4-5 Abram was seventy-five years old when the Lord told him to leave the city of Haran. He obeyed and left with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and slaves they had gotten while in Haran.
When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram went as far as the sacred tree of Moreh in a place called Shechem. The Canaanites were still living in the land at that time, 7 but the Lord appeared to Abram and promised, “I will give this land to your family forever.” Abram then built an altar there for the Lord.
8 Abram traveled to the hill country east of Bethel and camped between Bethel and Ai, where he built another altar and worshiped the Lord. 9 Later, Abram started out toward the Southern Desert.
Is it here?
Is this the place?
Is this where you are calling me to?
Is this the person I am to become?
This is a journey.
There are important stages on the way,
but they are not the destination.
Perhaps junctions,
maybe places to wait for a connection.
important places on their own,
but not The Place.
Somewhere to pause,
think,
pray.
An opportunity to check the map,
the timetable,
or ask in the information office,
but not a forever place.
But The Now place.
the place we are,
the place God is
This year, several of us are reading Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn and joining together to comment on it. Do join us at the Adventbookclub Facebook page, follow #adventbookclub on Twitter or comment below. If you are also reading and blogging on this book, let me know and I will link to your blog.
15 Later the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision, “Abram, don’t be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly.”
2 But Abram answered, “Lord All-Powerful, you have given me everything I could ask for, except children. And when I die, Eliezer of Damascus will get all I own. 3 You have not given me any children, and this servant of mine will inherit everything.”
4 The Lord replied, “No, he won’t! You will have a son of your own, and everything you have will be his.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That’s how many descendants you will have.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord was pleased with him.
The Lord Makes Another Promise to Abram
7 The Lord said to Abram, “I brought you here from Ur in Chaldea, and I gave you this land.”
8 Abram asked, “Lord God, how can I know the land will be mine?”
9 Then the Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram obeyed the Lord. Then he cut the animals in half and laid the two halves of each animal opposite each other on the ground. But he did not cut the doves and pigeons in half. 11 And when birds came down to eat the animals, Abram chased them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and everything became dark and frightening.
18 At that time the Lord made an agreement with Abram and told him:
I will give your descendants the land east of the Shihor River on the border of Egypt as far as the Euphrates River.
God promises Abram that he will protect and reward him. He has no need to be afraid.
Yet, Abram is a bold as to tell God what is missing from his life. How desperately he yearned for a child.
The pain of despair, of longing, of not knowing how life can be complete.
And God makes a promise. The strange animal cutting in half, smoke and fire are part of God’s promise. The land will not be going to some distant relative of Abram’s, but his very own son. God’s promises are good.
The most intriguing part of Abram’s story to me is that despite this promise, Abram still could not believe it. He didn’t trust in God to fulfil his promise, but worked to manipulate it all to happen when he thought God wasn’t working fast enough, or in the way he wanted. Only a few verses later, Abram and Sarai make their own plan, that Sarai’s servant will bear him a child.
God promises, but they don’t trust him, and try to work things out themselves.
God doesn’t always promise us our hearts desire, but he does promise us we do not need to be afraid. We can trust God. We truly don’t have to try to manipulate things ourselves. When Abram and Sarai did, things didn’t work out any better, in fact they made things much worse.
Trusting God is hard. Especially when he doesn’t seem to be doing anything, when it seems he is not following through on the promises he has made.
But God does and he will – in his way and his time, but he can be relied on. We don’t need to be afraid.
Lord,
sometimes it so hard,
things don’t seem to be going the way I think they should,
