Are We There Yet?

What would you do if God spoke to you today saying pack up and move to a place that He would disclose to only you when you have arrived at the correct location?  Oh and by the way,  you cannot pullout your smart phone and make reservations at any Air Bnbs along the way or order delivery food using DoorDash or Uber Eats on this journey.  Would you do it? 

Abram was born in the city of Ur in what is now Iraq. According to Jewish tradition,  Abram was raised as a city-dweller and Terah,  his father,  was an idol merchant.  We see in Genesis 11:31,  “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran,  and his daughter-in-law Sarai,  the wife of his son Abram,  and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.  But when they came to Harran,  they settled there.”   So Terah started the journey to Canaan with some of his family members but settled in Harran in what is today southeastern Turkey.  However,  Terah died in Harran after living 205 years.

Terah started the journey to Canaan but he died,  stranding the family in Haran.  However,  the story continues in Genesis 12:1-3 where we find that Haran was just the first leg.  “The Lord had said to Abram,  “Go from your country,  your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.   I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;  I will make your name great,  and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you,  and whoever curses you I will curse;  and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 

These verses are referred to as the Abrahamic covenant—God's pledge to give Abram land and descendants,  and to bless all the people of the earth (through redemption).  We see God intervening in His perfect timing to direct Abram to continue the journey and what lies ahead.

At this point, Abram is 75 years old but he obeys the voice of the Lord.  In Genesis 12:5-9 we find that “He took his wife Sarai,  his nephew Lot,  all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.  Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said,  'To your offspring I will give this land.'  So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.  From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and 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. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.”  Therefore, we see Abram settled in Canaan [you can read about the rest of his life in Genesis as recorded in Genesis chapters 12-25].

So we return to the original question:

What would you do if God spoke to you today to leave all and go to a place He will show you?  It is a daunting question and one we can only hope to answer by faith, submission and prayer. 

We are not told if Abram struggled with the decision but we know he did obey the command to go to Canaan.  Are we willing to do the same?