We begin this week seeing God further put His plan of redemption in motion. Through one man, Abram, God will set a people apart for Himself whose purpose is to reveal His glory to the nations. Ultimately, though, God will use the line of Abram to bring the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, the one who will give His life to atone the sins of mankind. Abram is the first Patriarch. God is good enough to give us the full account of Abram rather than just all the good. We see his faith along with his humanity. Thank goodness. The reading begins with seemingly rather vague instructions from God, “Go out into a land I will show you.” Wait, when will you show me? That would be my first response, but Abram’s first response: “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” There are a lot of logistics I’d be concerned with. Abram, however, just went and he worshiped. He carries with him simply trust in Yahweh. God, in His wisdom and understanding, gave Abram one step at a time. He did not give all the details at once as He did with Noah. We see that God appears to Abram with further details, but only after Abram followed in obedience. Sound like something we might could learn about our relationship with God? As we continue on, we see that when God speaks, Abram continues to obey. Well most of the journey. There’s that one exception of Negev. The one time Abram doesn’t wait for instructions or stop to worship, he steps out on his own wisdom and things go terribly wrong. He seems to learn his lesson and we discover a pattern. From this one day of reading, we learn that when Abram stops to worship and listen, he continues with confidence. Yet, when he doesn’t, he continues with fear and acts in his own wisdom. This is yet another simple truth that we can learn about our relationship with God from the life of Abram. I am so thankful that God shows the humanity of the heroes. We find such hope and wisdom from their mistakes. At the same time, we discover so much truth about God’s undying grace, His relentless love and His never-ending mercy.
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