I want to tell you about a dream I have. It is a far fetched one and stands absolutely no chance of coming true, yet it is still one of my dreams and so it is important to me. In fact, it is a dream that is probably common to every parent in the world, although, as far as I know, it has never come true yet.
The dream involves a young seven-year-old boy who is currently in your Sunday school. His name is Thomas, and he is my son. The dream involves me waking up on a morning, it doesn’t really matter which one, and as I normally do, I would get his breakfast ready and put it on the table, and then say to him, “Thomas, breakfast is ready, can you wash your hands and go and eat it.” And in my dream, Thomas will do exactly that, he will stop what he is doing, go wash his hands, and then go and eat his breakfast. After breakfast, I will then ask him to wash his hands, and face, clean his teeth and then go and get dressed. And in my dream, he does all of these things as soon as I ask him. He is not distracted by toys, or the weather, or something he wants to watch on television, he simply listens to what his daddy says, and then goes straight off and does it. According to this wonderful dream, this continues from Thomas waking up first thing on the morning until he goes to sleep at nighttime.
Can any parents here imagine this happening, no having to ask your child twenty times to do something, and then discovering that they haven’t even started doing what you have asked. No having to keep a constant eye on them to make sure they not only start, but continue until they have finished. As I say, it is a pretty impossible dream, and almost certainly, it is never going to come true, but I, like every other parent, still hope it will happen one day.
This dream is not common to just humans, however, I am fairly certain that God has this same dream. He too looks forward to the time when all He has to do is whisper instructions in our ears, and we will stop whatever we are doing and obey Him. I only hope that one day, one of us will be able to make God happy by doing this, by being so close and in tune with him that we hear clearly whenever He speaks and obey instantly. Our reading from the book of Hebrews suggests God did see this dream come true one day. Hebrews 11:8 reads: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
The only problem with this is that like any story told a while after it happens, certain events are missed out of the re-telling. We all know of the angler, who every time he talked about the fish he caught, it grew. The Hebrew’s version of Abram’s calling seems to be a bit like that when you compare it to the Genesis account of Abram’s call.
In our first reading from the end of Genesis Chapter 11, we heard that this call from God came whilst Abram and his family were living in Ur of the Chaldeans. This was a city in what is now Southern Iraq near the River Euphrates. It is eighty years now since Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the ruins of this city and began to excavate it. From what he found, we know that the city of Ur was one of the greatest cities of Abraham’s time. It had everything from baths, and theatres to sports stadiums and temples.
Many years ago, I was in a bible study looking at the call of Abraham when someone said that it must have been easier for Abram to answer this call than it would be for any of us today. They reckoned that all he had to do was drop his tents, load his camels and start moving. In fact, it would have been harder for Abram to move than for many of us. For a start, his family had never heard of the God who gave these instructions. We read in Joshua 24:2 that: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.”
Jewish legend has it that not only did Terah worship these other gods; he also made the idols that other people used to worship them. This would have meant that the family would have been rich for a city like Ur used many different idols. They would have had a good house built of stone in the city, and would have been well respected by all the people who knew them. This is the situation they were in when suddenly, God speaks to Abram, and says, “It is time to move.”
What would you have done in Abram’s position? Here you are in a wonderful city, with a good education, a good social life, your Father’s business to take over when he gets too old to work, or dies.
Has this ever happened to you? You know in your heart that God wants you to do something, but if you obey, you will lose all your safety and security, and because of this, you falter and either fail to obey or delay obeying. That is what happened to Abram. In Chapter 12 verse 1 we are told that: “The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Abram was not quite ready to take that step of faith and obedience at this stage. He was not willing to obey everything that God said, and instead we find him travelling the first part of the journey with his father Terah, and presumably, his father’s household as well. Isn’t this often the case, that it is the things we carry with us that give us the most problems in obeying God. Whether those things are memories (good or bad) or people. And isn’t it also often the case that it is those closest to us who often hinder our obedience. That is what happened here.
The book of Hebrews, as I have said, suggests that Abram simply heard the call and started obeying. However, in fact, things did not quite happen that way. Canaan was close to a thousand miles due East of Ur. Unfortunately, due to a few geographical features such as the Arabian Desert in the way, Abram and his family could not travel the direct route. Instead, they would have followed the merchant caravan routes that skirted the desert to the North. Again, unfortunately, by taking this route they faced many distractions and temptations along the way. If they travelled along the river Tigris, they would have had the great cities of Ashur and Nineveh to tempt them into stopping. If they had followed the Euphrates, it would have been Babylon and Mari. But Abram was strong and resisted these temptations to settle elsewhere, until he reached Haran.
They would have travelled about 900 miles before getting to this town or city. They were still about 300 miles away from Canaan. Abram had been strong and refused to stay in the attractive cities they had passed along the way. However, by this stage, his strength was weakening, for Haran had an added attraction in that the city worshipped the same god that he had grown up with in Ur. Both Haran’s and Ur’s main god was the moon god, and when Abram reached this place, he stopped. Surely, this was close enough to Canaan; surely, the God who had called him to such a long and dangerous journey would be happy with this. After all, his dad could go back to work here. The family could settle down and make some money again. His dad would not even have to change his carving techniques for he would be making the same idols here as he did back home in Ur. The temptation to stop was too great and we read in the penultimate verse of Chapter 11: “But when they came to Haran, they settled there.”
How many of you have experienced this in your lives? As individuals, or as a Church. You have heard God’s call clearly, and have trusted Him so much that you have set off on that path of obedience. But slowly the hardship along the way, the temptations provided by all around you have taken their toll. And you have ended up in a place no better, and often very similar to the place where you started. Look at many of the Churches in our country and you will see this story being enacted repeatedly. God calls his people into action, and they obey and get moving and the Church comes to life and starts growing. But time takes its toll, and the Church which once obeyed begins to slow down in its growth and eventually to stop growing altogether. Then the membership starts leaving, or growing old and the church settles exactly where it is, just as Abram settled into Haran.
Alternatively, it could happen slightly differently. We know that God has called us, or the Church we are members of to take some action. And we begin to obey, but slowly, the action we are called to take is changed slightly, not by God, but by ourselves to make life easier. “We have nearly done what God asked us to do, He will be happy with that”. “Did God really mean us to go this far, isn’t this a much better idea”. Or even the same trick that a certain serpent used upon Eve in the Garden of Eden “Did God really say ……”. It worked for Satan then, and sadly, it works in just the same way on us today many times. We know that God has called us to do something or even not to do something, but instead of direct obedience we push the boundaries a bit thinking that God won’t mind too much if we go this far away from His path. Well the bad news is that God does mind. When He calls us to obey, nothing less than direct obedience to His call is good enough.
Fortunately for us, Abram’s journey did not end there. We do not know how long he stayed in Haran; it was likely that it was many years since according to one source, the word used here for settled does not suggest a temporary settlement. However, there came a time when he was reminded of his call. This reminder followed on from his father’s death and it could have been something as simple as the realisation that even though he could stay and take over the family business, he was not nearly good enough as a carpenter to do so. Perhaps he realised that he would make a much better shepherd. Or perhaps it was brought home to him with the death of his father that God had called him to leave his father and travel to Canaan. He had not done so, and now his father had left him. Maybe it was time for him to come back to that position of obedience.
Whatever the reason, Chapter 12 verse 4 tells us: “So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.”
We will never know what the full cost of that delay was. It is likely that if Abram had not stayed in Haran for those years, but had gone straight to Canaan, he would not have had to run into Egypt when the famine hit the land. He would have been well established and able to survive it.
It is even possible that he and Lot would not have had to separate their people and flocks when they did, and if that hadn’t happened, Lot’s wife may not have died, and Lot’s final biblical act may not have been to get drunk and have sex with his daughters. The result of which has caused the Israelites many problems through the ages for Lot’s children formed the tribes of two of Israel’s greatest enemies.
As I said, we will never know the full cost of Abram’s delay, but it is certain that there was a cost.
It is the same for us today. When we fail to follow God’s commands or call fully, there will be a price to be paid. As individuals, that price could even include the loss of someone or something close to us before we are reminded of God’s call. As I look through church history books, I discover that the cost is often the splitting of Churches. Some people wish to carry on obeying whilst others are tired, and the temptation is too great and they wish nothing more than to stay where they are. And because of this, the Church can be split in two with all the pain and heartache that this causes.
Don’t get me wrong; this is not God being vindictive. He does not say obey me or I will do this to you. However, He does allow us to face some of the consequences of our refusal to obey Him fully.
Abram was fortunate in that he did eventually obey God. He was called to: “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12:5 tells us: “He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, 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.”
This why the author of Hebrews can sum up Abram’s story simply by saying: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 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 heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
And now a final question. Think back in your own life, and in the life of this Church. Has there been a time when God has called you to do something and you have not heeded that call. Or maybe you began to obey but other temptations took over and you stopped along the way. Or was it the third option, You began to obey, but when you realised how difficult it was, you began to alter God’s instructions thinking that something else was close enough.
When you take a look at the lives of many in our Churches today, I think this may well have happened. God does not want us to live lives where it is difficult to see Him in us. He does not want us to live a life of defeat. He calls us all to go further than this on our Christian pilgrimage.
And what about our Churches, which of God’s calls have we failed to obey fully here. Does anybody really think that it is God’s desire to have so many empty seats here every Sunday? Do we really think that God desires our Churches to know so little of His power, and to see so little of His glory?
It is not too late for us to answer God’s call. It took Abram quite a time before he realised that there was no other option open to him. Thankfully, he and we have a God who is faithful to His promises, and who went on to bless Abram mightily, because he did obey in spite of the delays and disobedience on the way. He will do the same with us today. If we seek and return to His call, He will bless us in our lives, and in our Churches in the same way.
And who knows, that blessing may include a day where our children obey us as soon as they are told to do something.
