Leaving it All Behind.

Leaving it all behind is never easy. Stephen tells the story of Abraham, a great man of faith, who left it all behind in obedience to God’s call.

Abraham

In this installment of “Stepping Out”, we’re going to start a look into the life of one of the greatest men of faith in the entire Bible, Abraham.  Abraham’s story is found in the book of Genesis, with additional information that can be gleaned from the books of Acts and Hebrews.  While his whole life can be used to pull examples of great faith, for this series, we are going to focus on two separate points in his timeline.  This episode will focus of the first of those, the call of Abraham to move to the promised land.  For that, we go to Genesis chapter 12

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. Genesis 12:1-9

A Promise to Abraham

Here we find God making a promise to Abraham, now at this time he was still called Abram, but for the sake of continuity I will be using the name that God gave him later on.  The promise is an incredible one, yet at the same time somewhat vague.  That God would make a great nation of Abraham implied both that he would receive some portion of land, and that he would have a great number of descendants.  However, the scope of that was really undefined. 

Added to that promise, was one of blessing, God would bless Abraham, and also make him a blessing to those around him, even to the world.  Now, at this point in time it should be pointed out that Abraham and his wife, Sarah, have no children, and are both in their seventies.  This is an incredible promise, even if there are some components of it that will require more understanding and clarification.  How will they be a blessing to all nations?  How will they have heirs to become this great nation?  Perhaps that’s why they took Abraham’s nephew, Lot.  Yes, there were still a lot of blanks that needed to be filled in, but it was an amazing promise they had received from God.

Abraham Takes Action

At the same time, Abraham needed to take action in order to receive this promise.  God tells him to leave his home and family, and go to a yet unknown destination.  Here in Genesis 12, God says

“Go to the land that I will show you.” 

However, Hebrews 11:8 makes it very clear that when Abraham left his home, he had not been told where his destination was.  There we read

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8

What Makes Abraham’s Faith So Great?

I’d like to look at this story at see what it is that made Abaraham’s faith so great, and how we can relate to the events of this story today.  To do this, I want to focus on four areas of our lives that we often find forming the basis of what we trust in and believe. 

These include ourselves, the people close to us, what we know, and what we can see or understand.  These really are the four things that we rely on to make the big decisions we face in our day-to-day lives.  Sometimes though, we can let them get in the way of something truly great.  Abraham didn’t, but let’s look at how they could have.

Abraham’s Spiritual Life

First, concerning himself.  We know very little about Abraham’s spiritual life before God calls him in Genesis 12.  There is one short passage in Joshua 24 which reveals that before the Lord spoke to Abraham, he and his family served other gods. Something we do know about Abraham, is that he was an affluent man. 

In the book of Acts, chapter 7, we can read that Abraham was first called out from the land of Ur of the Chaldeans, apparently left all that he had there and went to Haran, the land of his father. Then, after his father died, God called him again to continue his journey, because Haran was not the place God was leading him to. 

Abraham Leaves Haran

Genesis tells us that when he left Haran, he took all the possessions and people, or servants, that he gained while he was in Haran.  We don’t know how he amassed them, perhaps he was a savvy businessman, or, most likely, it was an inheritance from his father.  In any case, he had been at least a little blessed financially along the way. 

The point being is that Abraham seemed to have a lot going for him from an earthly standpoint, and now there is, to him, this strange God telling him to uproot himself and travel until this God showed him where he was supposed to live.  This is the first act of faith.  I am quite convinced that Abraham could have lived a happy and prosperous life in either Ur or Haran until the day he died, but God said no, leave this place, so he did.  He was willing to give up the luxury he had known, or could have known in Haran, and to leave the foreign gods that he had been following for his whole life.

Abraham’s Family

Now, concerning his family.  Sometimes I think we can take for granted the importance of being surrounded by people who love us, care for us, and want what’s best for us.  People to whom we can go to for advice, or even just consolation in difficult times.  People who will have our backs in times of trouble or need.  For many of us, that’s our family.  Maybe it’s a close group of friends for some of us, but it is the people we rely on for many things in life. 

Again, here we have God telling Abraham to leave all of that, his family, and kin, and go.  Now he does take Lot with him, but we read in Genesis 11, that Lot was the son of Abraham’s brother, who died while the family lived in Ur of the Chaldeans.  It is very likely then, that Lot was attached to Abraham almost like a son, rather than a nephew.  Regardless, all of his extended relatives, his living brother, cousins, uncles and so on were to be left behind. 

Not knowing how far he would have to travel, or even which direction, the understanding would have been that this was probably a final goodbye to them all.  Once again, Abraham has to make a decision, cling to his world of comfort and safety, or go it alone with a God he has just met, but who has promised him great blessing.  Abraham chose faith.  He believed and trusted that he needed to stay close to God, regardless of what it might cost him.

We Trust in What We Know

Thirdly, we tend to trust in what we know.  Genesis 11:31 provides the bridge between God calling Abraham out of Haran, as we read in Genesis 12, and God calling Abraham out of Ur, as we read in Acts chapter seven.  In Genesis 11:31 we read,

“Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.”

Terah, Abraham’s father, and the rest of the family all lived in Ur.  Sometime after Abraham’s brother died, Terah took Abraham and Sarah to go to Canaan, but along the way they stopped in Haran, and decided to stay there.  Abraham’s other brother, Nahor, stayed in Ur. 

There is a bit of irony here in that Terah actually wanted to go where God wanted Abraham to be, in the land of Canaan.  Part of the problem with this is that God wanted Abraham to go there alone.  We aren’t given a reason for why they settled in Haran, but seeing how the family prospered there financially, it is probable that they saw something in the area that made them feel they could thrive there.  There seemed to be a familiarity with the land or the people there, that would make them comfortable.  For Abraham himself, perhaps this was a situation where he should have realized that he was to keep going and leave his father there. 

But there is comfort in what we know.  Abraham had lived his whole life up to this point with or near his father.  Change like that is always difficult.  While there can be a sense of excitement that comes with a fresh start, something of this magnitude would also carry with it some trepidation or even fear.  Fear of the unknown.  So again, Abraham has this choice, continue to live the life he knows, or set out to something new and untried.  So, on he goes.

We Trust What We Understand

Finally, we trust in what we see, or what we can understand.  When I was in college, one of my friends and I decided to get in my car and just drive until we felt like stopping.  Even though we had no real destination in mind, we drove for about 4 hours, staying in parts of the province that we were somewhat familiar with. 

Why?  We wanted to be sure we would know how to get back home, and we started to understand that what was beyond, was territory we had never been in, and we knew that if we continued the possibility of getting lost grew exponentially.  We could see that the major highways were ending, and the country roads were increasing.  The cities and metropolises we were used to were turning into farmlands, forests, and small villages. 

Abraham Had to Adapt to His Surroundings

Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, and was eventually led to the land of Canaan, though at first, he did not know that would be the destination.  If we look at these locations on a map, based on what archaeology has told us, Ur was in what is now modern-day Iraq on the Persian Gulf, and Canaan would be what is modern day Israel.  Separating these two places is the Arabian desert.  Haran, incidentally, is located north of both, in Turkey, near the Syrian border. 

Given these locations, as Abraham travelled, he would have noticed that almost everything he was familiar with was changing.  The climate was different, the terrain, the people, the agriculture, wildlife, government and political systems, culture, perhaps even the architecture.  Abraham was going to have to adapt to his new surroundings.  The longer he journeyed, the more he was going to have to learn about how to live in this new land.  Yet at no time did he turn back and abandon his faith in the God that had called him from his home. 

God Was Faithful in All He Promised

For His part, God was faithful in all that he promised Abraham.  Even in their old age, Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac, who had a son named Jacob, and Jacob’s descendants would go on to become the nation of Israel, a people who are still thriving in the world today, almost 4,000 years after Abraham left the city of Ur. 

As for the promise that every nation in the world would be blessed through Abraham, one of Jacob’s sons, Judah, would be the ancestral line through which Jesus Christ was born.  The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  Revelation 7 tells us that heaven will be filled with people from every tribe, nation and tongue, who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.  So, because of Abraham’s faith and trust in God, everlasting life is available to all people through Jesus Christ. 

God Has Given us Promises

God has given us so many promises in Christ, even beyond salvation and everlasting life.  Things like peace, hope, love, joy, wisdom, guidance, patience and understanding.  What He asks of us is to fully trust Him and to follow His Son, even if at times we don’t fully know where He is taking us.  One final thought on Abraham’s faith to use for our example. 

Abraham went from Ur with his father and settled for a time in Haran.  These were two things he should not have done, two times where his faith in God seems to have faltered, there were other times after this too.  Yet, when we read the Bible, the Word of God, we find that God remembers his faithfulness and not his failings.

Our Faith Walk

In our faith walk, we will not be perfect.  We will have doubts, we will do the wrong things, we will fall, just as Abraham did.  But notice how when God called to Abraham again, and reminded him of the promise, Abraham carried on. 

When we fail, when we lose faith, remember God’s promises to us, the hope He has given us in His Son, and let’s not become so discouraged that we settle for something less, but as Paul would put it in Philippians 3:13-14 “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Are you thinking about “leaving it all behind?” What’s preventing you? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.