Genesis 12:9 -
"And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb."
The story of Abram seems to begin pretty
abruptly. We see some biographical
details at the end of chapter 11. He is
Terah's son, married to Sarai, Lot's uncle, and hails from Ur of the
Chaldeans. Ur was an important Sumerian
city-state which was located in what is modern-day Iraq. We are given very little in the way of
biographical information. Over the next
few chapters, we begin to fill in the blanks about who Abram actually is -
liar, scoffer, quasi-adulterer, doubter.
He's also faithful to God to an extreme degree, nearly sacrificing his
son before God intervenes at the very last moment. This story, by the way, is LOADED with
meaning and depth.
There is not much that explains why God
would choose this person as opposed to any other person. And this is encouraging to me as it relates
to God's call on my life. Who am I that
God would call me? The answer: it's not
about me. It's about God. It wasn't about Abram or David or Noah or
Jacob either - it's about God. And
there's something in me that resists this truth. I want it to be about "great
people". I want heroes and
heroines. I want people occupying the
pedestal of "greatness". But
that's not how life works, really. Jesus
wasn't joking when he said that only God is good.
As I grow in faith and experience, the
more this makes sense to me and the more admirable it becomes when people
actually make morally courageous choices that require sacrifice. And it relieves me of the notion that people
that I admire are perfect. They are
not. As a minister, I find myself being
less and less surprised by the messiness of people's lives. I'm beginning to find it refreshing when
people are honest with themselves and with others about their struggles,
failures, and disappointments.
Self-righteousness is a complete fabrication and no one is more fooled
than the self-righteous themselves.
I'd like to think that Abram was not
self-righteous. We're not given much to
go on as far as his personality, but he strikes me as a fairly humble guy. My memory may be failing me on this point,
but I can't recall any instance where Abram used his call by God to his own
advantage. Abram strikes me as a
complicated individual, conflicted about what God is calling him to do,
faithful in fits and starts. He
journeyed on by stages indeed.
I've always loved that phrase, for some
reason. "And Abram journeyed on by
stages toward the Negeb." There's
something poetic about it, it seems cinematic to me. I imagine a vignette of Abram's travels, his
"stages", as he makes his way from Ur (on the Euphrates near what we
know as the Persian Gulf - a place that in Abram's day would have produced
abundant crops) to the Negeb (or Negev), a desert region south of
Jerusalem. From the riverside to the
desert. From home to a foreign land. From the known to the unknown. Yep, this sounds like a call from God.
My life, like yours I'd wager, has been a
journey by stages also. Not as dramatic
or important as Abram's, obviously, but one defined by God leading me to this
place and then to this place and then to this place and then to places that
seemed an awful lot like a desert. I never had to lie to a Pharaoh nor has God
promised me a child in my old age (at least not yet), but I've done my own
share of traveling and made my mistakes...and still making my mistakes. Thankfully, God is forgiving. As is my wife.
My call is nowhere near as daunting or
massive as God's covenant call of Abram - and for that I'm also thankful. But God calls us and we go on our own
journeys by stages. At each stage, God
is with us - teaching us, leading us, at times cleaning up after us, chastising
us and calling us to repentance. All the
while whispering, shouting, reminding - I have called you by name, you are
mine. So be it with me, God, so be it
with me.
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