leave his country and family to go to a country that God would show him. Then, he lived in tents, not exactly in the comfortable house he was used to, amidst strange people. Also, he had to wait long before God’s promises became reality. He had doubts and fears, especially when he temporarily escaped the country he was called to. He kept on learning important lessons; the most important were those he learned when he was ‘on the field’. Preparation of missionaries is not only done before they go; God continues their missionary education while they are on the field. Later we see similar lessons in the lives of Jonah and Daniel.
Some previous history
Two chapters before Abram’s story begins, we see the first nations-chapter of the Bible: the word ‘nations’ is mentioned five times. The theme of the nations plays a dominant role throughout the Bible with its climax seen in the book of Revelation. From the beginning of biblical revelation God shows Himself as the God of the nations, the God of the whole world. It is unthinkable that He would be satisfied with less; after all, He is the Creator of heaven, earth and humanity. He reaches out to the lost without exception: He offers salvation to all. It is inconceivable that He would be content with one small nation and forget about the rest. There is not a single people group on earth that our Lord is not interested in and therefore He wants the Good News to be spread to the ends of the earth, before He will come and establish His Kingdom on earth.
Scripture reference
These are the clans of Noah’s sons … within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood (Gen. 10:32)
… there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation … (Rev. 7:9)
In the story about the tower of Babel we see that the nations had strayed away from God, so they decided to unite (although God had told them to scatter). In their unity of speech and culture they planned to build a tower to reach to the heavens. It is a way of describing their enterprise to compete with God. But He acknowledged their evil intents and the power of their unity, and decided to confuse their language and communication so that they would stop building. Those who had refused to obey the command to spread out over the whole earth, were now scattered by God Himself in order to jeopardize the unlimited spread of evil that might otherwise have taken place.
God’s act to scatter the nations does not mean that He gave up on them. God made a new start by calling Abram, promising to bless the nations through a nation that would descend from him. The people of the tower wanted to make themselves a name: they sought identity, but did so outside of God. Abram was not concerned about a name; he just did what God told him to do and then God promised to make him a name. He reinforced this by changing Abram’s name to Abraham, which gave him a new identity and function. He became the father of many nations and of all believers through Christ.
Now, look at these three maps:
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What the godless nations could not reach by their concerted effort, God gave to one man. In his line and in Christ, the nations would be united in God. One man’s faith and obedience gave God a way to work out this purpose. We see later time and again how concerned God is about all nations of the world. This brings us to the ninth theme:
Theme 9: God's plan encompasses all nationsFor the sin problem |
Discussion & dialogue
Discuss: When God is interested in all nations, even in all different people groups of those nations, what does that have to say to the Christians of your people group?
Which six themes reoccur in Abram’s story? (Answers: see Teacher’s Guide)
