Living by Faith in the Promise

Genesis 12:1-9 

1 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
    “Get out of your country,
    From your family
    And from your father's house,
    To a land that I will show you.
    2 I will make you a great nation;
    I will bless you
    And make your name great;
    And you shall be a blessing.
    3 I will bless those who bless you,
    And I will curse him who curses you;
    And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

After Abram moved to Haran from Ur where his father died, God told him to go further.  Yet He did not tell Abram exactly where to go, just that the destination would be one God would show him.  He was to leave the place of family and familiarity to follow his God.  The covenant promise God made to Abram was to bless him by multiplying Abram into a great nation, a more specific promise of the original charge to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.  God would make Abram’s name known and use him to bless others, all throughout in the earth.  What did Abram do?  He heard and trusted by active faith to go (Romans 4:3, 20-21), to follow God.  When Abram and those with him arrived at Shechem, God then told him that was the place He spoke of by promise for Abram and his descendants.  Abram built an altar to worship God out of thanksgiving and honor to God’s glory for this calling and promise.  He then moved near Bethel and built a second altar and called on the name of the Lord.  Then he journeyed further into the land promised and given by the God he now worshipped by calling on His name, acknowledging who He is and submitting to His rule over his life.  The lesson for us is to have this faith, trusting God’s word to lead us (and with His Spirit in us, with even more assurance).  We should be ready and willing to go as led and to believe His promises in Christ both for our present salvation and eternal destiny (Hebrews 11:8).  We therefore are to live by faith, not sight, as Abraham gave us the example.