And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. Now 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 shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 11:31-12:3
In the first period of Abraham’s life we are introduced to the path of faith and those who walk there in answer to the call of God. We also see the hindrances on the path; the faith that takes the path; and the blessings in the path as well as the failure, temptations, and conflicts found there.
Let us think first of the character of the call by which the Lord began to woo Abraham from Ur to the city of God.
A Divine Call
The first great truth we learn in the opening portion of Abraham’s history is the blessed character of the call of God. From Stephen’s address, recorded in Acts 7, we learn that “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia.” What distinguishes the call from every other call is this: it comes from God—the God of glory. Human civilization, with its cities and towers reaching up to heaven, has nothing that speaks of God, only that which exalts and displays the glory of man. “The God of glory” speaks of another world in which there is nothing of man’s self-aggrandizement but everything that displays the character of God. This is the God who in wonderful grace appears to a man living in a world estranged from God and steeped in idolatry.
So it is the glory of the One that appears to Abraham that gives such importance to the call, and gives faith its authority and power to answer to that call.
A Separating Call
Secondly, we learn that the call is a separating call. The word to Abraham is, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.” Abraham is not told to remain in the city of Ur and deal with man’s wickedness, or attempt to improve its social condition, or reform its domestic ways, or attempt to make it a better and a brighter world. He is called to come out of it in every form. He is to leave the political world “thy country;” the social world— “thy kindred,” and the domestic world “thy father’s house.”
The call today is no less definite. The world around us is a world that has the form of godliness without the power—the world of corrupt religion; and the epistle that tells us that we are partakers of the heavenly calling exhorts us to separate from its corruption. We are to “...go forth therefore unto Him [Jesus] without the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13). It is not that we are to despise government—it is still God’s appointment. We are instructed to pray for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2), to refrain from speaking evil of dignitaries (2 Peter 2:10; Jude 1, 8), to pay our taxes (Mark 12:17; Rom. 13:6-7), and to obey the laws of the land (Rom. 13:1-5).
Nor can we neglect family ties—they are ordered by God. Nor are we to cease to be courteous, and kind, and do good to all men as we have opportunity. But, as believers we are called from taking part in political activities of the world, the social round, and the whole sphere in which unconverted members of our families find their pleasure without God. We are not asked to reform the world or seek to improve its condition, but to come out from it. The word is still, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18).
An Assuring Call
Thirdly, if the call of God separated Abraham from this present world, it is in view of bringing into another world “a land,” God said, “that I will show thee.” If the God of glory appeared to Abraham, it was in order to bring Abraham into the glory of God. Thus the wonderful address of Stephen (Acts 7) that commences with the God of glory appearing to a man on earth (v. 2), ends with a Man appearing in the glory of God in heaven (v. 55). In closing his address, Stephen looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he says, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Looking at Christ in glory, we see the wonderful purpose that God has in His heart when He calls us out of this present world. He has called us to glory, to be like Christ and with Christ in a scene where everything speaks of God and all that He is in the infinite love of His heart.
God does not say to Abraham, “If you answer to the call, I will immediately give you possession of the land.” But He says, “I will show thee the land.” If we answer His call, God allows us, along with Stephen, to “see the King in His beauty” and the land that is very far off (“of far distances,” Isa. 33:17). We look up and see Christ in glory.
An Advantageous Call
There is great present blessing for the one who answers the call. As separated from this present evil world, God says to Abraham, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great.” The men of this world seek to make a great name for themselves; they say, “Let us make us a name.” But God says to the separated man, “I will bless thee and make thy name great.”
The tendency of our natural hearts is always to seek to make a name for ourselves, and the flesh will seize on anything, even the things of God, to exalt itself. This tendency was seen even among the disciples of the Lord when they debated among themselves as to which of them should be accounted the greatest.
The scattering of man at Babel, and the divisions of Christendom, as well as every strife among the people of God, can be traced to this one root—the vanity of the flesh seeking to make itself great. “Only by pride cometh contention” (Prov. 13:10).
The lowly mind of the Lord Jesus led Him to make Himself of no reputation. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name.” God has made His Name great (Rev. 15:4), and to the one that has His lowly mind and follows Him outside the camp in answer to the call, God says, “I will make thy name great.” God can make a much greater name for the believer in His world of glory than we can for ourselves in this present evil world.
If honestly confessed, it may well be found that the true motive for some Christians remaining in a soul-deadening religious system is the secret desire to be great. Thus they shrink from the path of obscurity outside the religious world. Can we not see in Scripture, as in daily experience, that those who have been spiritually great among the people of God have been separated—men and women who have answered the call of God; while any departure from the separated path has led to the loss of real influence and true spiritual greatness among the people of God?
A Beneficial Call
God says to Abraham, “Thou shalt be a blessing.” In the path of separation, not only would Abraham himself be blessed, he would be a blessing to others. We do well to mark the import of these words. How often a believer remains in an association which he would admit is not according to the Word of God on the plea that he will be more useful to others than in the outside place of separation. However, God does not say to Abraham, “If you stop in Ur of the Chaldees, or in the halfway house at Haran you will be a blessing,” but, answering to God’s call he is told, “Thou shalt be a blessing.” Perhaps Lot felt he could have influence sitting in the gate of Sodom, but the man who had influence there—who almost spared the city by his intercessions—was the man under the oak at Mamre.
A Preserving Call
Sixthly, Abraham is told that in the outside place he would have the preserving care of God. He may indeed have to face opposition and trial, for it is ever true that “he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey” (Isa. 59:15). But God says to the separated man, “I will...curse him that curseth thee.” The separated man is preserved from many a trial that overtakes the believer who remains in association with the world. The mercy of the Lord saved Lot from the doom of Sodom, but, in that false association he lost everything—wife, family, wealth, and testimony.
An Effective Call
Acting on faith in God’s word, Abraham was told, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” We know the use that the Spirit of God makes of this promise. He says, “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen [on the principle] of faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Gal. 3:8). Abraham did not, and could not foresee the far-reaching effect of the principle of faith on which he acted in answering to the call of God, but God foresaw that it was the one way of blessing for all the families of the earth. So now none but God can foresee the far-reaching effect in blessing for others that may result when we, in simple and wholehearted faith, answer to the call of God.
The Hindrance to Answering the Call of God
We have seen the blessed promises that are connected with the call of God, and we shall learn how faith responds to the call. First, however, in this deeply instructive history, we are permitted to see how often the man of faith may be hindered for a time from answering to the call.
From Stephen’s address, recorded in Acts 7, we learn that the call came to Abraham, “when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran.” In answering to this call he was hindered by the ties of nature. The call came to Abraham, but nature apparently can at times profess great zeal in answering the call, and even take the lead, for we read, “Terah took Abram...and went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan.” Man in his natural state may attempt to tread the path of faith, and, at the start, do the right thing with the best of intentions. But in its self-confidence nature always undertakes to do more than it has the power to accomplish. Thus it came to pass that while Terah left Ur “to go to the land of Canaan,” he never reached the land. Nature stopped halfway at Haran, and there he dwelt to the day of his death.
But what of Abraham, the man of God? For a time he allowed himself to be hindered from fully obeying the call of God. It was not simply that his father was with him; he allowed himself to be led by his father, as we read, “Terah took Abram.” The result being that he stopped short of the land to which he was called. So we read, in Stephen’s address, he came “out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land.”
How many of us have been hindered for a time from taking the separate path, consistent with the call of God, by some beloved relative. The call reaches the believer; he acknowledges the truth, but delays to answer it because some near relative is not prepared for the outside place.
The soul clings to the hope that by waiting a little the relative will be brought to see the call, and then both can act together. Faith, however, cannot lift nature up to its own level, though, alas, nature can drag down and hinder the man of faith. Many pleas can be raised to excuse this halfway halt, but in reality it is putting the claims of nature above the call of God. Then, as in Abraham’s history, God may have to roll death into the family circle and remove the one that we allowed to hinder us in obeying God’s call. Thus it was not until his father was dead that Abraham fully answered to the call of God.
To walk with God! O fellowship Divine!
Man’s highest state on earth—Lord, be it mine!
With Thee may I a close communion hold,
To Thee the deep recesses of my heart unfold.
Yes, tell Thee all—each weary care and grief
Into Thy bosom pour, till there I find relief.
Oh! let me walk with Thee, Thou Mighty One!
Lean on Thine arm, and trust Thy love alone.
My every comfort at Thy hand receive,
My every talent to Thy glory give.
Thy counsel seek in every trying hour,
In all my weakness trust Thy mighty power.
Oh! may this high companionship be mine,
And all my life by its reflection shine.
My great, my wise, my never-failing Friend,
Whose love no change can know, no turn, no end!