“It’s so comfortable here. It’s familiar territory. I wake up in the morning and I pretty well know how my day will unfold. Sure, there are always a few little snags and hiccups along the way, but basically my life is predictable and comfortable.” Maybe that’s how the middle-aged man in Ur of the Chaldees thought too. We like our little boxes. We look to our right and the wall stands tall. On our left the wall is securely standing. In front of us and behind there is a nice square erect wall. We look up and the lid is closed and below is a seeable bottom. Someone peers through the crack in the lid and says: “But you’re confined in there.” “Oh no”, you say – “I’m secure and safe.”
Abram’s life was very predictable in Ur. He was a well-to-do pagan in the city – established with his roots down deep. One day his tidy, boxed-in life was interrupted. God spoke to him and his life was never the same again. God told him to leave Ur and all that was familiar to him and to head out. “But head out for where, Lord? Do You or Dost Thou expect me to just get up and leave not knowing where I am going? Isn’t that a bit unrealistic to climb out of my box before there’s another box ready for me? Your plan is too fluid for me. I like tidy travel packages that our local Travel Store sells – bus tours or cruises to known destinations. I’m not really into open-ended traveling, never knowing from one morning to the next where I’ll end up.” That’s the way some of us reason – but definitely not Abram.
The interruption in Abram’s life is summarized in Genesis 12:1:
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.”
(Genesis 12:1)
“But Lord, doesn’t it seem natural for me to ask ‘where’ You’re going to take me before I start packing and making plans to go? Can’t You give me some details about my destination? Surely, it’s not an unreasonable request to see some pictures of the Land to which You’re taking me.” But Abram never talked like that to the Lord. Maybe he had some inner fears about the unknown; but every time those fears arose he would go back to the call of God and the ringing clarity of God’s message to him. Resting on the promise of God and trusting God to be a competent Travel Guide, Abram left everything behind. He headed out.
Hebrews 11:8 puts it this way:
to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.
And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
(Hebrews 11:8)
Abram didn’t have the foggiest idea where he was going. He just knew that God would take him there and that God had promised to bless Him. Abram believed God. He trusted God and Abram obeyed God. It’s called faith. Our tendency is to say: “Show me and I’ll go.” But the Lord says: “Trust Me and I’ll take you there.” God is pleased and honored when we are willing to just trust Him and obey. It says a lot about what we think of Him.