1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar… 8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. (Genesis 12 – NIV)
Father,
Place within our hearts a passion for your Word and compassion for the world. Your son Jesus possessed both of these traits and so should we. Forgive us of our self-righteousness and give us humility to be satisfied with the Savior and not self. As your people, we are blessed when we hear, remember and do your Word. May the gravitational pull of our lives be toward your will above all other forces. For it is in the name of Jesus Christ we pray!
Bilbo Baggins is the main character of “The Hobbit.” In the Unexpected Journey, Bilbo is caught up in an epic quest to help 13 dwarves reclaim the dwarf kingdom of Erebor from a dragon named Smaug. The storyline starts with a visit from Gandalf the wizard. The scenes unfold as dwarf visitors make themselves at home in Bilbo’s kitchen as they sip, slurp, burp, gorge and laugh their way to a reunion.
In the adventure, Bilbo is invited to steal gold or, as the dwarves believe, reclaim it from a dragon (Smaug) who has it holed up in the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain. Our hero is faced with a choice: stay or go? Stay and rest in the warmth of a peaceful existence in the Shire, marked by meals and seasons, or go and break free to join 13 strangers on an adventure - an Unexpected Journey.
With Hobbit-like enthusiasm, Bilbo tracks down the band of dwarves leaving the Shire. Upon catching them, he signs the contract to join their adventure, proving his loyalty to the mission. Bilbo and company are then adventure-bound toward an obstacle course of dangers that Tolkien wraps in moral dilemmas, as they face cannibalistic trolls, a subterranean world of goblins and other surprising encounters. The Hobbit tale is unmatched for reminding us that God is the author of the Unexpected Journey. The Bible provides many Tolkien-esk adventures wrapped up in the lives of:
Abraham’s Unexpected Journey – Path of Bold Moves
Joseph’s Unexpected Journey – Path of Painful Moves
Moses’ Unexpected Journey – Path of Impossible Moves
David’s Unexpected Journey – Path of Inspirational Moves
Jonah’s Unexpected Journey – Path of Rebellious Moves
The Big Idea: God is the author of the Unexpected Journey.
Life is lived out through a story metaphor or word picture. What metaphor or word picture do you use to describe the life that God has given you? There are many answers to this question. I have heard people describe life as a circus, a minefield, a roller coaster, a puzzle, like climbing a mountain, a ten-speed bike, a deck of cards, a carousel, acts of a theatrical play, an adventure, a multi-colored painting, a sporting event, a drama, a river, a merry-go-round, a symphony, a quest, like people in a boat, a race, a party, a dance, a series of unforgettable memories or a journey.
Leanne Andry is a Starbucks employee who works on the corner of 35th and State Street a mile from the home of the Chicago White Sox. While getting acquainted that morning, I did a little “Man on the Street.” I asked Leanne to describe her life as one of the metaphors. She announced through her big smile, "Life is a painting, but not a Monet or Rembrandt, a simple crayon sketch." When asked why that image, she immediately said, "Life is filled with various colors because life has so many experiences."
Daily, your life unfolds with inspiring, surprising and theatrical flair using some metaphor or word picture. Jesus used the metaphor of a river when he said,
38 ”Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." (John 7 - NIV)
If I hang around you long enough, I will notice what really matters and how life makes sense through your life metaphor. So what is the clue? Daily, you express your life image in your clothes, use of time, music, jewelry, people you hang out with, what you read, cars, hairstyles, bumper stickers and even tattoos.
If life is a race, then you likely value training and endurance.
If life is a party, then you likely value fun.
If life is a game, then you likely value winning.
If life is a play, then you likely value story.
If life is a mountain climb, then you likely value accomplishments.
Your spoken or unspoken metaphor, life image, word picture or even dream has a greater impact on you than you can ever imagine. It determines your goals, wants, relationships, values, morals and even your walk with God. So often we get off course in life because we are attached to a wrong picture, image or metaphor. In the Unexpected Journey, God wants to challenge your conventional thinking and worldly wisdom with insights and application from His life metaphors. God’s Word is filled with biblical images for how to live.
God’s Word tells us that life is a test, about trust, a temporary assignment, a tragic or triumphant journey. Words like “road,” “journey,” “endurance” and “stage of the journey” dot the landscape of God’s Word. Numbers 33 describes each stage of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land:
1 Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. 2 At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stage.... (Numbers 33 – NIV)
Life on Earth is a JOURNEY
Abram’s Unexpected Journey from the familiar to the unfamiliar is not accomplished by reason or righteousness, but is followed by God’s promises. Abram’s journey, and ours, involves bold moves, unsuspecting obstacles and divine encounters.
1. God’s Unexpected Journey follows a path of bold moves.
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. (Genesis 12 – NIV)
Abram’s life journey with God helps us understand what it means to move with God. God is saying to us, "It is your move!" In the first recorded visitation from God since the days of Adam, God appears to Abram and makes a demand on his life and sets him on an Unexpected Journey.
God longs for His people to have a place of spiritual heritage. A title deed was given in the form of real estate located on the eastern most coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The deed came in the form of a series of promises to Abram and his family.
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.” (Gen. 12 – NIV)
We find Abram packing, saying goodbye and traveling as he blends in with those who are being dispersed by God at the Tower of Babel. Mankind poured into the streets and valleys of the world; people were relocating worldwide like birds scattered from a gunshot. Our spotlight shines on a lone family’s movement as they leave the region of the Persian Gulf and head west with no clear destination other than to trust that God will reveal it in time.
God had recently judged the nations at the Tower of Babel. Next, he poured out His grace on Abram and his family. There was nothing in Abram’s life that made him favored to receive God’s blessing. Abram was an idol worshipper. And nothing exists in us, but you are favored anyway, friend! You are blessed by God. He wants to do more in you than you could ever imagine.
3 ...who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Eph. 1 – NIV)
The journey was no cake walk for Abram. Every mile took him farther away from his security, and that is exactly what God was up to. The comfortable and enjoyable sights and sounds of home were a distant memory. New customs and foreign lands stretched out in front of Abram. New people and new places can be so unsettling at times. This is God’s method. This is His journey for YOU! A geographical journey used to establish and strengthen fresh and first-time faith with God. Make no mistake, friend; God is at work in your journey.
To pull off these providential and high-stake plans God has for you will take boldness. Once you give God access to fresh boldness in your journey, it is easy to give value to this new behavior that becomes priority.
"You will never take big hills in your life without bold moves," as Bill Hybels says.
You will never experience meaningful relationships in your life without bold moves.
You will never flourish financially in your life without bold moves.
You will never discover your assignment in life without bold moves.
Boldness and being stuck are bad bedfellows. Make a few bold moves with God or breathe your last spiritual breath. Bold moves or burial plans – you decide.
Pastor and author Bill Hybels reminds us that the Unexpected Journey is often defined by bold moves. He goes on to say, "Back in the day when neither seatbelts nor infant car seats were mandatory, my daughter, Shauna, would sit right by my side on the arm rest of the old Chevy I drove.
“One morning she and I loaded up to run a few errands, and as I was pulling out onto a major thoroughfare, I glanced over to make sure she was secure on her makeshift seat. In that split second between when I looked her way and when I looked back to see any oncoming traffic, a car appeared out of nowhere. Feeling I had no other options, I stomped on the accelerator. The other driver came within mere feet of plowing into us before swerving out of our lane. It was way too close for comfort, and I died a thousand deaths in the space of the next six shallow breaths. What if that car had hit us? What if Shauna had been hurt? Or killed?
“My mind was racing as I tried to think of a way to apologize to this little girl who because of me almost didn’t make it to her fifth birthday, when she interrupted my self-reproach with three simple words: ‘Bold move, Dad!’" 1
On weekend of this writing, my sons Kenny (21), Jesse (16) and Joseph (14) and I were in Chicago for a road trip from Wichita, Kansas. After returning from the Chicago Bulls game at about 11 p.m., we had to enter Highway 94/90 heading for Wisconsin near downtown Chicago. The traffic seemed to be flying by. You have to understand, I was looking for a nice long freeway entrance with well-behaved passersby inviting me to join them in their freeway journey.
I don’t know if I will ever recover from happened next. I entered the 94/90 Freeway on one of the shortest ramps I have ever seen. The traffic was flying and fierce, and I found no friends there! As we merged into traffic, I almost bounced off several cars and concrete walls. All I could do was remember my Driver’s Ed lesson – merge onto the freeway at the speed of traffic.
Now, you have to understand, I had been thinking about the story of Bill Hybels and his 4-year-old daughter Shauna as I made my first trip to Bill’s windy city. It was a similar setting, and all I could think of was how impressed my sons were going to be with my driving. At any moment, I expected a shout-out from the backseat – “Bold move, Dad!” That’s not the way teenagers think. They were screaming, “We’re going to die! We’re going to die!”
Bill Hybels reminds us that Unexpected Journeys, by definition, include the idea of bold moves.
2. God’s Unexpected Journey follows a path of unsuspecting obstacles.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the sight of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. (Genesis 12 – NIV)
If life with God is an Unexpected Journey, then movement is defined by bold moves. And bold moves will often result in unsuspecting obstacles. Verse six places an obstacle smack in the center of our text – the Canaanites.
Every great drama has a villain. The Canaanites are God’s eternal enemies that He uses to buffet God’s people so as to build faith and character. Canaanites keep us dependant on God. The Bible is filled with all kinds of obstacles - Canaanites, Perizites, Jebusites, termites and cellulites.
God places a premium on your spiritual growth. God’s goal for your life is to develop you into the image of Jesus Christ. One way he does this is through a series of unsuspecting obstacles – tests. How you handle these obstacles or tests will determine if your journey succeeds or if you get stuck.
Words like “trials,” “tests,” “temptations” and “refining” show up more than 200 times in the Bible. Abram’s test to leave his home would only be a precursor to the day God would ask Abraham to give up his son, Isaac.
Character and godliness are developed and revealed by these obstacles and tests. You are always being tested. God is watching your response to people, problems, pain, privilege, possessions, pleasures, pay, parents, past, praise, and even pollution, persecution and the poor.
When you accept that life is an Unexpected Journey that includes unsuspecting obstacles, then anything and everything can have eternal consequences and benefits. Here is the good news. God wants you to be a success in the worst way, so he gives you this promise – memorize and meditate on it!
13 No temptation (test/obstacle) has seized you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted (tested) beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure under it. (1 Cor. 10 – NIV)
Like a neon sign, three assurances about tests and obstacles shine bright:
Rest in God – He has seen it before
Receive from others – You are not alone
Rejoice with God – He will make a way of escape
3. God’s Unexpected Journey follows the path of divine encounters.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 Then Abram set out and continued to the Negev. (Genesis 12 – NIV)
Abram’s life is broken into four parts, and each one begins with an appearance from God. This is no small detail. This insight introduces us to the first recorded visitation of God since He banished Adam and Eve from the garden. God did not appear to Abel. He bypassed Noah. God appeared to Abram in Ur, somewhere in the region of the Persian Gulf.
After dealing with the nations at the Tower of Babel, now God’s grace is poured out on individuals and their families. What did Abram do that invited such a visit from God? He built an alter. As Jack Hayford says, "An altar is a place where you arrange hard things before the Lord."
An altar is a stake in the ground. It is a place where you anchor to God and His presence, promises and provision. Fail to build altars and you run the risk of going it alone. Altar-building leads to God appearing.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 Then Abram set out and continued to the Negev. (Genesis 12-NIV)
Abram’s journey was spent with the tents (life) and with God. God is interested in all that happens in your life – tent life and God life. But don’t miss where this tent life and God life is being lived. It happens between Bethel and Ai. Bethel represents “house of God” and Ai represents "heap of ruins."
Tent life is a metaphor for life as a temporary assignment. The altar is a metaphor, reminding us that this assignment is lived dependant on Almighty God.
Abram pitched his tent and built an altar. You might say, "He lived life to the fullest in Canaan and did it with God’s presence, power and protection."
God chose to make Abram the father of a great nation and rewarded him for his bold moves. Abram left by faith.
God chose to make Abram the father of a great nation and rewarded him for overcoming obstacles. Abram developed character in the test.
God chose to make Abram the father of a great nation and rewarded him for building an altar. Abram encountered God personally. And so can you, friend. You, too, can be a friend of God. A fresh and vital walk with God involves bold moves, obstacles and divine encounters. This Christian life doesn’t have to be hard when you rely on His word and His Spirit.
End Notes
1 Hybels, Bill. “Axiom.” Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 2008.
