ABRAHAM : Journey of A Pilgrim

ABRAHAM : Journey of A Pilgrim

The Lord had said to Abraham ,

“Leave your country , your people and your fathers household and go to the land I will show you.

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.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;

And all people of the earth will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 11: 1 - 3

So Abraham left his hometown Haran as the Lord had told him. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took with him his wife Sarai and his nephew lot and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran and they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there.

At seventy-five years old, Abraham finds a new beginning, he is about to tread the journey of faith , the life of a pilgrim, At God’s call, Abraham left a civilization, his father’s gods and spent his life wandering in the wilderness trusting God completely.

Moving his flocks from place to place , fighting skirmishes and pitched battles with hostile local people, Abraham had to be strong to survive. But this hardly made him unique; lots of strong nomads wandered the MiddleEast. What made this particular wanderer so remarkable ?

Abraham was exceptionally remarkable first and foremost, because God chose him. Out of all the people of the many nations on earth, God called out Abraham by virtue of God’s sovereign election. Shortly after the devastation brought about by the Great Flood God picked Abraham as a foundation of a new nation who will walk in accordance to God’s will and ways., a nation to whom God will establish His covenant.

On several remarkable occasions God spoke directly to him, promising to make his family great in the land he wandered. The promises were hard to believe for an ordinary person, Abraham’s wife was barren and past the age of child-bearing, Abraham was getting too old to have children, he owned no land and had no prospect of any. Nevertheless Abraham put his faith in God. And God was greatly pleased by Abraham’s childlike faith.

Secondly, Abraham was remarkable because he is a man of great faith. When God spoke to him, Abraham listened. He believe every Word God spoke. He was far from perfection. There are times he strayed away from the path God placed him on, lying and trying to make promises work out in his own way, devicing schemes out of God’s will. Yet in the decisive moments of life, he listened to God and obeyed. He was willing to sacrifice anything for God – even his only son. Abraham did not withhold to give as a sacrifice his only son Isaac. God put his brand on Abraham, the mark of circumcision. His descendants were to be forever known as God’s people.

The life story of Abraham is a story of great fascination. Abraham’s life is a life of great faith and great submission to the will of God.. Abraham’s greatness lies in his submission to the will of God. Abraham’s life is also a story of great friendship between God and Abraham. It reveals that God is the greatest friend a person can have on earth. It reveals that God is in constant pursuit of a relationship with man..The recipient of God’s friendship will surely receive great manifold of blessings. Abraham’s life was greatly blessed by God , materially and spiritually, Though Abraham acquired great material possessions , his heart remained detouched from these material possessions.He has no permanent dwelling on earth, just living in tents , Abraham lived the life of a pilgrim looking forward to a heavenly home as it is written in Hebrews 11:9

“By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heir with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.”

When Abraham died, God’s promises were far from fully materialized. Abraham had only that one son to cling to. His only land was a burial plot. He still lived in tent. His only permanent structures were altars erected to worship the God who had made all those promises. God, having promised him everything a man of that time could want , apparently wanted Abraham to think even bigger thoughts. He had slipped some words in along with the promise of offspring and land. “ All people of the earth will be blessed through you.”

God indeed wanted to bless not just Abraham but the whole world. Thousands of years later, in the time of Jesus, the full meaning of those words became clear as it is written in Galatians 3:6-9.

Consider Abraham; “ He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand then that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham. ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

This article is an excerpt from The New International Version – Devotional Study Bible.