Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Image by Tracy Lundgren

Do you journal? If you don't you probably should. It is impossible to keep up with all the ways that God moves in your life unless you write them down. In my own practice, I try to sum up the major points of the day into a small, single page. Flipping through the journal shows me how I thought about a particular problem. Something that seemed absolutely *dominating* at the time, upon flipping through it, was only relevant for a couple weeks. It started, resolved, and now I've moved on. Some problems seemed to be the theme of life for a year or two, but again, those things resolved firmly and are behind me. It didn't seem like that at the time, though. 

The Bible, and our passage here before us, is like decades worth of journal entries summarized in a line or two. As we will see, vast stretches of time were spent between chapters, or even between sentences! Because you can read Abraham's life from start to finish in thirty minutes or so, we lose that sense of daily obedience that Abraham offers when it seems like nothing is happening. The majority of journal entries for me start with "Today was a long day," which once you've flipped through ten or fifteen straight pages of that, can feel discouraging. But looking back on the course of years, one can see what the Lord was doing all that time. That is what we are going to see with Abram. God is working in his life, but that does not mean that Abram sits back and does nothing. As we will see, in our single point today, God's authority and control does not eliminate your responsibility to obey.

God's authority and control does not eliminate your responsibility to obey.

We left off last time looking at the incredible promises that God makes to Abram of a land, seed, and a blessing. He is going to have a place for his descendants to call home, there are going to be descendants in the first place, and there is going to be divine blessing that will flow from them to the nations of the world! Crazy good stuff! 

However, though those things are promised by the grace of God *before* Abram takes the first step, he still needs to listen to God and leave his country, clan, and father's house. This isn't Abram believing God AND adding works to his faith. Abram's faith is being displayed by his works (John Redd, 137). Abram doesn't earn those promises by doing these things, but the doing of these things truly demonstrates that he believes God is going to do what He said He will. That's faith! This faith isn't also some one time deal. Calvin comments, "It is however certain, that in this place the obedience of faith is commended, and not as one act simply, but as a constant and perpetual course of life." (350) In other words, Abram didn't make a decision at a camp meeting, wander out a ways away from his home, and then go back to Ur. No, Abram started a journey of long obedience in the same direction, to borrow from a book title. Long obedience in the same direction. What does this mean? 

Let's take a look at how long obedience translates into a travel itinerary for Abram. We through out all of these strange city names like Ur, Haran, and Shechem, but what does that mean? Well, the first leg of Abram's journey from Ur to Haran is about 600 miles! That's *walking.* And let's even judge Abram as hard as we possibly can and say that Haran was like Ur, so the last leg of the journey is all that counts (I don't think that is the case, but let's say that it is!). From Haran to Shechem is another 430 miles! That's like from here to Lexington, Kentucky! Assuming that Abram kept a brisk pace of 20 miles per day everyday, that is around three weeks on just the last leg of the journey. Plus you have camp to set up and animals to feed as you go along.

Can you imagine slogging along for weeks, possibly months, each day wondering, "Ok, is *this* the land of promise? Exactly how far am I supposed to walk, here?" It is one thing when you know exactly where the destination is, but God hasn't even told him specifically how far he was supposed to go! Wouldn't that be maddening? Isn't that maddening? Is that not how our lives are lived? 

God tells us in His word to go. And we go. Doesn't the journey feel long sometimes? Each day you wonder, "Is this part of the journey over yet?" And each day, the stakes get pulled up, and off to another day's walk. 

Then there are unexpected issues along the way, aren't there? The day finally comes for Abram when he arrives in Shechem, a place that is going to come up a time or two later in the Old Testament. It is here that Abram reaches the promised land, and lo and behold, there are people already there! I bet when Abram reached this spot he said to himself, "Well, at least I know that this isn't the land! Look at all these people already in it." But no, here is the place that God is going to give to his descendants. What? There's a surprise! 

God reiterates his promise to Abram that this is indeed the land He will give to Abram's descendants. Calvin notices something here in these verses. He points out that from a human perspective, this is almost an insult (353)! Abram could look at God and say, "What land? This land? The one that is full of other people! How am I supposed to clear this out, and while we are talking, what descendant? I've walked a thousand miles at this point from Ur! It's been months! Where is even one child?" If we didn't know better, we say that this has all been an elaborate tease! But with God it is not. God's bare word is enough (Calvin, 353). It is not because of what is said but Who is saying it. Yes, if I promise you a land and a child, that doesn't mean much. I can't actually give you those things, but God can. 

So why does He do it this way? Why does God insist on such delays and impossible circumstances? God wants to show us Himself. And the way that God presents Himself is not the way that we present things. If you want to show your house for sale, you light it better than it ever could be, clean it like it has never been cleaned before, and stage the furniture in impractical ways to make sure that it photographs well. 

That isn't the right metaphor. God tends to present Himself like a car crash safety test footage. have you ever watched those? They take this perfectly nice car, and then they sling it as hard as they can into a wall or a barrier. They stick crash test dummies in there to show how safe the car is for the people inside. For the cars that do well in this test, you tend to see them put up on tv. It's nerve wracking watching it race for the wall, but then amazing when they keep everyone safe. In that instance, you want to show people the car conquering anything life can throw at it. 

But in the end, you have to get into the car. 

That's where, if you'll excuse the extended metaphor, the rubber meets the road. Abram gets into the car, and it hurtles towards the wall. But as we will see, the Lord works through it all. Abram stays the course. He keeps on the road God is taking him. And that isn't an easy journey. 

I'm sure Abram thought about going back the further and further away God took him from everything He knew. Every day was a decision to keep walking because He trusted what God said. 

Do you? I bet Abram had to remind himself of God's promises everyday. Do you? If you don't, that may be why you are discouraged this morning. It is hard to walk a long way and not know why. That feels pointless, doesn't it? But if you know what you are walking towards, then the journey is still long, but it means something. 

So what made Abram different? 

Abram didn't set out to the promised land and sneak up on God. He didn't climb the mountain and God say, "Well, look who found me!" God chose Abram as His own. We will see this again with Jacob later on. Neither Esau nor Jacob are particularly nice, Christian people at the start. Yet God calls the "trickster" to be His. Why? Because He wanted to.

When told to "go" in chapter 11, what did they do? They built a tower! No one wanted to follow after God. Behold! All they like sheep have gone astray! With Abram, however, God called, and he answered. It works the same way with us and our salvation, too, by the way. God doesn't just drag people into heaven whether they want to go there or not. No one is going to heaven kicking and screaming, and likewise no one is pounding at the gate, genuinely wanting a relationship with Jesus who is going to be shut out. John 6:37 puts this together perfectly. The second half of the verse says "whoever comes to me I will never cast out," and yet we see the first half of the verse tells us how that is: "All that the Father gives me will come to me, AND whoever comes to me I will never cast out." If you are coming to Jesus, it is because the Father has given you to Him, and because the Father has given you to Him, Jesus will NEVER cast away a gift from the Father. 

Now, because people will go there, folks try to predict who is elect or not based on what they are doing right now. Quit betting against God like that. That is a bad bet. Look at Jonah. God has ways of getting it done. Look at Paul. Come on. He can handle your atheistic uncle. 

As Jonah teaches us, God can get you where He wants you to be. But not even that gets you out of following what God says. You still gotta do it. Jonah still needed to go to Nineveh in the end. And you still need to obey. Is God the one empowering that obedience? Yes. Are you still responsible to do it? Also yes. How does that work? I don't know. Abram still took every step on that road. God didn't teleport him Star Trek style into Shechem. And He doesn't do the same for us either. We live out that salvation here on earth with all of the hard situations and tests of faith. Our works don't create faith, but faith does create our works. 

And what does Abram do while he walks and waits? He worships. He builds an altar and calls on the name of the Lord. This can mean worship, or it can mean proclaiming God's word to people. Calvin happens to think it is both (354). Worship like that is a bold move. Here he is setting up an altar in the midst of a pagan people! It would be like starting a church in Mecca and putting a cross on your building. That's some witnessing, right there! Perhaps that's why he has to keep moving! But all of that hardship was to point Abram up. If he was greeted with ease in the land, perhaps he would just be satisfied with that. God keeps moving him, because ultimately, his home isn't here. It is in heaven. It is with God. 

That is what Jesus promises us. He doesn't promise ease, material wealth, or even the idea that life is going to make sense all of the time. What He does promise us is Himself. And He has shown us the ultimate test of His love for us in that while we were still sinners He died for us. We have not only heard God's Word, but we have beheld God's Word in the flesh. The ultimate revelation of Himself, the ultimate test of God's trustworthiness is in His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Do you trust Him? Do you show that through your obedience? That's really our takeaway from this. Yes, God is absolutely gracious and sovereign who pulls the most unlikely people towards Himself, but that doesn't negate your responsibility to trust Him, to follow Him. Abram wasn't going to get to the promised land by deciding Egypt was better (which we will see after Easter). But as we will see even there, God's hand guiding us through every step that He empowers us to take.