Now for you and me, it can be a very difficult step. But we have to understand that we cannot take the old man to the place of promise. It cannot be saved, and it cannot be improved. It has to be left behind.
Although Abram actually began in Ur, his pilgrimage did not actually begin until he left Haran because he was still in his own country. But once it began, it never ended. There were periods of relative stability, but even in those periods, Abraham lived in tents so he was always reminded that he had no settled place. Now please get this because this is very important to our life in these end times. He was always reminded that he had no settled place.
There is a very interesting contrast right from his own family with his brother Nahor. Nahor did not come out with them when they left Haran, but he remained there in the old land. He built a city, he either named it after himself or his children named it after him, and it was to this same area that Abraham later sent his servant to get a wife for Isaac. Two brothers, same family, same father, but entirely lifestyles and destinies. It is interesting to see that the one who appeared to be ruthless and unstable had the greater destiny.
A very interesting contrast. Now we know the physical Israelites were bumped from pillar to post. They were in a very strategic place in the world, settled on a land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt, between Greece and Egypt, and it seems as though every conquer that came through made it part of his area of conquest. So, they lived in a very unsettled territory.
A spiritual Israelite, a true son of Abraham will not ever have a simple life. We can see that from the life of Abraham, the life of Isaac, and the life of Jacob. Certainly, there will be periods of stability but not for long. We are on the move and that is a trail that is going to sometimes require very painful sacrifices.
But God established the pattern for the training of His new spiritual race in this life and that pattern is established in the faithful.
Strangers and pilgrims. See others were included in this but Abraham is the main person in mind here because he picks up again with Abraham immediately in verse 17 again. So, movement, instability, and separation from the world are central to God’s purpose for His sons. Modern terminology would have us walking to the beat of a different drummer and many trials fall on us as a result of this. It is from this instability, this movement, that we learn what is in our hearts, and I hope that we never forget what this pilgrim teaches us about our weaknesses.
Abraham went from Ur to Haran to Shechem to Moreh to Bethel to Hebron to Beersheba down to Egypt back to Hebron and on and on it went. It says in verse 8 of chapter 11, “He knew not where he was going.” Somebody else was directing and guiding his steps, and that is the way a life of faith is. It is full of changes and that requires no small sacrifices. It is a life that in some cases, brethren, seems at times virtually unmanageable, out of control. But it is manageable if we allow it by faith to be managed by God. Now even though we may not be literally moving like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did, there are sufficient changes in doctrine, in policy, in personnel, in the movements in the work, to keep us living by faith.
We do it for the same basic reason that Abraham did. Because we see, grasp, understand, comprehend, have vision. We believe and see something others do not see. A city whose builder and maker is God and so we yield accordingly.
Abraham did not just go on the strength of his call. That verse back there in Genesis 12:7 says that God appeared to him in Moreh. And so to us who live by faith God gives special revelation of Himself. I am not talking about visions, but He gives encouragements, guidance. He gives understanding, He gives vision so that we might be empowered to go on.
Now is it not interesting that the Canaanites were still there, and … . . .
Although Abram actually began in Ur, his pilgrimage did not actually begin until he left Haran because he was still in his own country. But once it began, it never ended. There were periods of relative stability, but even in those periods, Abraham lived in tents so he was always reminded that he had no settled place. Now please get this because this is very important to our life in these end times. He was always reminded that he had no settled place.
Abraham did not just go on the strength of his call. That verse back there in Genesis 12:7 says that God appeared to him in Moreh. And so to us who live by faith God gives special revelation of Himself. I am not talking about visions, but He gives encouragements, guidance. He gives understanding, He gives vision so that we might be empowered to go on.
Now is it not interesting that the Canaanites were still there, and the Land of Promise was subject to famine, and as we see later on, warfare.
Let us look at this in a larger sense to you and me. This earth is our inheritance, but it is possessed by others. It is ours because Christ confirmed the promise, and we are in Christ. It is ours but it is possessed by others. And indeed, we may be persecuted in our own possession. It is torn by warfare, it is raped and torn by greedy men stripping it of its wealth, it is subject to devastating acts of nature, and we live unsettled lives on our own inheritance.
Now we might have hoped whenever we were converted that by obedience we would be freed from such living, but such is not the path for the heirs of God. Abraham might have thought the same thing, “Boy, I better get out of this land where they are after my hide, and I’m being persecuted.” But it was not that way. He got into his own possession and he was always on the move. There was warfare and there was famine. Though he became wealthy, he never led a settled life.
Though Abraham entered into his promised inheritance, he did not live in it as if living in it was the consummation of God’s purposes for him. Rather, what Stephen is pointing out is that what was important to Abraham was the covenant and the personal relationship that God had established with him, whatever Abraham’s state and place of residence. A relationship in which circumcision was the God given sign. You see what I said there? What Abraham cherished more than anything else was not the land, was not the reward, it was his relationship with God.
That is why I said to you earlier that what caused, what motivated Abraham to move, to leave, was the character and power of that God who said “I will.” He did not want anything to break that relationship that had been in existence. That is what Abraham cherished and that was why he was the friend of God.
Another possibility—and, I believe, a better one—goes back even farther, to the first time God appeared to Abram when he got to Canaan. On that occasion, God promised, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). It was a promise of both inheritance as well as descendants. There is an echo of that promise on this esem day in verse 8 here, where God says,
So, when Abram got to the land, God said, “To your descendants I will give this land,” and on this esem day, God confirms it. His words change from “I will give” to “I give” as He faithfully fulfilled His promise from decades before.
