One of my favorite professors in seminary asked us why God chose Abraham as the beginning point for creating a remnant. Obviously, it was a question we had never thought about because none of us had a good answer. The professor admitted that he didn’t know either but had an idea. He felt God chose Abraham because Abraham could coalesce seemingly opposite points of view harmoniously, even when that might lead to disappointment. In other words, God’s contradictory ways of communicating and acting weren’t contradictory to Abraham’s. For example, God could promise Abraham that he would be the father of nations and then ask him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham could still discern God’s voice and act on God’s will, whereas most of us would reject God’s voice because of our preconceived wishes and desires for how we want our lives to flow.
I have thought about this question frequently over the years. Another reason is that Abraham was willing to follow God into the unknown. When Abraham was living in Ur, God came to him and said, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name
great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed—Genesis 12:1-3, NASB, 1995.
How many of us would have been willing to leave our family and friends, home, and everything we’d ever known without knowing where we were going? God called Abraham to go but didn’t tell him where he was going!
When we have a crossroads before us, we often want all the answers. We say, “Okay, God, if you want me to go, give me all the details in advance. I will step out in faith if I have all the details.” But is that really faith? Faith is embracing the unknown and following God’s voice even when it doesn’t make sense, doesn’t fit my wishes and dreams, and even when it leads to heartache and disappointment. Most of us tend to avoid uncertainty; we fear the unknown. Abraham leaned into it. Why? Because he trusted God!
We live in a world that changes so rapidly that it makes us uncomfortable. Technology is catapulting us into the unknown. Life is changing; the church is changing. I hear many voices fighting against change, but could it be that change is part of God’s plan? Perhaps He is allowing the change to teach us to embrace change and to place our faith in Him. Could it be that, like Abraham, God is calling us
to go? To step out of our comfort zones, listen to His voice, embrace people, and share the truth of a God who loves them and is coming soon to take us to the promised land? Lean into that voice, embrace the unknown, and watch where God takes you!
