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4. Small Beginnings



Genesis 12:1-7 
Key verse
The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your Father's household and go to the land I will show you."
Genesis 12:1

It is true that great things often come from small beginnings.  The dawn begins with a single ray of light in the eastern sky.  A rainstorm begins with that first few gentle drops.  Messiah would come in this way, not with huge fanfare, but with a small beginning.  When we think of small beginnings, we usually focus on a baby in Bethlehem, but we must begin with an even smaller and more remote beginning than that.

It began with one man being called away from the darkness of the life that Job knew.  A seventy-five years old man settled in his life was called out of his comfort zone and into an adventure.

Job had pleaded to know God.  Abram learned what it would mean to walk with the God of the universe.  I've heard it explained that Ur and Canaan are about as far apart as Philadelphia and Chicago.  If that is true, then Abram and God had plenty of time to begin a relationship.

Centuries later, Jesus would say to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."  (Luke 18:29-30)  Could Jesus have been thinking partly of Abram, who left all that he knew, everything familiar, to go, he knew not where?

Why would God ask Abram to leave his home?  Why would Jesus ask us to step out of our comfort zone?  Could it be to keep us from falling back in to what is comfortable?  Could it be to get us alone with Him so that we hear His voice and not the voice of our past and our traditions and our old way of thinking?  Certainly we see this lived out in Abram's life.  As Abram walked with God, he learned to recognize His voice.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "to your offspring I will give this land.  "So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.  (Genesis 12:7)  Abram's journey had begun.  The Lord kept His promises as Abram learned to trust.  So may it be for us.

Did Abram have a burning desire in his heart to get to know God?  Did he see the pagan worship around him for what it was; empty and meaningless?  How wonderful that God was willing to call Abram despite his age and despite his established roots!  How wonderful that Abram said, "yes," instead of, "I'm too old!  Send somebody else!"  Abram's obedience not only blessed Abram, but allowed God to set His plan in motion which, in time, would bless all of us.

Hymn:  "Our God of Abram Praise" 

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