Temptations And Trials Series

Now, what a difficult decision it was for him to make. You can hear the people around him tell him that he is crazy. The next track will be the most difficult. Across the wilderness, across the desert. Before, they traveled the Euphrates, like an interstate. But now, they were going on the side roads. Like walking through desert. I imagine the people are mourning and crying and telling him that you are as good as dead if you attempt to cross that wilderness without any form of protection and security.

Yet the call was inside of Abram. He must go. He had stayed too long. It was time to obey God. The same way when God calls you, you must go. You can’t look at the circumstances, you only hear the call of God.

5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

The Bible gives brief descriptions for traumatic events. He moved all of his family and servants, and came to Canaan. That is over several hundred miles. Not only that, but he would have come to Damascus. Sort of a watering hole. A place of refreshment. The first real place of dwelling since he left Haran. History has it that Abraham did stop there for a brief stay. One of his servants, his most prized one is Known as Eliazer of Damascus. But he didn’t stay there. He had learned from Haran, not to stop until the Lord showed him the land. He kept going.

6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Notice this scene. He comes into the land of Canaan. Notice what the Bible says, the Canaanites were then in the land. Why does it make this statement. B/c the Canaanites would have been intimidating to Abram. They were well established in the land. They were corrupt and immoral. They were excellent warriors. When the children of Israel spied out this land 500 years later, they said that the inhabitants were too difficult to overcome. Cities large and people strong.

So I imagine that Abraham’s faith began to falter a little bit. He began to fear. But notice what happens.

Verse 7---

7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Look at this. What is happening here. Well God is reassuring him. God is building up his faith again.

Notice the LORD appears to him---when was the last time that happened. The last time that happened was all the way back in Ur as far as we know. He may have appeared in Haran to get him moving again. But the idea is this. Once Abram obeyed the will of God fully, God began to appear to him again. He began to bless Abram and to reveal more of his will to him.