Author and Perfector

Now the Lord said to Abram,

Go forth from your country,

and from your relatives

and from your father’s house.

To the land which I will show you.

Genesis 12:1

From Adam to Noah we have nine generations, and from Shem to Abram we have nine generations. From father to son, the story of the garden, the story of the fall, the story of the flood, the story of the tower and the story of the redemption promise have been passed down.

Now God chooses an ordinary man, Abram, and separates him from all men on the earth. Abram was an idol worshiper in the land of the Chaldeans, a Gentile we might say; no one special in status or power. When God called him out, he would become a man forever changed. God’s call on people seems to have that effect.

God calls Abram out and tells him to leave his father’s house. God tells him that he will show him where to go. He tells him that He is going to make Abram’s name great and that he, Abram, will be a great nation and all other nations would be blessed through him.

Abram had done nothing to earn this call. It was a gift from God, a gift of God’s own choosing, set before Abram as an offer, as an opportunity. I am sure Abram had no clue as to the magnitude of this promise.

We know from the Scriptures that Abram took God at His word and that he set out as God had commanded … well, almost as He had commanded.

Abram set out with his immediate family in tow, but they only got as far as Haran. This was only the first of many mistakes that Abram would make on his journey, but God remained faithful to His word. God had given a promise way back in the garden, and here we really start to see the fulfillment of this promise set into motion.

Abram, a man set apart by the word of God. Abram, a man God would use to bring a nation into existence—a nation that God would set apart to display his glory. A nation set apart to carry the seed, the promised seed of Genesis 3:15. A nation that has made mistakes, that has forsaken her God, but even as Abram’s mistakes did not negate God’s faithfulness, neither has Israel’s.

We too are set apart by God’s Word and by his call. Jesus tells us that we did not choose Him but that He chose us (John 15:16) and that He appointed us to go and bear fruit. God appointed Abram to go. Abram went, even though he stumbled along the way.

We too stumble along the way. Sometimes we feel as though we will never catch our balance or walk on steady feet, but this I know: just as He never forsook Abram, He will never forsake us.

God never took back His promise; Abram’s mistakes did not ever negate God’s Word. God could have simply ended his life and started over with someone else, but our God finishes what He starts. The work that He began in him in the Ur of the Chaldeans, He carried out all the way into the Promised Land. May this truth give you hope and bring you peace.

Oh Father,

I know that You began a good work in me, and though I may stumble and fall along the way, You will finish what you started in me (Philippians 1:6). You will pick me up and dust me off when I fall and put me back on the correct path. Yes, most of those stumbles and falls will come with grave consequences, but You will even supply me the strength to move on with and through those consequences. My Father, as Abram stopped so often along the way to worship You and to call upon Your name, may I too never forget that my first priority is my total devotion to You. You are worthy of all my worship and praise!

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.