David Bahn – Reflections

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These reflections grow out of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Genesis 12-13; Psalm 28.

Genesis 12:1-9

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹ And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abraham is known as the father of faith, and he shows it here in his response to God’s call. God gives Abram a great challenge, a clear call, and a great promise.

Think of the challenge. It comes out of the blue. It’s as if the LORD said, Get up and go to a place I will show you. But it’s even more, for God admits that he is asking Abram to leave ancestral home, his family, and the country where he lived. It would be a lot. Even a nomad might balk at the idea of pulling up stakes and moving at a single command.

Then comes the clear call. God will lead him to the land he will show him. But that’s all he has to go on. There is no pillar of fire, no paper map folded 40 times, a more convenient AAA TripTick, and certainly no Garman GPS, or Google maps to follow. There is no telling where he is to go. Had Abram been out of his own country before? Does he know the possibilities and lay of the land in various places? Perhaps he does. Maybe he doesn’t. But in either case God is calling him to an adventure of faith: Follow me. I will lead you.

God adds a promise – or better yet, he states what the future will hold. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light. God’s word is not just a matter of verbs, adjectives, nouns and grammar. God’s word creates worlds. He calls the stars out and names them. He sets the limits. He determines boundaries. So when God says, “I will make of you a great nation,” it’s gonna happen.

Abram is not yet Abraham. Abram means Exalted Father. Abraham means Father of Many Nations. God will re-name him in due time. Abram will go as God leads him. Abram does not negotiate the terms. He does not ask for a guarantee. Nor does he delay until he understands.

Faith is like that. It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is focused on the One who makes the promise and on what he promises, even though we have not yet seen it. Abram will stumble more than once as he waits for God’s promise to become reality. But God does not stumble. His word is as certain as our fumbles and foibles are real. And that word is fulfilled in Jesus, who calls us to follow him.

Abram builds altars along the way and calls on the name of the LORD – a phrase indicating worship. That’s a great example for us as well – to build altars of praise to God and to worship him who is the object of our faith – Jesus Christ our Lord.