By J.R. Miller
Genesis 12:1-10
The purpose of the Bible is not to give the history of the human race--but to tell the story of redemption. In a sense, this begins with Abraham. No doubt there always were good men in the world, although the number of them at times may have been very small. The Flood left only one family for a new beginning of the race--but the new earth did not continue pure and holy. Even Noah, whose life had so pleased God by its righteousness, that he had been spared from the destruction of the race--did not close his career without stain. The story of his fall is a sad one. The spectacle of such a man lying drunk and naked on the floor--is most pitiful.
Again the race multiplied--and the people swarmed everywhere. The tenth chapter of Genesis tells us of the races that sprang from Noah's three sons and their distribution over the earth. The story of the Tower of Babel seems to indicate a Divine overthrow of a great human revolt, an attempt to establish a universal kingdom. The confounding of languages, led to the scattering of the people into different portions of the world. It seems to have been a judgment, and perhaps was regarded as a calamity by the people themselves--but no doubt proved to be one of those great providences which mean so much in human history.
From this time, the Scripture narrative narrows to the family of Shem, and in this family to the story of one man, Abraham. We are not told of any great supernatural events or experiences in Abraham's life. He lived in Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham's family were idolaters. "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods." Joshua 24:2. Perhaps Abraham himself as a young man worshiped idols. Tradition has interesting stories of his early struggles with idolatry.
We are told that the Lord commanded Abraham to get out of his country and away from his kindred and his father's house to a land which would be shown to him. We are not told how this Divine call came to Abraham. Was there a theophany, an appearance of God in a human form, such as afterwards occurred before the destruction of Sodom? Or did God come to Abraham in some strange vision, as later he came to Jacob at Bethel or at Jabbok, or to Moses in the burning bush?
We are not told how it was, that the Lord gave His message to Abraham. It may have been in some quiet way, with no display of supernatural brightness, with nothing marked or unusual. We are in danger of letting ourselves suppose that when God comes to us--He comes always in some startling way, while the truth is, that He nearly always comes in common ways. Once He appeared in a bush that burned with fire--but evermore He comes in bushes which are not burning, and we do not see Him and go on with our irreverence, keeping on our shoes.
When Philip said to Jesus, "Show us the Father," he was craving a display of glory, like a Sinai or a Transfiguration. Jesus told him He had been showing Him the Father every day for two or three years. He referred to His own life of kindness, mercy, love and holiness. Jesus Himself was God manifest in the flesh. It is always so. There is not a day when God does not come to us and show us the splendor of His glory in some sweet human kindness, in some gentle thoughtfulness that is full of Divine beauty and grace, in some deed of unselfishness that is a thousand times more dazzling in angels' eyes--than was the fire on Sinai!
Let us not get the impression that God does not appear to men in these days--because He does not seem to come to them as He came to the boy Samuel in his sleep, or as He came to Gideon in the threshing-floor. He is always coming to men. Let us not conclude that God does not any more call us to new duties, to great tasks, to heroic missions--because He does not speak in a loud voice, or deliver His message in some startling way. The world is just as full of God today--as it was in Bible days. We do not know how God called Abraham. We know only that He called him, and Abraham was sure that He called him.
In some way, it became clear to Abraham that there was only one God. Everybody else believed there were many gods. How this truth of one God came to Abraham, we are not told. The conviction may have grown gradually and slowly. Jewish tradition, however, represents the patriarch, as faithful to Jehovah from his childhood.
One myth says that he lived in early boyhood in a cave and did not come out of it until he was a growing lad. "When he first left it," says the legend, "looking up at the heavens over him, and round about him upon the earth, he began to think, 'Who could have made all this?' Presently, the sun rose in splendor, and he thought it must be the Maker of the universe, and cast himself down before it and worshiped the whole day. But when evening came the sun sank out of sight, and Abraham said it could not be the Creator of all--or it would not set. Then the moon rose in the east and the countless army of stars came forth. 'Surely the moon is the Lord of all and the stars are the host of His servants,' cried Abraham, and, bowing himself before the moon, he worshiped it. But the moon went down, the light of the stars faded, and the sun appeared again on the edge of the sky. Then he said, 'Truly all these heavenly bodies together could not have created the universe; they listen to the voice of an Unseen Ruler, to whom all things owe their being. Him alone, will I henceforward worship; before Him alone, will I henceforward bow.'"
In whatever way the Divine command came to Abraham--the call was clear, explicit, and positive. "Leave your country, your people and your father's household--and go to the land I will show you." Genesis 12:1
It was a call to separation. Abraham was living among idolaters--and he must go out from the midst of them. His own family were idolaters--and he must leave them.
It was also a call to sacrifice. He must give up his country and his possessions. All true life must be sacrificial. It costs to live worthily. Jesus required His followers to leave their homes, their business, their property. All Christian growth is by abandonment, by giving up, by forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth to things that are before. We must sacrifice earthly things--if we would gain things that are heavenly. The student who would win the honors of scholarship, must forego many self-indulgences. The Christian who would attain the highest things in spiritual life and achievement, must sacrifice many pleasures and amusements which in themselves may not be morally wrong--but which cannot be indulged in--if he is going to do his best as a follower of his Master.
Too many people who want to be Christians, do not heed this call to "leave your country, your people and your father's household". They want to have the blessings and the comforts of Christian life--without giving up the associations, the friendships, the gains, and the enjoyments of the world. Perhaps it is this lack of sacrifice--which is the greatest impediment of the Church in these days. It does not have the power from on high because it does not give up the present world.
Abraham was called also to a life of faith. He had at first no promise of a definite country that would be given to him--in place of the country he was commanded to leave. It was only "the land that I will show you." Some people are disappointed when they do not find in the Christian life--the worldly prosperity and the temporal good they desired. The fact is that Abraham never received a country of his own--in place of the one he gave up. He was never anything but a pilgrim. Later Canaan was promised to him--but he did not himself receive it. He had to purchase and pay for the little plot of it he needed for a burying-place for his family.
Those who are called to follow Christ are promised an inheritance. They are told that they are heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, that all things are theirs. Yet many of them never receive much of this world.
We too are called to a life of faith. God has a land in waiting for us--a land that He will show us. But it is not earthly acres, houses, money, riches, ease, honor, power. We may be called to give up all of this world in going with Christ--and may never receive any earthly reward. But we will receive Christ and all spiritual blessing and good here on earth--and then in the end eternal life!
The Lord promised to make Abraham the father of a great posterity, "I will make you a great nation." This promise was fulfilled. No name in all history compares with Abraham's in honor, in influence, in greatness. Not only is he revered by the Jewish people; he is also the father of a great spiritual seed, including all who call themselves Christians. Then millions of Mohammedans also call him their father.
"And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you!" Not only was Abraham to be great himself if he would obey God's call; he would also become a blessing to countless multitudes. This is always the law of spiritual life: blessed--to be a blessing. This is God's offer and message to all of us. He wants to bless us--and then He wants us to be a blessing to others. When He would bless a little child--He puts a gift of love into a mother's heart. When He would bless a class of young people or children--He sends a teacher full of warm sympathy and earnest interest in souls. When He would bless a community--He raises up a good man and touches his heart, that he may scatter benefits among the people.
Always, too, when God blesses us with gifts of whatever kind--He wants us to be a blessing to others. Nothing that we have is ours for ourselves alone; we receive, that we may dispense again. When God gives anyone money, He intends him to use it to be a blessing to the world. When God bestows upon anyone the gift of song, or of eloquence, or the artist's power. He desires these gifts to be used to make men better and happier. Our lives should all be both blessed--and a blessing. We should never live for ourselves. We should seek always to live so as to make the world better, purer, happier, sweeter. We need God, and God needs us in order to reach others with His grace and goodness. He would bless others through us. If we fail, we check the flow of God's blessing to others.
The Lord extended the promise, so that all who were friendly to Abraham would also receive a Divine blessing. "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse." It is wonderful how God makes common cause with His people. It is a perilous thing to lift a hand against any of God's people, for he who does so, lifts his hand against God. Christ says the same of His followers. To be kind to one of His people--is to be kind to Him. To harm a Christian--is to harm Christ. To neglect a suffering Christian--is the same as if Christ Himself were suffering and we neglected Him. We need to beware that we never do injury of any kind--to the least of Christ's little ones. On the other hand, all kindness done to a friend of Christ in His name--is done to Christ Himself, and is rewarded accordingly. Even the giving of a cup of cold water to a disciple of His, does not go without reward.
Abraham believed God, and at once obeyed the call that had come to him. "Abram left, as the Lord had told him." He did not know where he was going, or what country was to be given to him; he had simply the call of God and the promise. But he asked no questions. He did not insist on knowing how his journey would come out, how profitable it would be, and just what he would get in exchange for the land he was leaving. Quietly, without doubt or hesitation, and without question or assurance of anything to come, he rose and cut the ties that bound him to his old home--and was off. That is the kind of faith all of us should have, whenever God calls us.
Some people insist upon seeing where they are going before they will follow Christ. But that is not walking by faith. We should not trouble ourselves to know where we are to be led--if only we know that God has us by the hand. We do not need to know what lies over the hill--if God is leading us. His guidance is safe, and we should be willing to trust Him and to do precisely what He says, and go just where He leads, without asking any questions. Abraham's life is a picture of a true walk with God.
Having left Ur, Abraham stopped for a time in Haran. His father was feeble and probably unable to travel, and he tarried at Haran until the end came. Haran was only half way to the land of promise. There is a pathetic suggestion in the fact that Terah died there. The old man's eyes never looked on the land of promise. Probably when the company of emigrants reached Haran, his feeble strength gave out and he could go no farther. The whole party then had to wait and watch beside the old man until he died and was buried. He had started too late on the long journey.
There is a lesson here for the old, that they should not defer too long any good thing they think of doing, any kindness they would show, any piece of work they would do. An old man with trembling hands planted a tree before his door. He said he wanted to enjoy its shade. But long before the tree had grown to strength so that it could cast a shade, the old man was in his grave. He planted the tree too late.
Abraham never settled down anywhere in this land of promise. "Abram traveled through the land." Genesis 12:6. That was all he ever did. He never stayed long anywhere. Abraham's pilgrim life in Canaan illustrates what every Christian life should be in this world, a journey through it--and not a settling down in it. We should be in the world, for we owe duties to it; we have blessings in our hands for it; but we are not of the world, and should never allow the world to possess us or engross us. However, that is not the way most people like to live in this world. They would rather settle down and have their permanent possessions here. Still the Bible idea of a life of faith--is not to take deep root anywhere here on earth--but to look forward for our true and eternal home, regarding this present life merely as a pilgrimage to it.
God promised the country to Abraham's family after him. "Unto your seed, I will give this land." He would not get it himself--but his children would possess it. The same history is being repeated continually. Parents toil, suffer, and wait, and do not themselves get the reward of their services and sacrifices. They die without seeing the blessings for which they have wrought. Then their children reap the fruit of their parents' sowing and tears. Thousands who live now in ease and luxury--are enjoying the good for which their parents toiled--but in vain. We do not always remember what we owe to those who have gone before us. Sometimes a fashionable and wealthy woman is almost ashamed of her old-fashioned father and mother; but she ought to remember that it is because they worked hard and saved carefully--that she is what she is, and has what she has today.
The artist was painting a portrait of an old mother who had passed away, using a photograph as a model. He proposed leaving out some of the lines in the photograph, that the face in the portrait might look fresher and fairer. But the son said, "No, no! Do not take out one of the lines. It wouldn't be my mother if one of them were missing!" Then he told the story of the mother's toils, sacrifices, and sufferings for her children, how she had nursed them in diphtheria, how she had gone without even the necessaries of life--that they might not hunger and might not want anything. The lines and wrinkles on the old face, told the story of the mother's holy love and were sacred. Every one of them must stay in the picture!
Wherever Abraham went he took God with him. "There he built an altar unto the Lord." It is good to mark the bright spots in our path, especially where God appears to us. We ought to mark our red-letter days--so as not to forget them. Some people are a great deal more apt to remember their sad days--than their bright days. We do not forget the days of our troubles--when the baby died, when we lost the money, when we had the long sickness, when we met the sore misfortune; but we very often forget the date of the great joy, the rich blessing, or the Divine help. The best way to mark these bright places, is by some act of homage towards God.
