Genesis 12:1-101Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: 2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. 6And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. 8And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. 10And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. (Genesis 12:1‑10)
The people of God were always morally, and must necessarily be, separate from the world. But Abram was the expression of something different, for he was the first to be publicly called out of this world. Also, God was breaking the ties of nature, for he was not merely to be a godly man in his family, but a godly man called out of his family. This distinguished the call of Abram —the public assertion of the claims of God over His people. The call of Israel out of Egypt is somewhat analogous, though it was not said to Israel, “Come out,” but to Pharaoh, “Let My people go.” Thus it was not, in the case of Israel, the invitation of the power of grace to those who were its subjects to break the tie, but the assertion of the power of God over the enemy, breaking down every claim of the world. In the case of Abram, it was love working, not a claim of power. It was grace made effectual in its working in the heart of Abram.
The Tie of Nature
For a time, however, the tie of nature was not broken: Abram went out with Terah his father. He did not leave his father’s house; he did not fully surrender himself to the Lord’s will at once, and therefore the Lord could not show him the land of Canaan. Abram had left a great deal, but he stopped short of Canaan. It is true he had left his country and his kindred, but he had not left the nearest tie of nature — his father’s house; therefore God could not show Canaan to him. He was clinging to Terah and going but halfway with God; thus he stays in Haran. So it is with us, for if we are still wanting that which naturally belongs to us, there will not be the full entering into those things that God is ready to show us. All the communications of God to Abram, as to what Canaan was, took place after, or consequent on, his arrival in Canaan. God puts the position in which he is to be in direct contrast with natural ties. He said to Abram, “Get thee out ... unto a land that I will show thee.” God had called him, and the call implied a claim. It was not merely the question of the public government of the world; Abram is entirely separated from that. He is to be a stranger to his father’s house and a stranger still when brought into Canaan. It was the Lord’s love resting on an individual and associating him with all that He had in His mind, while putting him into the place of all the promises of blessing. We see what he was called out from in Joshua 24:22And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:2): ”Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.” Men were not merely wicked, but God having manifested in the deluge the power of government in the world, Satan got hold of that power in the minds of men, who were thus led to worship devils, to whom they ascribed the power, and not to God.
It was this which formed the occasion of this public testimony for God in separating Abram from all around him; it separated him totally from every tie which was recognized in the world. He was not merely to be righteous and to be a worshipper, but he was to be connected with a glory the world had lost sight of, for it had put the devil in God’s place. Thus it says in Acts 7:22And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, (Acts 7:2), “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham.” God calls Abram out from the world to a glory set before him. The world is not
set right, but left just as it was, and we find now a special link of connection set up between God and Abram. God reveals Himself to him and says, Come out unto a land “that I will show thee.” The life of Abram depended on an immediate, present connection between himself and God, which was to be kept up by the Lord making good all He has promised. So the Lord reveals Himself to our souls and gives His word as a sure ground of our conduct. Blessed be God, we can count upon His infallible faithfulness and live by faith in daily, constant, unceasing dependence on Him, to lead on to the possession of the desires of our hearts. But we find also that the Lord’s promises involved the acting of Abram likewise, for while he stays with Terah, God cannot bring him into Canaan. He could not enjoy Terah and Canaan together. The blessing to faith is only found in the path of faith.
Conflict and Rest
In all that is spoken of Canaan, it is not rest that is before us. Look at the Book of Joshua; there it is conflict. Does Abram get rest? He had not so much as to set his foot upon, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob — a heavenly position, but with conflict, for the Canaanites are still there. The rest to which God calls us we do not get now. We sit down in heavenly places in Christ, but we have to fight with wicked spirits in heavenly places. The saint is called into a place of rest, but as yet gets nothing.
Worship
“The Lord appeared unto Abram” (Gen. 12:77And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. (Genesis 12:7)). He now appears to him in the land. It is not the call which sets us in the place of worship, but as soon as we enter the land, then we can worship, because our relationship with God is known, settled and enjoyed. Before it is the walk of faith, but that is not worship. So we, as seated in the heavenly places, can worship, knowing our relationship as sons. “There built he an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 12:77And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. (Genesis 12:7)). In Hebrews 11:8-108By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:8‑10), we get three things as regards the power of faith in Abram. First (vs. 8): “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” He went in simple, present dependence, leaning on the promise of God. There was the life of faith. Second, when in the land (vs. 9): “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” The Lord’s appearing to him was the foundation of his worship, and there he built his altar. The Lord further explains His purposes to him, and he got prophetic knowledge. But it was not this which sustained Abram’s soul. He could say, “I know now how it is all to be accomplished. It is in my seed, and not in myself. I am a stranger here.” How then was his soul sustained while he was a stranger? Third (vs. 10): “He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Thus Abram’s soul was not merely brought to worship, but he was sustained by a closer communion with that God who had chosen him, in faith that He would build the city Himself.
The Glory of God
I have been struck that in Revelation 4, speaking of the throne of God’s government, there are peoples, angels, assemblies, living creatures — a whole population there — but when I come to the heavenly city (Rev. 21), there is a high wall, streets, gates of pearl, but where are the people? No is one there, because the people are lost in the idea of the glory of God and the Lamb, and nothing else is thought of (though we know it is the Lamb’s bride), for God and the Lamb are there. It was looking for this city which made Abram a pilgrim and a stranger. The world could not understand him, and it might have said, “Now that Abram is in the land, what has he got?” Nothing, for he could not explain to them how it was, but he had seen by faith that city of which God was the builder. We see, then, Abram is called, and having entered by faith into the conditions of the calling, he gets into the land. There he has a present revelation of the Lord, which is the ground of his worship, but he did not have rest; the Canaanite was there.
If God has called me out, I must leave the world just as it is, and not think of setting it right. You cannot hold relationship with Christ and the world at the same time. The worship of God is founded on the knowledge of the heavenly position we are in, being called out of the world into fellowship with Himself. We do not have a single thing in common with the world, but we can sing of redemption, just as if we were now in heaven. My relationships with God will not be in the least changed when I get home; they will be just the same then as they are now. He has set us in Christ, and we can say, as in Deuteronomy 26:33And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us. (Deuteronomy 26:3), “I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country” — not shall come. We are there and have the understanding of how God will accomplish His promises — ”in thy seed.” Not the earthly rest in the fulfillment of promise to man, but heavenly rest where He dwells, where the glory of God does lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
It is well for our souls to have the relationship into which we are called distinctly before our minds, that we may know how to worship and be sustained by the strength which it supplies. And if the foundations of the earth are out of course, I am not of it. Having the sentence of death in myself, I shall not fear death, but we shall have the comfort and joy of the place to which we belong. The sweetness of a calm is better known when the storm is raging without. May the Lord give us the true revelation of Himself.
Adapted from J. N. Darby