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 … . . .
In the Jewish Publication Society of America's The Torah, The Five Books of Moses, A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text, I found a very interesting pattern which served as a metaphor of Abraham's and our own lives. In Genesis 12:9, the text in the JPS reads, "Then Abram journeyed by stages toward the Negev." And in Genesis 13:3 the text reads, "And he proceeded by stages from the Negev as far as Bethel." Over his entire lifetime, Abraham's spiritual development from little faith to much faith, and eventually the friend of God, proceeded in stages.
Whether we use the image of Abram traveling by stages through the Negev, or being dropped like a rubber ball from higher and higher altitudes, or being elevated by a system of locks, or progressing through a series of stages of musical appreciation (Now this metaphor piling technique I learned from my mentor, Jesus Christ: "The kingdom of God is like . . . , The kingdom of God is like . . . , The kingdom of God is like . . . ). In these metaphors, God uses a series of dilemmas or forked-road situations to gently pressure an individual to relinquish self-will and submit to God's will. God begins to incrementally reveal His secrets to those who yield to His will (faith comes from hearing). These insights are strengthened by doing and have matured by absorbing His laws and statutes deep into our bones.
