The Call (Part Three)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:
‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

So does God promise us everything He promised to Abraham? Well, in one sense, of course, these promises are Abraham-specific. God does not call every single individual Christian to be the father of many nations, the father of all the faithful, the progenitor of the race that produces the Messiah. But in another sense, there are some general observations that are applicable to us.

For one thing, as has been pointed out, those who follow Christ, to the extent they follow Christ, have a tremendous impact for good, for blessing, not only on their own direct descendents but on the countless others their lives and the lives of their descendents touch. In this way, by either following Christ or not, we choose to be either more or less a blessing or a curse to our family and the “families of the earth.”

This is easily seen, but it goes down hard for the atomistic, individualistic, taking-care-of-me-and-nobody-else culture and society we have inherited in the West over the past century or so. Abraham’s example shows what one man’s faith combined with the blessing of God can do to affect not only the course of history but the salvation and redemption and restoration of the whole world. We are called to be faithful, and the measure of our faithfulness, by God’s grace, shows up down the line.

Another general principle we see in Abraham’s call is the fact that, while God pours out blessings on His followers in abundance, there are always going to be those who pour on the curses as well (fortunately without the same effectiveness!). Jesus told His disciples that if the world hated Him (and it did for the most part), then the world was certain to hate those who walked closely in His steps. This “enmity” all comes by degrees, but no matter the opposition, no matter the persecution, no matter the sin-full treatment received by the followers of the call of God, you can count on God to take care of it—somehow, some way. Those who pray for the blessing of God’s children will be blessed themselves, God guarantees. Those who call on God to curse them will not only have their prayers turned aside but they will receive back on themselves the very curses they send out. Like the apostle Paul said, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

God is going to take care of His own. Our part is to trust the One we follow, obey the One we trust. If all the world stands against us, seeks on the one hand to lead us down paths of unrighteousness and then just as passionately seeks on the other to make us pay in spades for walking down any other, God will stand by us and help us to stand in the face of temptation and trouble from any quarter. He who calls is faithful and will do it.

“God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we call upon the God of our fathers, asking that You make us faithful fathers in our turn. Help us to be faithful to You, to this generation, and to the ones following by following ourselves Your call and in Your steps. Protect us from our enemies, dear God: keep us from falling into temptation on the right hand or the left, keep us from following the world itself as well as from fainting under its rejection of us when we don’t. Thank You, heavenly Father, for the greatest blessing of all, salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray for His kingdom to come in might, blessing all the nations of the earth to the great glory of the Trinity, in Christ’s name. Amen.”

The Call (Part Two)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

The call of God comes to a person where he is. Abraham did not go out to meet God and introduce himself, looking for a job or a place in His graces. God went looking for Abraham, and He found him sipping tea alongside a bunch of idol-worshipers at Ur of the Chaldees. And we like this part of the call, because we want to be taken as we are, where we are, with the clothes we have on, “just as I am,” nothing I have to do to receive the grace of God—except receive it, that is.

The catch is, the call doesn’t leave us there. That is exactly what the call is all about—it is a call to leave, to go out, to change, to do something, and to do something different from what we have been doing. Abraham had to leave the tea sitting on the table and follow God into the unknown, “a land that I will show you,” a land he had never seen before. Yes, God came to him first, and God is going to take him where he needs to go. But Abraham cannot follow the call of God and also stay where God found him.

Some who thought they wanted to follow Christ got snagged on this part of the call. “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Seems like a reasonable request to us—“honor your father and mother,” and all that. But Jesus replied, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” This man wanted to stick around and take care of business when the call of God led him across the lake. On one side were the spiritually dead; on the other was Life Himself.

Abraham had his choice, and we have ours. Will we follow or stay? We cannot have it both ways. Following Christ means leaving a lot behind—pet sins, “innate” personalities, long-held relationships, otherwise justifiable loyalties, comforts, and identities. But what an exchange! Following Christ also means becoming a son of God, inheriting the blessing of God, becoming a blessing to the rest of the world, and living as a citizen of the truly Eternal City. It means radical change from who we were to what God calls us to be, from a life that is doomed to a life full of never-ending love and joy and peace and holiness.

God calls. We follow. And the blessing of God follows us!

“God, we give thanks for Your call on our lives, and we pray we would be faithful followers. Do not leave us where we are, dear God, but take us where You want us to be, make us what You want us to be, mold us and shape us into the very image of Christ. Grant to us the grace to leave behind the world and our sins and whatever else that keeps us from following You; and grant to us the blessing You promise to all those who follow You, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”