He Went Out Not Knowing

He Went Out Not Knowing

Fourth after Trinity

Collect

O God, the protector of all who trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-9 (KJ21)

1 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 show thee.

2 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.

3 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.”

4 So 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.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” And there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

We had some good friends (the husband is now deceased) who were adventuresome travelers. They decided on a destination and then took whatever roads they wanted and whatever excursions they liked. They ate when they got hungry and stopped for the day when the were ready.

God called Abraham to take a trip - not even knowing the destination.

1. Call

1.1 Ur. Abram spent the first part of his life in a place called Ur which is 186 miles south of Baghdad in modern day Iraq. The family included Abram’s father, Terah, Abram’s wife, Sarai, and his nephew Lot whose father had died. As places in the ancient world go, Ur was not a bad place to live. It was a prominent and prosperous city located on the Euphrates River. It was part of an advanced civilization. It was also a center of worship of the moon god.

1.2. Call. It was while Abram lived there that God issued a challenging call.

Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.

1.3. Challenges. There were great challenges in that call.

• God called Abram to leave the country and civilization where he had been born, brought up, married, and established his early adult life. It was a challenge to give up what was familiar and comfortable. We have moved quite a few times, and there is a measure of culture shock as you leave what you know and adjust to what is familiar.

• God called Abraham to leave many of his family ties. When he first answered the call his father and his nephew accompanied him, though in time he would also be separated from them. But, even at first he left behind his extended family. We live in a mobile society in which expectations are different from what they have been through most of human history. It was would have been much more difficult for Abraham and his home country and family ties.

• The Lord called Abraham to go “unto a land that I will show thee.” The writer of Hebrews tells us the call meant Abram would go “not knowing whither he went.” Our first question to the Lord’s call would have been, “Now where am I going? What is my destination?” As soon as we got that information we would have entered the destination into a GPS system to see what our route would be. Then we would have begun making motel reservations for each night. We don’t like uncertainty or unpredictability.

1.4. Cost

The temptation to us might be to think, “Well, this was unique to Abraham, the patriarch, the father of the faithful.” But then we have to to take into the account our Lord’s call to his original followers. St. Mark records,

Now as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, “Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed Him. And when He had gone a little farther thence, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And straightway He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him (Mark 1:16-20).

Then we might think: Well that was for the first disciples all of whom would serve as Apostles. But there was a time when many people were following Jesus, and he turned to them said:

If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple... whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26-27,33).

Our Lord’s call to us all is to follow him as our Savior and Lord - to leave behind anything that keeps us from following him, and, then, following him, to place him above every other love and loyalty.

2. Promises

2.1. Promises

The Lord issued Abram a challenging call. But the Lord gave Abram stupendous promises that far oustripped the demands of the call. What God would do for Abram was far greater than what God asked of Abram.

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.”

The LORD promised Abraham he make of him a great nation and give him a great name. that he would treat people in accordance with how they treated Abram, and not only would  bless Abram, but make Abram a blessing so that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed.

2.2. Impediments. The promises were great, but they were not easy to believe.

• Abram was one man who was called to go to a land not even identified. Yet God would make his name great and make of him a great nation. Abram’s name might attain a somewhat greater reputation than it had at the time of his call, but how could he become a great nation?  How would you respond if God said that he was going to start with you, create a new people, and make those people a great nation? If such a thing could happen it would not happen in your lifetime. That’s what Abram faced - a great promise he could not live to see happen.

• At the time the Lord called Abram to go to a land he would show him, that land was occupied by other people. It was not a land that was waiting for Abram to claim and settle. The people there would not just move out and give the land to Abram. And, as it turned out, when Abram got to the land, which was Canaan, he lived a nomadic life, never owning any more land than a burial ground for his wife.

• If the promises were going to be fulfilled all hinged on Abram having a son who would inherit Abram’s name, have children of his own, and pass the promise on to future generations. But there was a great impediment. Abram and his lawful wife, Sarai, did not have even one. Sarai had never conceived, and it looked more and more as if she were unable to do so.

• So Abram could see all these impediments to God’s promises ever being fulfilled - he was one man, the land where he was going turned out to be occupied by other peoples, and he did not have son. He was one man with a barren wife.

2.3. God has made great promises to us - that Satan and sin will not prevail, yet there is so much evil in the world. The murder of 49 people last Saturday night had dominated the news all the past week. God has promised that Christ reigns now and will reign until he has placed all his enemies beneath his feet. But the world is filled with rebellion, and it is hard to see the evidence of Christ’s rule. God has promised that death will not have dominion over us, but still we lose our loved ones, and the days of our own deaths approach. For God’s promise to be fulfilled our bodies that are laid in graves and undergo decay will have to be raised to immortal life. In other words, God has called us for forsake all and follow Christ on the promise that God we will enjoy eternal blessedness in Christ.

God has made us great promises of salvation. They are real, substantial, and sure, but they are mostly unseen and future.

3. Response

How did Abram respond to the challenging call and stupendous promises?

3.1.  Went. Abraham went as the Lord called upon him to do. He moved first to a place called Haran, far north of Ur, which is in modern day Turkey. And then, when his father had died, he move on to Canaan which turned out to be that unknown land to which the Lord called him.

How is it that Abram obeyed? It was just that set his jaw, gritted his teeth and obeyed. The writer of Hebrews says that the key to his response was faith, or trust in the Lord.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should later receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

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. For he looked for a city

which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:8-10).

In a sense Abram said, “I do not know where I am going and I do not see how these promises are going to be fulfilled, but I do know the Lord. I believe him. I trust in him. So I will take him at his word and go where he leads me and believe what he has promised.

3.2. Worshiped. In addition to going when the Lord called him, as Abraham traveled he built altars and worshiped the Lord. For Abram’s faith was a living faith, expressed by his worshiping the Lord. In a sense everywhere he went he planted God’s flag and said, “This land is the Lord’s. He called me here. He promised to bless me here He is with me here. I believe in him and his promises, and I will worship him.

What Abram did we do every Sunday as we worship. We hear the Lord’s promises and see them sealed to us in the Sacrament. We acknowledge we are traveling toward a land of future blessedness. We identify ourselves as the Lord’s people. In worship we say, “We are the Lord’s people. We believe him hi and his promises. By faith we travel and by faith we will arrive in the heavenly Promised land.”