It is easy to believe God when our plans are going well and we feel secure. But when God calls us to something for which we don’t have a detailed schedule and we have to trust Him every step of the journey, that can be more difficult. It is then that the reality of our faith is tested. Abraham was in such a situation when God spoke to him in Ur of the Chaldees.
He was envisioned and called
We don’t know when it occurred but we do know that one day the God of glory appeared to Abraham.(1) What a moment! The glory of the city of Ur, with its extravagant architecture, was eclipsed by the glory of God. The glory of God far outshone the splendour of the Sumerian gods of the sun, moon and stars.
God spoke and told Abraham to leave Ur and go to a place that He would show him. We will never go anywhere unless we first hear the call of God. Abraham saw the Lord’s glory, heard His call and was ready to go.
Don’t think that Abraham was a spiritual giant and that this was easy for him. Abraham hadn’t always believed in Yahweh. Joshua told the nation of Israel, “Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshipped other gods”.(2) It is often difficult to hear the Lord’s call because of other competing pressures in our lives, but we will never go where He wants us unless we have a vision of the Lord and listen to His voice.
He obeyed and went
I am staggered at Abraham’s obedience. He obeyed and went. He didn’t give talks all around Ur about his miraculous vision. He didn’t write articles about the magnificence of the God of glory. He actioned his call! I am a great believer in planning and organisation, but sometimes we just need to do what God has called us to do. Abraham did just that. He obeyed and went. And here’s the faith in it all: he was unaware of where God was sending him or what to expect when he got there, but he still obeyed. Similarly, many have heard God’s call to “go” and have obeyed that call, bought the plane tickets, organised their affairs at home and left home shores. They have familiarised themselves with the culture, geography and language of the country of God’s choosing. Abraham went without map or compass; he had no acclimatisation course but, come what may, believed that God’s future was better than his present! He obeyed and went.
He set up home and stayed
Abraham could have gone into the land of Canaan, decided he didn’t like it and returned to Ur. Faith doesn’t do that. In spite of difficulties, inconveniences, disappointments and trials, he stayed (v9). Had it been me, I would have gone ahead and called the family to come when everything was ready. But Abraham took his family with him. As a result he shared God’s promises with Isaac and Jacob. The family became involved in his passion as ‘he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God’ (v10). He believed in God’s seemingly impossible future and transmitted that hope to his family. May God give us the grace to live according to that belief and by faith grasp the ‘something better’ (v40) that He has promised us.
Peter Brind
(1)Acts 7:2; (2)Josh. 24:2.