Abram, the physical nomad.
The experts say that people are more spiritually receptive during times of crisis than at any other time in their lives. For example, when we lose a loved one we search for meaning and purpose in that death. When we begin a new job or begin a new school year or move into a new home or form a new marriage relationship, we tend to reach out for the divine. A crisis of parenthood or grandparenthood can prompt a spiritual awakening. Likewise, the discouraging realization of knowing that one cannot have children, the loss of personal property, an empty nest, a midlife crisis, menopause, a miscarriage, the dissolving of a marriage union, family conflict, becoming the victim of a crime, hospitalization, sickness, or disease can also draw an individual back to God.
During times of crisis we are confronted with the limitations of our humanity. We are forced to step back and ask the big questions of life, death, and destiny. We are forced to own up to our choices and the consequences of our choices. We are forced to look deep within ourselves to grapple with our emptiness and discontentment and discouragement and neediness.
In Genesis we discover the story of a man named Abram who began his spiritual pilgrimage after having been harassed by a series of crises. At an early age Abram experienced the tragic death of his brother Haran. Brothers are supposed to be with you for life, and children are supposed to outlive their parents, but Abram's brother passed away at a young age leaving only Abram, his father, and his sister Nahor.
Not long after this both Abram and his sister Nahor married. Abram married a woman named Sarah. Shortly thereafter Abram discovered that Sarah was barren. Though they tried, they could not have children. Now this was an even bigger deal in Abram's day than it is in our day. Children were needed for survival and to carry the family name on. Abram and Sarah likely endured tremendous stress in their relationship.
Unsettled by crisis in their personal lives, Abram and his wife, together with his father Terah and sister Nahor, decided to move from Ur to the land of Canaan. So intense was their desire to move that they literally set out on a six hundred mile pilgrimage. Genesis 11:28 tells us that Ur was the land of Haran's birth. Perhaps the city of Ur triggered too many painful memories for Abram to stay. Perhaps they just wanted a fresh start, a fresh beginning, and a new life. Abram and his family never made it to Canaan. They settled in a land just east of present day Israel, a place Abram named after their brother Haran. But in Haran, Abram is afflicted with yet another grief. His father Terah dies. Everywhere he goes, Abram's griefs and sorrows seemed to trail behind him like an agitating swarm of mosquitoes.
Abram, the spiritual nomad.
If we were to write a book about Abram's life we could title this chapter "Abram, the spiritual nomad." A nomad is a restless wanderer. All of us, all of us, begin our spiritual pilgrimages as spiritual nomads hungering and thirsting and searching for something more. The trouble is that Abram's restlessness never got quenched. He kept moving around with the hope that the next place would bring rest for his soul.
And we do the same thing. We keep moving around, changing jobs, changing relationships, trying to change our circumstances, hoping against hope that we will hit that perfect jet stream and soar into eternal bliss. But like Abram, we never find rest. We never find satisfaction and contentment.
This morning, among us I would suspect that there are some spiritual nomads. Perhaps you are here this morning because you are spiritually dissatisfied. You have been dabbling here and dabbling there, but nothing has quite filled that God-shaped void in your life. This is the void that God created for only himself to fill. If this describes your situation you will be pleased to know that there is hope.
Abram's spiritual encounter.
Abram is in Haran, empty, searching, and trying to establish a new life in a new place. And God notices Abram's struggle and he puts himself in Abram's path. In Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV) God appears to Abram and says, "Leave your country, your people and your father's 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 peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
A suitable title for this chapter of Abram's life might be "Abram's spiritual encounter." God reaches out to Abram and offers him a three-fold promise. God promised to give Abram a land that would meet all of his needs. God promised to give Abram and Sarah a seed, offspring, children with whom they could share their lives. God promised to give Abram a blessing, a blessing that would not only prosper Abram but that would prosper every nation and all peoples on earth. But in order to secure these promises, God asked Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father's household and go to the land he would show him.
This is a particularly difficult proposition for all spiritual nomads to accept. As restless wanderers we tend to find security in being discontented and dissatisfied. We grow comfortable with our pain. We resign ourselves to our circumstances. We stubbornly refuse to leave the comfort zones we have mapped out for ourselves.
And yet God encounters us in our paths and he points us in a new direction. God calls upon us to make a decision of obedience. That decision involves leaving the emptiness of our present situations to experience the rich blessings of a new life. God wants to bless us, but he will not bless us on the current path we are on.
There are some this morning who have encountered the living God. Through his written word God has called you to a new life. He has called on you to reprioritize your commitments, to step out in faith, to turn away from temptation, to repent, and to leave your old life of sin. He has called on you to stop searching and to stop running. He has invited you into his presence to experience his blessings. You have a choice to make. And the choice is between restlessness and blessing. The choice is between a God-quenched life and a ravenous, unappeasable emptiness.
Abram chose a God-quenched life of blessing. Genesis 12:4-5 (NIV) says, "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. 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." Genesis 12:7 (NIV) tells us, "he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him."
After his encounter with the living God Abram didn't procrastinate. In fact, his obedient decisiveness opened up a whole new chapter in his life, a chapter we might entitle "Abram's spiritual struggle."
Abram's spiritual struggle.
On one level, Abram took God at his word and he went to the promised land. But once Abram arrived in Canaan, there was a famine in the land. Instead of trusting God and seeking a spiritual solution, Abram drifts back to his old ways, packs up his bags, and leaves Canaan for Egypt of all places. In Egypt Abram runs into a whole new set of problems just like he ran into a whole new set of problems when he left Ur and settled in Haran. In Genesis 12:11 (NIV) we read, "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.' "
Not only did Abram want his wife to lie, but he was asking his wife to prostitute herself among the Egyptians. The consequence of Abram's foolishness is that the Lord inflicted infectious diseases on the Egyptians and their households. Once again Abram ran into a dead end, because a life of sin is always a dead end street. The lesson is that we can never achieve God's blessing through our means or through sin.
After Abram is expelled from Egypt, he packs his bags and he heads back to Canaan. In Canaan Abram calls on the Lord and God speaks to him in a vision. In Genesis 15:1 (NIV) God says, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." In Canaan God reaffirms his three-fold promise of land-seed-blessing. But in Genesis 15:2-3 (NIV) Abram questions God. "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, 'You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.' "
Once again, instead of trusting in God's promises and seeking a spiritual solution, Abram digresses to his old ways and comes up with another scheme. Since his wife Sarah couldn't have a child, he would impregnate one of his servants! God knew what Abram was about to do and God even warned him saying in Genesis 15:4-5 (NIV), "'This will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.' He (God) took him (Abram) outside and said, 'Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' "
The irony is that to his credit, Abram believed what God was saying, but we find him just a few verses later sleeping with his servant Hagar and she eventually gives birth to Abram's son. This was not God's plan. In Genesis 17 God appears to Abram to once again to affirm his covenant promises and to call Abram to obedience. God even gives him a new name. Instead of being called Abram which meant "exalted father", he would now be called Abraham which means the "father of many." But since Abram had twice disobeyed God, God required Abraham and all the males in his household to submit themselves to circumcision.
The circumcision was to be an intimate deeply personal reminder to Abraham of God's covenant promises. Abraham was not to sin sexually again nor was he to be deceived into thinking that God's purposes could be accomplished by prostituting his wife to the Egyptians.
Now you would think Abraham would start getting the idea by now. But no sooner had God spoken to him that we read these words in Genesis 17:17-18 (NIV)."Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, 'Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?' And Abraham said to God, 'If only Ishmael might live under your blessing.' " Likewise, in Genesis 18:12 (NIV) we read, "So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, 'After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?' "
But God confronts them both and says in Genesis 18:13-15 (NIV),"Then the LORD said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son. 'Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, 'I did not laugh. 'But he said, 'Yes, you did laugh.' " The truth is that they both laughed and had mocked God's promise.
Despite all this Abraham still struggled to believe God's promises. Despite his experience in Egypt Abraham would once again leave the promised land of Canaan. He would once again lie about his relationship to his wife. And he would once again ask his wife to prostitute herself to foreigners.
Just as Abraham struggled to trust God, we struggle.
Do you know what I see when I read about Abraham? I see a terribly flawed individual who is struggling to take God at his word. You will notice when you read the scriptures that this same struggle is built into virtually every account of every man who ever encountered God. Despite popular belief, the scriptures do not glamorize these heroes of the faith. The scriptures boldly paint their humanity in all its ugliness, disgusting sin, stubbornness, doubt, and unbelief.
If you struggle to trust God as you know you should, welcome to the club! You stand in a long succession of people who've lived before you. Every Christian struggles. Struggle is part of the spiritual landscape and part of our spiritual pilgrimage toward God.
But we need to work through these struggles and we need to keep coming back to God and to keep calling on God. We need to keep listening to his promises anew. The only thing Abraham has to his credit is that he kept returning to God even when he had egg on his face, even when he failed, and even when he had sinned. Unlike Adam and Eve who hid from God when they sinned, Abraham kept coming back saying, "Ah God, I did it again. I'm an idiot. I'm so stupid. What was I was thinking? God, show me out of this mess I've created."
I think the real measure of a man and woman of God is their willingness to return. Okay, so you have messed up. So your life is in shambles. So your marriage is a mess. So your family maybe hasn't turned out as you have hoped. So the career you envisioned has fizzled. So you're bankrupt and are a complete mess. What are you going to do about it? Where are you going to turn? Are you going to take this opportunity to get back on track with God? Or are you going to keep on doing the same old things and getting the same old results?
Because Abraham kept returning to God when he struggled, he was able to open up yet another chapter to his life which could be titled "Abraham's spiritual faith."
Abraham's spiritual faith.
Well a year passed by and as promised, Abraham and Sarah eventually gave birth to a baby boy. Upon that child's birth Abraham named his son Isaac. In Hebrew the name Isaac literally means "he laughs." In naming his son Isaac Abraham was acknowledging that it was God who got the last laugh. God had kept his promise to Abraham. God always keeps his word.
There was one final event in the life of Abraham that I will mention briefly. Some time after Isaac was born God decided to test Abraham. In Genesis 22:2 (NIV) God says, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." After all the hassle of having this child, God was now asking Abraham to put this child to death on an altar. He was asking a father to sacrifice his son!
And as outrageous as it may seem, Abraham trusted God and through faith he obeyed. Abraham gathered wood, he grabbed his hunting knife, he took his only son, and he carried a fire to the place God asked him to go. His son Isaac was old enough to realize what was happening and said in Genesis 22:7 (NIV),"Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, 'Father?' 'Yes, my son?' Abraham replied. The fire and wood are here,' Isaac said, 'but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' " Abraham did not have the heart to tell his son what was about to take place and so he says in Genesis 22:8 (NIV), "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."
Genesis 22:9-18 (NIV)tells us the rest of the story. "When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. 'Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.' "
"The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, 'I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.' "
Finally in Genesis 22:19 (NIV) we read, "And Abraham stayed in Beersheba."
At the end of the day this restless wandering nomad found peace and blessing and stayed in Beersheba. He found that blessing by trusting God, by accepting God's provision for his need, and by staying and growing deeper in his relationship with God.
This morning I wonder if any us restless nomads will take a lesson from Abraham? God is the one we hunger and thirst for. The prescription for our restless souls is to embrace our heavenly Father. God told Abraham, "I am your shield, your very great reward." This morning he is saying the same thing to us. God is the one we long for.
We spiritual nomads have a decision to make. Do we stubbornly continue in our ruts? Do we stubbornly continue in our old sinful, failing paths? Do we continue being restless? Or do we turn and embrace the one who did not spare his Son but who instead sent his one and only Son to die on a cross to be a sacrifice for our sins?