18 Jul Journey into the unknown

Genesis 12:1-9

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Prayer

I am so grateful to be able to do this again with my brother, Josh. The more we do this tandem preaching, the more I treasure our friendship and how privileged I am to do this with my best friend. Although we had a little disagreement, when preparing this message, Josh said the best trilogy of all times is Lord of the Rings, but I have to respectfully disagree with that because I think the greatest trilogy is Star Wars, I mean we had the original trilogy and then they decided to add another trilogy and then another trilogy plus 2 movies in between. We now end up with the Star Wars saga and it is epic!

Anyway, if you are a big Star Wars fan or have watched it before, there is this one scene that I cannot forget. It is when Obi Wan Kenobi, the only “known” Jedi alive, was fighting against Darth Vader. I thought that Obi Wan would prevail again like he did against Anakin right, but no. Sadly, Obi Wan Kenobi was killed by Darth Vader. Although I know it could not be the end for the Jedi, but at that moment, I could not help but feel hopeless for the Jedi – that’s it Darth Vader and the dark force will reign, there is no hope for the Jedi. Have you ever felt something like that? Even in the split second,  you think this is it, there is nothing I can do, there is no hope for me. I think the older we are, the more we have moments like this in our lives.

For me, this happened 9 years ago. I broke up with my boyfriend at that time, who I thought I was going to marry. On top of that, because I spent so much time with my ex boyfriend,  I didn’t really have any friends left. I just finished my studies and had a very difficult time finding a full time job. And the cherry on top was I didn’t want to go back to Indonesia, but I didn’t know if I could stay in Sydney. So it was just one thing after another and there was nothing I could do, I felt like a failure and this was it, there was no hope for me. I questioned what even the point of life was, I felt lost. And God came to my rescue but that’s a story for another day.

But the point is whether we are christian or not, I think we can all agree there was one point in our lives that we felt hopeless. And that is the context of our passage today. Hopelessness filled the earth. In Genesis 8, God sent flood and wiped everyone on earth because they were so corrupt except for Noah and his family. So the whole earth depended on Noah and his descendants. They did multiply and fill the earth, but in Genesis 11, we see that because they thought they were awesome, they wanted to make a tower as high as the heavens and make a name for themselves. And because of that, God confused their language so now they were dispersed throughout the earth. And then Genesis 11 continued to highlight Shem’s descendant. If you don’t know Shem is one of Noah’s sons and through the line of Shem, God promised blessings. But if we read Shem’s descendants line, we don’t really feel there was hope. On the contrary, we feel hopeless. Why? Because firstly, we see that the life span was getting shorter and shorter, their lives were deteriorating. It started with Shem who lived 500 years, and then his son lived for 403 years and then it went to 209 years and so on. We are not spending too much time on this, but you get the gist of it. They lived shorter and shorter. In addition, Sarai, Abram’s wife, was barren. This is bad news, bad bad news. So not only their life span was getting shorter, now Abram and Sarai could not continue the  blood line, they could not produce life. And Genesis 11 ends with death – Abram’s father, Terah died. I hope we can see how hopeless that time was for Abram. But I think it is precisely because of the hopelessness, our passage from Genesis 12 shines even brighter because we see a glimpse of God’s heart for His people, we see a glimpse of His tender mercy and unfailing love. Even when there seems to be no hope, God acts and it changes everything. We are going to look at two things from this passage, the beginning and the journey.

1. The Beginning

Let’s read verse 1 – 3 again:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

If you grew up in Sunday school, I am sure Abram is not a foreign name, He is one of the most prominent figures in the bible, they even made a song about him:

Father Abraham had many sons

Many sons had Father Abraham

I am one of them and so are you

So let’s just praise the Lord

He is just so well known, they even called Abram the father of faith. But if we read these three short verses closely, we can see that the focus is not in Abram, but it is in God. Verse one starts with now the Lord said. If we go back a little bit to the end of Genesis 11, the passage ends with the death of Terah, Abram’s father and now after that God spoke to Abram. God made the first move. I think what makes Abram’s calling special is not because of how brave or how brilliant he was but what makes it special is God. God simply calls Abram out of nowhere. In addition to that, God says “I will” 5 times in these verses.

I will show you

I will make you

I will bless you

I will bless

I will curse

Really God is the active participant in this event and Abram is the passive one. Abram’s calling has everything to do with God and less about Abram. God calls and Abram obeys. And this is the reality for us, just as God called Abram thousand years ago, God is calling everyone single one of us right now. The question for us is would we obey God just as Abram did?

But to fully appreciate Abram’s obedience, we need to understand what this calling required him to do.  Before Abram could benefit from any of God’s promises, he must first sacrifice a number of things in his life, in fact the things that God asked of Abram was everything he ever knew. Abram needed to leave behind his “country” “kindred” and “father’s house”. Abram leaving his country, people and family behind would mean he was going to have to give up his security, identity and support. Isn’t this the picture of our christian life? The call of the gospel asks us to forsake everything, to leave everything behind and come follow God. We all have a different calling in life and what you are called to leave behind in your pursuit of God is going to be different from the person next to you.  Although you may not have to leave your country, kindred and father’s house behind like Abram, God may be asking you today to get rid of something that you hold dearly in your life that is preventing you from trusting Him. It could be something physical, emotional or spiritual. For example it could be deciding to break off that sinful relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend, forgiving the person who hurt you and reaching out to them, confessing to your pastors or leaders of the sin you’re struggling with or even putting away your idols so that you can put your faith wholly in Christ.  I can’t tell you what you need to get rid of as it is between you and God personally, but some of us tonight need a reality check. 

Friends, sometimes it feels like christian life is very restrictive, that we need to get rid of this and that. Yes, christian life is a life full of sacrifices, but it is also a life full of promises.  As we cling to God’s promises we know what we leave behind cannot be compared to the promise that God has for us. It is inherently more beautiful and better. So I pray that even when there seems to be no hope, we will look to God and His promises and we know that the sacrifices that we make are not for nothing, they are not meaningless, but it shows that we choose to trust God.

Let’s read verse 4.

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

I love how verse 4 starts with ‘so Abram went as the Lord had told him’. We have seen how God called Abram out of nowhere and asked him to leave everything that he knew to go to a place that God will show and Abram’s reaction to this is he went, he simply went. I don’t know about you, but my first reaction usually if something doesn’t make sense to me is to ask the question why, why me, why this, why can’t it be the other way. We want to know the reason, we want to know the details and I hope I am not alone in this place. So when I read this, I keep asking how Abram did it? How could he say yes to something so unknown? How could he trust God? And I think it boils down to one thing – faith. Abram’s faith in God moved his feet. Abram’s action is a mere reflection of his faith. He knew who God is and he trusted Him and His promises. Abram knew that when God promises, He will bring it to completion. Our next question will be how can Abram have such faith? I think the answer is not so much about Abram, but rather the object of Abram’s faith. When you know someone can be trusted, you are more inclined to trust that person right.

Let’s say I come to you and say hey give me $10,000 and we will invest in some crypto currency and trust me, we will double the money in 2 weeks time. You will probably say no thanks, you don’t even know how to explain crypto currency properly, I don’t have faith in you. But imagine, one of the founders of crypto currency now comes to you and says the same thing – give me your money. Chances are you will give your money to that person because you trust that they know what they are talking about and how to invest and grow the money. So you see, faith is not so much about our ability to trust but it has a lot to do with the object of our faith. When you think you can trust the object, you are willing to put it into action.

It is the same with your Christian faith. When you think God is not trustworthy and has no power to fulfil His promises, you will be reluctant to trust Him, let alone obey Him. But if you know who God is and what He has done for you, trusting Him will become easier and easier. Even when you think you can’t see what He is doing right now, you trust that God is wise and  He is working for your good so you obey and go where God asks you to go. I know it’s easier said than done and this definitely does not happen overnight. But as you walk faithfully with God and behold Him, you will learn to know Him more and trust Him more and more.

1. The Journey

Thank you Stacey! Now after seeing what the impact of God’s calling had on Abram’s life at the start of the journey, let’s see how it shapes Abram’s life throughout the journey.  Because starting strong is an awesome thing to accomplish, but our attitude along the journey is just as important.  Verse 5a says “⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan”.  I don’t know about you but this shows commitment.  What Abram did would’ve extinguished any doubt in the minds of people who may have questioned Abram’s faith and obedience to God’s calling.  I’ve seen people off at Sydney Airport too many times to be able to tell a difference whether someone is going for a holiday and coming back or whether they’re leaving for good.  Those leaving for good considerably have more suitcases, wear multiple layers to avoid extra baggage, bring all their electronics and even have large boxes with layers and layers of Sellotape.  It’s either that or I’m just describing an Indonesian tourist.  Abram was committed 100% to what God wants him to do.  He took his barren wife, all his possessions and all his followers.  He didn’t leave anything behind thinking “if God’s plan doesn’t work out, I’ll just come back”.  His heart was all in for God and there was no turning back.  But don’t get me wrong, the primary focus here is not about how committed you are with your possessions.  What’s important is to check whether we have a heart and attitude of obedience to trust in God’s promises within our daily lives.          

We also see that as Abram makes his journey to and around Canaan, his faith in and obedience to God remains steadfast.  Verses 5b to 9 says, “When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹ And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb”.  It’s no wonder that Christianity is often illustrated as a marathon race.  At the beginning of a race, all the runners are eager, fresh and will come out of the boom gate strong.  But in a marathon, what counts is the ability to keep pushing at 10km, 20km, 30km until you cross the finish line.  Abram may have excelled at the start of the journey, but as he approached Canaan, his faith was put to the test both physically and spiritually.  On the physical side, we read “At that time the Canaanites were in the land”.  This must’ve been very disheartening for Abram to witness as the land promised to him was already occupied.  The Canaanites were no primitive tribe either but were a people with an established culture, government, economy, religion and military.  Abram’s travelling party was no match for the Canaanites.  You know, one of the things I love about RSI sports day is wanting to know who’s on whose team! I always eagerly wait for Josh F to hit up our Whatsapp group with team allocations because right after that we always get a flurry of “OMG, we’re going to get whooped” “why do they have all the tall people” “they have all the fast people” or even “why do we have Ps Yosia on our team, he’s just going to get injured again”.  By default we’ll complain and grumble when we see the odds go against us.  This however isn’t exclusive to RSI sports day but applies to everything that happens in our lives. Abram would’ve also had to deal with a spiritual battle as he carried out God’s plan.  Having either stopped or passed by the “oak of Moreh”, the cities of “Sechem”, “Bethel” and “Ai” which are landmarks or sanctuaries to the pagan gods of the Canaanites.  He would’ve seen that the odds were increasingly stacked against him.  But do you know what Abram’s response to was when faced with these challenges?  It was to build altars.

When he was at the “oak of Moreh”, “he built there an altar to the Lord” and when “he moved to the hill country … with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east”, “he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord”.  In the midst of uncertainty, obstacles and spiritual darkness, Abram did what he only could do and that was to seek God.  This is a picture of a man who has put his faith in God.  He trusted God at the beginning and in the middle of the journey.  He didn’t build a city or a tower to make a name for himself like those in Babel, but an altar to exalt God’s name even more.  For many of us, 2021 is as equally painful as 2020.  You may have planned for a great year but you’re still separated from a loved one, still can’t find a job, still struggling financially or may have lost some loved ones this year.  We may have started strong at the beginning but now we just don’t know what to feel like any more.  No matter how best we try to navigate our lives, our circumstances seem to get the better of us every time.  But what the passage tells us is that like Abram, in the midst of our hopelessness we can also call upon the name of the Lord.  We are given a heart and attitude that can see the struggles we are going through as an opportunity to trust God even more.

But why can we trust God and continue to trust Him when the odds are increasingly stacked against us?  How can I be like Abram and sacrifice all that I know and all that I have for something that I don’t yet know and don’t yet have?  Well church, for starters the message tonight isn’t ‘10 steps to be like Abram’.  Rather it is to see that the main character of the story was not Abram at all, but God.  In fact from the beginning of the story we can see God’s hand at play in Abram’s life.  

It was God who first initiated the relationship with a lost Abram.  In Joshua 24:2, it says “‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham … served other gods”.  So not only was Abram’s wife Sarai barren, his family were pagan worshippers.  Had it not been for God’s sovereign grace to call out Abram, Abram would most likely be stuck in a dark and hopeless world.

It was God who sustained Abram.  When the Canaanites were before Abram, in verse 7 we read “the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land””.  God knew exactly where Abram was and it was at this spectacular moment that God “appeared to Abram”.  How amazing is that?  When Abram was confronted with the biggest obstacle, God was with him.

It was God who secured Abram’s future.  In verses 2-3, although God commands Abram to leave behind his “country” “kindred” and “father’s house”, God also promises Abram greater things in that he will be a “great nation”, “great name” and “blessing … to all the families of the earth”.  And as Stacey pointed out earlier with God saying “I will”, God is the active participant.  What this means is that while God gives the promises it is also God who will fulfil those promises.  

But why does Abram’s story matter to us today? Well let me tell you why.  Because what God did for and promised to Abram is just as applicable and true for us today.  What we read in tonight’s passage was only a snippet of the big picture that includes you and me.  Though Abram never got to witness the fulfilment of the promises, it was through his seed, his offspring Jesus, that the culminations of all the promises made to Abram were fulfilled and blessings went to all the families of the earth.  Paul affirms this beautifully in Galatians 3 “⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith … ¹⁴ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. … ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise”.  How awesome is that! Jesus who was born of Abram’s seed, who was part of Abram’s family tree, was the fulfilment of God’s promises.  Like Abram, Jesus was obedient and 100% committed to following what God, the Father, had called him to do.  He left behind everything and didn’t spare for himself any comfort or prestige.  No story will have a King willingly trade lives with a poor peasant in the slum part of town.  But in God’s story, Jesus left heaven and all its glory and majesty behind to come down to earth.  Although he was equal with God, Paul says Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”.  Jesus left behind his crown and royal title to become a humble servant born in poverty and in weakness.  But unlike Abram, who for his obedience received the fulfilment of what was promised to him, Jesus for his obedience reaped the most shameful death on the cross and experienced all of God’s wrath.  Why? So that you and I, a disobedient people, can also partake in what was promised to Abram.  We were the ones who deserved to be abandoned and eternally condemned for our disobedience, but Jesus who lived a life of perfect obedience, took our place so that we could be included in and inherit what is eternally promised.  This is the good news of the Gospel!  It is only because of Jesus’ finished work at the cross that everyone who puts their faith in him is guaranteed to become heirs to the promises given to Abram.  Church, it doesn’t matter who you are, what your resume says about you, how obedient you have been and how messed up your life is right now, the bible says it is only by your faith in Christ that you are blessed and made righteous just as Abram was.  Through Christ your name will be great, you will be part of a great nation and you will be blessed forever.  Knowing what Jesus has done for us enables us to live a life of obedience to God’s Word no matter our circumstances.  We can leave our old lives behind and put our faith in God because we know who He is and what He has done for us.  To Abram, he was always forward looking to the time when Jesus would come and fulfil the promises.  For us today, we can look back to Jesus’ complete work of redemption at the cross.  We can put our faith in Christ and live a life of obedience because we are secured in Christ and know what is set before us.     

Tonight we just want to close with this.  For it is because of what Jesus has done that we today are called out of the cycle of sin and are given a promise of righteousness.  It is because of what Jesus has done that we can have a relationship with the God of the universe who knows where we are, our condition and will never leave our side.  It is because of what Jesus has done that we are given the assurance of our inheritance in the age to come.  Church though we cannot see what our future holds on this earth, Jesus guarantees that he is with us.  What is unknown to us, is known to him.    Yes our race will be long and challenging, but we will finish the race.  If you are yet to put your faith in Christ, what is stopping you today?

Discussion questions:

1. What is your greatest fear or struggle to make “the journey into the unknown”?
2. “The call of the gospel asks us to forsake everything, to leave everything behind and come follow God.” Explain why we can’t hold on to what we have and follow God at the same time.
3. What enables Abram and us to trust God into the unknown?
4. Abram “built altars” in his walk with God. Give specific examples on how we can do the same in our lives.
5. How did we become heirs of Abraham and what does it mean for us?