A Life of Faith
Genesis 12:1-9
Message #1
Except for Chapters 1 and 2, the first 11 Chapters of Genesis record all the original failures of Mankind – one after another, after another.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, bringing the curse of sin into Mankind and the earth (Genesis 3). Mankind became so corrupt that God brought judgment on everyone but Noah and his family (Genesis 6). In less than two hundred years, Mankind again defied God when they built the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). (By the way, the Tower of Babel is the logo of the European Union. And there is a statue of Ba’al and Ashtaroth, the primary pagan gods that Israel dealt with in all of the Old Testament, at the EU.)
And by the time of Abraham, Mankind was again engulfed in sin, perversion, idolatry, and superstition. Imaginary gods ruled their lives, and they did all kinds of things to appease their false gods.
God could have rightly judged all of humanity – again. But instead of judging the world again, God began a plan to redeem the world from sin. God started his plan to redeem the world with one man and his wife – Abraham and Sarah (originally known as Abram and Sarai). And because of God’s call and their obedient faith, Abraham and Sarah ultimately gave the world the Nation of Israel and the Savior of the world, Jesus. You and I are going to Heaven if we put our faith in Jesus Christ because of a plan God started in Genesis 3 and put into motion in Genesis 12 with one man and his wife, Abraham, and Sarah.
The most important point (M.I.P) of the life of Abraham is the life of faith. Abraham is called “The Father of The Faith,” and through Abraham’s life, we can learn some awesome lessons about how we can live a life of faith through our successes and our failures.
Abraham lived a life of faith.
Abraham was saved by faith, Genesis 15:6 says.
Abraham lived by faith, Hebrews 11:8 says.
Abraham’s obedience was the evidence of his faith, James 2:21 says. (We call this “faithful obedience” because it is obedience by faith.)
And one of the greatest things about the Life of Abraham (that you are going to love) is how brutally honest the Bible is about Abraham and Sarah’s mistakes and failures. Abraham and Sarah made some huge mistakes, and we see God refining them through their mistakes, but in the big picture, their lives were characterized by their faith in God. It’s a life of real faith, but it’s not perfect faith. It’s not perfect, but it’s persevering faith. When Abraham and Sarah acted contrary to FAITH in God, they brought very real consequences into their lives. But even in their mistakes, God was always faithful to them, and God always worked within their mistakes to accomplish his plan and purpose for them.
And you might say that too. When we act contrary to faith, we experience the circumstances, but even in us experiencing those circumstances, God is at work within the whole process for the end goal. So, we can have faith that God is at work at all times, even when we stumble or fall.
That is one of my favorite lessons in the life of Abraham. Here’s why. It’s because the Christian life is a life of new beginnings.
If we will commit to live a life of faith, there will be no test that is impossible, and there will be no failure that is permanent. The only permanent failure is turning away from that life of faith.
So, let’s meet the Father of the Faith. Abraham lived around 200 BC in UR of the Chaldeans. We know this area as Mesopotamia, or Babylon, in what is present-day Iraq. The largest military embassy in the world, with seven thousand active troops and fully self-contained, is outside of Bagdad, twenty-five miles from the original Babylon. (If you read Revelation and you wonder why the United States has the largest military embassy in the world, twenty-five miles from Babylon, connect the dots.)
The area is called the “Cradle of Civilization,” and most believe it is the general area of the Garden of Eden. The people of this entire area worshipped a hundred different mythical gods, but their top god was the Moon-god. So, Abraham and his family were serious pagan Moon-god worshippers.
But God showed up in Abraham’s life for a massive, eternal reason. And when he did, Abraham faced a massive “crisis of belief” that required faith and action in response.
Acts 7:2 (NLT)
2 . . . Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.
When Abraham encountered the Lord, he knew that God was real. He knew that God was the real God, and he was nothing like the pagan idols of his own culture. And in response, when God showed up in Abraham’s life, Abraham’s life of true faith began.
Genesis 12:1 (NLT)
1 The Lord had said to Abram (that’s Abraham), “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.
Notice God’s call to Abraham had very clear specific on what he was to leave, but absolutely no specifics on where he was to go. The One True God of Heaven showed up and called Abraham to make a radical adjustment in his life to follow God – completely by faith.
When God calls us, we have the opportunity to make an adjustment in our lives in order to join God in what he is calling us to join him in. And if we do it, then God will show up, and he’ll show us what he has for us. If we don’t, he won’t.
There is actually a conditional thing here. The covenant with Abraham ultimately becomes unconditional, but here Abraham had to respond by faith. He had to go. He had to make a radical adjustment in his life.
All Abraham had was God’s promise that God was going to use Abraham in a big way. He had no plan. He had no map. He had no vision. He had no “anything.” Just go. And God gives him the promises, but not the specifics.
Genesis 12:2–3 (NLT)
2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous (make your name great), and you will be a blessing to others.
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
These are the incredible original promises of God to the Father of the Faith. God did not give Abraham explanations. God simply gave him promises.
“I will show you … I will make of you … I will bless you … I will bless those who bless you.”
And these are the promises that eventually made a way for you and I to spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord. But Abraham still had to act on his faith. He still had to leave everything that he relied on in his life, and Abraham had to begin a one-hundred-year life of faith walking with God.
And there was one of these promises that especially troubled Abraham and Sarah. That was God’s promise that he would make Abraham into a great nation since Genesis 11, verse 30 says,
Genesis 11:30 (NLT)
30 But Sarai (Sarah) was unable to become pregnant and had no children.
So that promise was an especially hard one for Abraham and Sarah to “live by faith” in. And Abraham stumbled, and he fell, and he got distracted, and he got discouraged, and he made some huge mistakes. But when God showed up and when God called Abraham, Abraham made an unchanging commitment to live the rest of his life by faith in God.
Not perfectly – but with perseverance!
And Abraham’s life of faith started with an act of obedience. In verse 1, God said, “Go.” So, Abraham went.
A life of faith always starts with obedience. Our first obedient response is to leave something because there is always something usually standing in the way. And so, repentance means to turn and go the other direction. And so, when God shows up in our lives and calls us, his first command is “Repent. Leave something.” There’s something in your life you have to leave.
Genesis 12:4(a) (NLT)
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed . . .
A life of faith always demands adjustments in our lives. Sometimes extreme adjustments. A life of faith is not a compartment of our lives. It’s not like we say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to go to Heaven. Can you say those words again so I can repeat them?” And then we just go back to living our life. That’s not the life of faith. The life of faith is living the life of faith. It’s following God. It’s following after God.
We obey by faith – which always requires adjustments in our lives. And the more we see what God is doing, and he shows us (your Word is a lamp unto my feet) just the next step. When we take that step, he shows us the next step. And eventually, we are face-to-face with him in Heaven, and we say, “Wow! That was quite a journey.” It’s one step at a time by faith because God only shows you one step at a time by faith. On this journey, we can see more of what God is doing in and through our lives AS we continue to live a life of faith in him.
Faith is not an understanding of logic in our mind. Faith is not an intellectual thing. That’s not faith. Faith is not understanding God by logic. You can’t understand God. Faith is not logic. Faith is not mental assent.
Faith is a determination in our heart to obey God without all the facts, without seeing where God is taking us, without knowing. That’s faith. It’s a determination in our heart to obey God and to live our lives by faith in God.
And so far (after three-and-a-half verses), Abraham is an absolute hero. God revealed himself to Abraham and told him to leave, and Abraham went. But, in verses 4(b)-5, Abraham (already) experiences his first delay and first distraction.
Have you ever felt delayed in answering God’s call or delayed in getting to where God has called you?
Genesis 12:4-5(a) (NLT)
4 So Abram (Abraham) departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (Haran – Not UR)
5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan . . .
Remember the “leave your family” part? Lot was his nephew and was orphaned, and Lot probably looked at Abraham as a father figure. Abraham might have considered him an heir because he couldn’t have children (there are all kinds of reasons people come up with), but Lot went with him.
Remember, Acts 7, verse 2 said,
Acts 7:2 (NLT)
2 . . . Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia (that’s UR) BEFORE he settled in Haran.
God had called Abraham out of UR of the Chaldeans, not Haran. Why is he in Haran? Because he started out and then he got distracted, he got delayed. He got held up. Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened to me. It’s where you really believe God is doing something, and so you start out, and then all of a sudden, God’s calling you to Canaan, and you end up in Haran. And you’re going to see how far away that is.
So, it seems like what we’re seeing is kind of a “false start” in Abraham’s walk of faith.
Reading the end of Genesis Chapter 11 helps explain it. Most agree that what we are seeing in Genesis 11:31-32 is Abraham taking his father and nephew (Lot) with him as he headed for Canaan.
Genesis 11:31–32 (NLT)
31 One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there.
Have you ever felt like you were headed to the Promised Land but got stopped in Haran? Abraham obeyed God by faith and left UR. But he took his father Terah with him, and he took his nephew Lot with him, and both of those decisions were going to cost Abraham.
That’s our first lesson in our life of faith. When God calls you, it’s so easy to be in a situation (like at retreat) where you say, “God, I’m going to give you everything. I’m going to walk away from that. I’m going to stop this and that.” And then you get home and go right back to your old life. You get hung up. God has called you to Canaan, but something has sidelined you and distracted you. Something has de-railed you in Haran.
When the family got to Haran, dad (Terah) wanted to stay, possibly because Haran was the second biggest worship center for the Moon-god that Terah worshiped back in UR. But also, possibly because Haran was a large commercial center.
Either way, this was at least a five-year delay in Abraham’s obedience to God’s call, but we can relate to getting sidetracked in God’s calling on our lives, can’t we? I certainly got sidetracked. After God told me when I was nineteen on the day I got saved that I was going to be a pastor, I never let up on my commitment to God after that day, but it took me a long time to accept the pastor part – way too long.
But isn’t it good that God patiently waited while Abraham got sidetracked in Haran on his way to where God truly had for him, and isn’t it good to know that God will patiently wait for us if we get sidetracked on our way to where God has truly prepared for us?
If you have been sidetracked on your way to what and where God truly has for you, God will meet you where you’re at, he will prepare you, and he will grow your faith there. And if you are living a life of faith, God will get you to where and what he has for you.
And, by the way, it seems clear in verse 4 that God did prepare Abraham for what he would need provision-wise while he was in Haran.
If God calls you to go to Canaan, go to Canaan. Don’t stop in Haran. You don’t know where Haran is, and there is no reason to go there. Haran is halfway. It’s halfway between where God called Abraham to go and where he ended up.
But the real point here is to keep living a life of faith even if it feels like you are on pause, and God will get you to exactly where and what he has planned for you. God is so much more faithful than we are. He will not give up on you. God will refine you in your Haran; he will meet you there and prepare you to get you to where he wants you to go.
What we learn from Abraham is that it’s not making every decision “right,” it’s being faithful in every decision, even if your decision is wrong. It’s having a life that is characterized by faith. It’s having a deep enough faith to never turn away from God no matter what things look like or even what mistakes you’ve made. That’s what we learn from Abraham.
So, after Abraham’s first sidetrack delay in Haran, we pick it up in Genesis 12, verse 5.
Genesis 12:5(b)–6 (NLT)
5 . . . When they arrived in Canaan,
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
It’s hard to get an accurate mileage estimate from UR to Shechem with the five-year stop at Haran, but it’s at least 1400 miles, maybe more. Let me put a map up to give you an idea.
And when Abraham and his clan arrived in Canaan, they were strangers and pilgrims in another pagan culture. But they were there. After 1400 plus miles and after at least six plus years, they finally were where God called them to be.
The point is Abraham gets there. And you have to get to where and what God has for you. You have to get there. The goal is not perfect decisions. The goal is getting to where God made you to be and becoming who God made you to be.
Centuries later, God would give that land to Abraham’s descendants. But right now, Abraham is living a life in Canaan completely by faith in God’s promises. This journey of faith had already involved tests, temptations, challenges, and difficulties, but he was there.
Get to where God is calling you, and God will speak to you.
Abraham was where God called him to be, and there God spoke to him.
Genesis 12:7 (NLT)
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
When you are living a life of faith, and when you get to where God is calling you, you can be assured that God is going to accomplish his plans and his purposes for you there, and you can begin to worship God there in confident faith.
Warren Weirsbe says as Abraham moved through the Land of Canaan, his life was marked by a tent and an altar.
Warren Weirsbe
The tent marked him as a “stranger and pilgrim” who did not belong to this world, and the altar marked him as a citizen of Heaven who worshiped the true and living God . . . and whenever Abraham abandoned his Tent and his Altar, he got into trouble.
And when we forget we are strangers and pilgrims in this land, and when we forget we are citizens of Heaven meant to worship God, that’s when we get into trouble.
Genesis 12:8 (NLT)
8 After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord.
Bethel means “House of God.” AI means “Ruin.” So as Abraham began living his life of faith, it was with the House of God on one side and the House of Ruin on the other side. And that is exactly where we find ourselves in our “Life of Faith” with God. When we start walking with God, we have the House of God on one side and the House of Ruin on the other side.
And every decision we make is toward one side or the other. So, we make a faith decision for God, and we move toward the House of God. We make a non-faith (fleshly) decision, and we move toward the House of Ruin.
And this is where God has Abraham, right in the middle between the House of God and the House of Ruin. Abraham will make some awesome moves toward the House of God, and Abraham will make some painful moves toward the House of Ruin.
Genesis 12:9 (NLT)
9 Then Abram continued traveling south by stages toward the Negev.
Abraham’s arrival in the place God called him to be is just the beginning. Abraham will face many tests and trials, and God will grow his “life of faith.” Abraham can be sure the same God that brought him out of UR and into the Promised Land will absolutely bring him through his tests and trials there.
And the same God will do the same thing – for us! If we’ll make the hard decisions, adjust our lives, and end up where God has called us to be, then we can be assured that God will provide and that God will lead, guide, and protect us because we are where he has called us to be.
The same God that did it for Abraham will do it for us if we continue to live a “life of faith” in him.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, bringing the curse of sin into Mankind and the earth (Genesis 3). Mankind became so corrupt that God brought judgment on everyone but Noah and his family (Genesis 6). In less than two hundred years, Mankind again defied God when they built the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). (By the way, the Tower of Babel is the logo of the European Union. And there is a statue of Ba’al and Ashtaroth, the primary pagan gods that Israel dealt with in all of the Old Testament, at the EU.)
And by the time of Abraham, Mankind was again engulfed in sin, perversion, idolatry, and superstition. Imaginary gods ruled their lives, and they did all kinds of things to appease their false gods.
God could have rightly judged all of humanity – again. But instead of judging the world again, God began a plan to redeem the world from sin. God started his plan to redeem the world with one man and his wife – Abraham and Sarah (originally known as Abram and Sarai). And because of God’s call and their obedient faith, Abraham and Sarah ultimately gave the world the Nation of Israel and the Savior of the world, Jesus. You and I are going to Heaven if we put our faith in Jesus Christ because of a plan God started in Genesis 3 and put into motion in Genesis 12 with one man and his wife, Abraham, and Sarah.
The most important point (M.I.P) of the life of Abraham is the life of faith. Abraham is called “The Father of The Faith,” and through Abraham’s life, we can learn some awesome lessons about how we can live a life of faith through our successes and our failures.
Abraham lived a life of faith.
Abraham was saved by faith, Genesis 15:6 says.
Abraham lived by faith, Hebrews 11:8 says.
Abraham’s obedience was the evidence of his faith, James 2:21 says. (We call this “faithful obedience” because it is obedience by faith.)
And one of the greatest things about the Life of Abraham (that you are going to love) is how brutally honest the Bible is about Abraham and Sarah’s mistakes and failures. Abraham and Sarah made some huge mistakes, and we see God refining them through their mistakes, but in the big picture, their lives were characterized by their faith in God. It’s a life of real faith, but it’s not perfect faith. It’s not perfect, but it’s persevering faith. When Abraham and Sarah acted contrary to FAITH in God, they brought very real consequences into their lives. But even in their mistakes, God was always faithful to them, and God always worked within their mistakes to accomplish his plan and purpose for them.
And you might say that too. When we act contrary to faith, we experience the circumstances, but even in us experiencing those circumstances, God is at work within the whole process for the end goal. So, we can have faith that God is at work at all times, even when we stumble or fall.
That is one of my favorite lessons in the life of Abraham. Here’s why. It’s because the Christian life is a life of new beginnings.
If we will commit to live a life of faith, there will be no test that is impossible, and there will be no failure that is permanent. The only permanent failure is turning away from that life of faith.
So, let’s meet the Father of the Faith. Abraham lived around 200 BC in UR of the Chaldeans. We know this area as Mesopotamia, or Babylon, in what is present-day Iraq. The largest military embassy in the world, with seven thousand active troops and fully self-contained, is outside of Bagdad, twenty-five miles from the original Babylon. (If you read Revelation and you wonder why the United States has the largest military embassy in the world, twenty-five miles from Babylon, connect the dots.)
The area is called the “Cradle of Civilization,” and most believe it is the general area of the Garden of Eden. The people of this entire area worshipped a hundred different mythical gods, but their top god was the Moon-god. So, Abraham and his family were serious pagan Moon-god worshippers.
But God showed up in Abraham’s life for a massive, eternal reason. And when he did, Abraham faced a massive “crisis of belief” that required faith and action in response.
Acts 7:2 (NLT)
2 . . . Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.
When Abraham encountered the Lord, he knew that God was real. He knew that God was the real God, and he was nothing like the pagan idols of his own culture. And in response, when God showed up in Abraham’s life, Abraham’s life of true faith began.
Genesis 12:1 (NLT)
1 The Lord had said to Abram (that’s Abraham), “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.
Notice God’s call to Abraham had very clear specific on what he was to leave, but absolutely no specifics on where he was to go. The One True God of Heaven showed up and called Abraham to make a radical adjustment in his life to follow God – completely by faith.
When God calls us, we have the opportunity to make an adjustment in our lives in order to join God in what he is calling us to join him in. And if we do it, then God will show up, and he’ll show us what he has for us. If we don’t, he won’t.
There is actually a conditional thing here. The covenant with Abraham ultimately becomes unconditional, but here Abraham had to respond by faith. He had to go. He had to make a radical adjustment in his life.
All Abraham had was God’s promise that God was going to use Abraham in a big way. He had no plan. He had no map. He had no vision. He had no “anything.” Just go. And God gives him the promises, but not the specifics.
Genesis 12:2–3 (NLT)
2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous (make your name great), and you will be a blessing to others.
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
These are the incredible original promises of God to the Father of the Faith. God did not give Abraham explanations. God simply gave him promises.
“I will show you … I will make of you … I will bless you … I will bless those who bless you.”
And these are the promises that eventually made a way for you and I to spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord. But Abraham still had to act on his faith. He still had to leave everything that he relied on in his life, and Abraham had to begin a one-hundred-year life of faith walking with God.
And there was one of these promises that especially troubled Abraham and Sarah. That was God’s promise that he would make Abraham into a great nation since Genesis 11, verse 30 says,
Genesis 11:30 (NLT)
30 But Sarai (Sarah) was unable to become pregnant and had no children.
So that promise was an especially hard one for Abraham and Sarah to “live by faith” in. And Abraham stumbled, and he fell, and he got distracted, and he got discouraged, and he made some huge mistakes. But when God showed up and when God called Abraham, Abraham made an unchanging commitment to live the rest of his life by faith in God.
Not perfectly – but with perseverance!
And Abraham’s life of faith started with an act of obedience. In verse 1, God said, “Go.” So, Abraham went.
A life of faith always starts with obedience. Our first obedient response is to leave something because there is always something usually standing in the way. And so, repentance means to turn and go the other direction. And so, when God shows up in our lives and calls us, his first command is “Repent. Leave something.” There’s something in your life you have to leave.
Genesis 12:4(a) (NLT)
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed . . .
A life of faith always demands adjustments in our lives. Sometimes extreme adjustments. A life of faith is not a compartment of our lives. It’s not like we say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to go to Heaven. Can you say those words again so I can repeat them?” And then we just go back to living our life. That’s not the life of faith. The life of faith is living the life of faith. It’s following God. It’s following after God.
We obey by faith – which always requires adjustments in our lives. And the more we see what God is doing, and he shows us (your Word is a lamp unto my feet) just the next step. When we take that step, he shows us the next step. And eventually, we are face-to-face with him in Heaven, and we say, “Wow! That was quite a journey.” It’s one step at a time by faith because God only shows you one step at a time by faith. On this journey, we can see more of what God is doing in and through our lives AS we continue to live a life of faith in him.
Faith is not an understanding of logic in our mind. Faith is not an intellectual thing. That’s not faith. Faith is not understanding God by logic. You can’t understand God. Faith is not logic. Faith is not mental assent.
Faith is a determination in our heart to obey God without all the facts, without seeing where God is taking us, without knowing. That’s faith. It’s a determination in our heart to obey God and to live our lives by faith in God.
And so far (after three-and-a-half verses), Abraham is an absolute hero. God revealed himself to Abraham and told him to leave, and Abraham went. But, in verses 4(b)-5, Abraham (already) experiences his first delay and first distraction.
Have you ever felt delayed in answering God’s call or delayed in getting to where God has called you?
Genesis 12:4-5(a) (NLT)
4 So Abram (Abraham) departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (Haran – Not UR)
5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan . . .
Remember the “leave your family” part? Lot was his nephew and was orphaned, and Lot probably looked at Abraham as a father figure. Abraham might have considered him an heir because he couldn’t have children (there are all kinds of reasons people come up with), but Lot went with him.
Remember, Acts 7, verse 2 said,
Acts 7:2 (NLT)
2 . . . Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia (that’s UR) BEFORE he settled in Haran.
God had called Abraham out of UR of the Chaldeans, not Haran. Why is he in Haran? Because he started out and then he got distracted, he got delayed. He got held up. Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened to me. It’s where you really believe God is doing something, and so you start out, and then all of a sudden, God’s calling you to Canaan, and you end up in Haran. And you’re going to see how far away that is.
So, it seems like what we’re seeing is kind of a “false start” in Abraham’s walk of faith.
Reading the end of Genesis Chapter 11 helps explain it. Most agree that what we are seeing in Genesis 11:31-32 is Abraham taking his father and nephew (Lot) with him as he headed for Canaan.
Genesis 11:31–32 (NLT)
31 One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child) and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there.
Have you ever felt like you were headed to the Promised Land but got stopped in Haran? Abraham obeyed God by faith and left UR. But he took his father Terah with him, and he took his nephew Lot with him, and both of those decisions were going to cost Abraham.
That’s our first lesson in our life of faith. When God calls you, it’s so easy to be in a situation (like at retreat) where you say, “God, I’m going to give you everything. I’m going to walk away from that. I’m going to stop this and that.” And then you get home and go right back to your old life. You get hung up. God has called you to Canaan, but something has sidelined you and distracted you. Something has de-railed you in Haran.
When the family got to Haran, dad (Terah) wanted to stay, possibly because Haran was the second biggest worship center for the Moon-god that Terah worshiped back in UR. But also, possibly because Haran was a large commercial center.
Either way, this was at least a five-year delay in Abraham’s obedience to God’s call, but we can relate to getting sidetracked in God’s calling on our lives, can’t we? I certainly got sidetracked. After God told me when I was nineteen on the day I got saved that I was going to be a pastor, I never let up on my commitment to God after that day, but it took me a long time to accept the pastor part – way too long.
But isn’t it good that God patiently waited while Abraham got sidetracked in Haran on his way to where God truly had for him, and isn’t it good to know that God will patiently wait for us if we get sidetracked on our way to where God has truly prepared for us?
If you have been sidetracked on your way to what and where God truly has for you, God will meet you where you’re at, he will prepare you, and he will grow your faith there. And if you are living a life of faith, God will get you to where and what he has for you.
And, by the way, it seems clear in verse 4 that God did prepare Abraham for what he would need provision-wise while he was in Haran.
If God calls you to go to Canaan, go to Canaan. Don’t stop in Haran. You don’t know where Haran is, and there is no reason to go there. Haran is halfway. It’s halfway between where God called Abraham to go and where he ended up.
But the real point here is to keep living a life of faith even if it feels like you are on pause, and God will get you to exactly where and what he has planned for you. God is so much more faithful than we are. He will not give up on you. God will refine you in your Haran; he will meet you there and prepare you to get you to where he wants you to go.
What we learn from Abraham is that it’s not making every decision “right,” it’s being faithful in every decision, even if your decision is wrong. It’s having a life that is characterized by faith. It’s having a deep enough faith to never turn away from God no matter what things look like or even what mistakes you’ve made. That’s what we learn from Abraham.
So, after Abraham’s first sidetrack delay in Haran, we pick it up in Genesis 12, verse 5.
Genesis 12:5(b)–6 (NLT)
5 . . . When they arrived in Canaan,
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
It’s hard to get an accurate mileage estimate from UR to Shechem with the five-year stop at Haran, but it’s at least 1400 miles, maybe more. Let me put a map up to give you an idea.
And when Abraham and his clan arrived in Canaan, they were strangers and pilgrims in another pagan culture. But they were there. After 1400 plus miles and after at least six plus years, they finally were where God called them to be.
The point is Abraham gets there. And you have to get to where and what God has for you. You have to get there. The goal is not perfect decisions. The goal is getting to where God made you to be and becoming who God made you to be.
Centuries later, God would give that land to Abraham’s descendants. But right now, Abraham is living a life in Canaan completely by faith in God’s promises. This journey of faith had already involved tests, temptations, challenges, and difficulties, but he was there.
Get to where God is calling you, and God will speak to you.
Abraham was where God called him to be, and there God spoke to him.
Genesis 12:7 (NLT)
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
When you are living a life of faith, and when you get to where God is calling you, you can be assured that God is going to accomplish his plans and his purposes for you there, and you can begin to worship God there in confident faith.
Warren Weirsbe says as Abraham moved through the Land of Canaan, his life was marked by a tent and an altar.
Warren Weirsbe
The tent marked him as a “stranger and pilgrim” who did not belong to this world, and the altar marked him as a citizen of Heaven who worshiped the true and living God . . . and whenever Abraham abandoned his Tent and his Altar, he got into trouble.
And when we forget we are strangers and pilgrims in this land, and when we forget we are citizens of Heaven meant to worship God, that’s when we get into trouble.
Genesis 12:8 (NLT)
8 After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord.
Bethel means “House of God.” AI means “Ruin.” So as Abraham began living his life of faith, it was with the House of God on one side and the House of Ruin on the other side. And that is exactly where we find ourselves in our “Life of Faith” with God. When we start walking with God, we have the House of God on one side and the House of Ruin on the other side.
And every decision we make is toward one side or the other. So, we make a faith decision for God, and we move toward the House of God. We make a non-faith (fleshly) decision, and we move toward the House of Ruin.
And this is where God has Abraham, right in the middle between the House of God and the House of Ruin. Abraham will make some awesome moves toward the House of God, and Abraham will make some painful moves toward the House of Ruin.
Genesis 12:9 (NLT)
9 Then Abram continued traveling south by stages toward the Negev.
Abraham’s arrival in the place God called him to be is just the beginning. Abraham will face many tests and trials, and God will grow his “life of faith.” Abraham can be sure the same God that brought him out of UR and into the Promised Land will absolutely bring him through his tests and trials there.
And the same God will do the same thing – for us! If we’ll make the hard decisions, adjust our lives, and end up where God has called us to be, then we can be assured that God will provide and that God will lead, guide, and protect us because we are where he has called us to be.
The same God that did it for Abraham will do it for us if we continue to live a “life of faith” in him.