Abraham

1The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.^a

3I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”^b

4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring^c I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:1-7)

Thoughts: Abraham was not a king or a priest. Yet he had qualities of both.  Abraham migrated around 2100 BC from Ur of the Chaldees, a rich port city on the Persian Gulf.  Ur had running water and a sewer system.  It had an early system of writing and education.  Yet Abraham, with his father and nephew Lot felt God's call to go to Canaan.  Perhaps the people of Ur could not hear about Abraham's God because of their strong and traditional worship of the moon.  Some theorize that Akkadian rule disintegrated or that there was strife between the Arameans and the people who ruled in Ur as there seems to be a mass Aramean migration about this time.  Regardless, the only reason this "wandering Aramean"  (Dt. 26:5) is said to have moved in the Bible is because God called him to do so.  Perhaps, we might learn that secondary causes are not as important as the primary one?  In our increasingly secular culture, we give little credit to God for moving anyone at all- even through things like famine, drought, sickness, or job loss.
    Abraham is elected to be blessed by God and is called to be a blessing to all nations.  Today we can see this.  Abraham is the father of our faith, and his physical descendant is Jesus Christ who is the Savior of the world.  The name "Abraham" means "father of multitudes."  Abraham, perhaps is an illustration of the first missionary.  He is chosen (elected) to be blessed by God.  Then he is told he will be a blessing.  Then he is told to "go."  Actually, we could say he was elected then told to go first, then he was told to be a blessing.  Missionaries are not just the full time people who go overseas to help share and bring the gospel of God.  We all, who follow in the faith of Abraham- are elected (chosen), told to go (Mt. 28:19) and to be a blessing to the world around us.  God did not choose us simply to be blessed and be comfortable.  Maybe being a blessing means to share with those who come to you.  I know a lady who shares faith or invites to church almost everyone who comes into her shop.  That is a way to be a missionary and going without having to leave.  On the other hand, some of us are called to go somewhere.  Wherever we go- on a business trip, a vacation trip, or a mission trip we are called to be missionaries for God (and not pretend to leave our faith behind us).  Abraham, the father of our faith, the perhaps first chosen one (leaving Noah out), was called to go.  

Prayer: Let me continue in the way of Abraham, Lord.  Help me to learn from him and apply his example to my life.