Abraham's Commitment (Gen. 12:4-9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 05/11/2006

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  A Commitment

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Genesis 12: 4-9

            Message of the verse:  “ 4  So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.

“6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.  7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.  8 Then he proceeded from there to the mountain 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 Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.”

            It was learned in chapter eleven that Abraham’s father had made the commitment to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to the land of Canaan, but only made it as far as Haran (v-31).  Haran is North of Babylon, which is where Abraham’s family came from and I believe they went North and not directly West because that would have meant they would have had to cross the desert.

It can be seen in verses four and five that after the call came to Abraham to go to the land of Canaan that he and his wife and nephew and also some of the people whom he had acquired in Haran.  Abraham and Sarah were committed to follow the Lord and to do what He had told them to do. 

Dr. Wiersbe has a wonderful portion from his book, “The Bible Exposition Commentary,” on this section which goes into much more that I can write at this point.  I have scanned this portion and have it on my computer for future reference.

This whole section from verse four to nine is a section on faith and in verses eight and nine it can be seen that Abraham certainly had a lot of faith to do the things that He was doing.  When a person is in the will of God and doing things by faith as Abraham was doing here then God certainly blesses that person, even though at times their circumstances may not seem as if they are being blessed.  Abraham had a tent he live in and built many altars to the Lord to worship Him as he moved from place to place.  This shows that Abraham was in the world but not of the world, and looking at verse nine it can be seen that Abraham called upon the LORD and worshiped Him and was seeking direction from Him.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Like Abraham was most of his life, I too want to be in this world doing the will of God but not of this world being so attracted by its lure that I miss what it is that God would have me do.  Eph. 2:10 has always been a favorite verse of mine and it fits in here:  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

The Word of God has been refreshment to my soul as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  To live in the world but not be of the world, to continue to seek contentment form the Lord, and also direction for the Lord.  That God would give me the grace today that is needed to do His will.