“Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.”
Genesis 12:1
“So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.”
Genesis 12:4,5
In Genesis 12, we read what the Lord said to Abram, and Abram’s physical response to God’s commandment; his departure from Haran. What I have wondered about recently is what Abram might have been thinking after he heard the voice of the Lord telling him to leave the place where he had grown up, where he had lived and prospered.
Haran, Ur of the Chaldees, was all he had ever known,
and when he “got the message” from God he was already 75 years old.
Imagine the logistics involved to uproot his family with all their possessions, his wealth which was measured largely in livestock, agricultural holdings etc. He was firmly entrenched and had deep roots in his community.
I can only imagine the thoughts that would have run through my mind if I were Abram:
“What? Go where?”
“Are you kidding me, Lord?”
“What’s wrong with Haran?”
“But everything and everyone I know and love are right here!”
“Can’t we talk about this, Lord?”
“I’m up in years already, and now I’m going to shlepp to a mysterious unknown place
You haven’t even told me about yet?”
These are my thoughts, but perhaps they were also Abram’s; if they were he kept them to himself.
The Scriptures record that “Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righeousness”. Romans 4:3
There are times that may come in our lives where we are tested.
We may be called by God to get up and leave the things that are comfortable,
things that are familiar, where we have been emersed in a familiar culture and a mother-tongue language,
just as assuredly as when Abram heard his call.
Regardless of what his thoughts might have been, he nonetheless obeyed, and so must each of us.
The key is in the obedience, beloved.
Those who abide in the shadow of the Almighty recognize and heed the voice of the Good Shepherd,
especially while He is moving us from a “pasture” we might be familiar with
to another which may be initially unfamiliar, but shall prove to be rich with His promises.