I find it interesting that Abram went out of the land of his nativity, out of that which was familiar and comfortable for him, to go to a land, which was not only unfamiliar to him, but even its location was a complete mystery. He knew nothing about it, except to imagine how it might compare with that, which was familiar to him, and that which gave him comfort. This kind of experience is not unlike, what we feel and experience, as a result of the Lord’s call upon our own lives, assuming we answer his call by submitting to his word. What do we know of the hereafter?
Everything is a guess, isn’t it? We may imagine, what it would be like by considering, what is familiar to us now, and what gives us comfort here. Thus, our imaginations may cause us to believe something similar would offer us comfort, wherever the Lord takes us, or whatever he would give us after death, when our pilgrimage here is complete and our lives, here, come to an end. Where will we go, really, when such a place can’t be found on any map, we know. What will happen to us? All we have is Abram’s example of faith (Hebrews 11:8). Placing our trust in God, who calls us, is all we have. It is the substance of those things for which we hope. It is the evidence we have of the existence, of what we don’t see, of the things we hope to find in our God (Hebrews 11:1).
Like Abram, we have no map to show us where to go, except for the map, we have of Abram’s life and the lives of others like him, who answered the call of God (Hebrews 11:13). Yet such a map is a map of successes and failures, whereby Abram and other men of faith chose this or that (cp. Genesis 2:16), in order to see how it would affect their relationship with this God, who chose them to come to him, trusting that he would care for them, while they walked with him. Therefore, it remains for us to see in their example a kind of map, to do likewise (cp. Hebrews 12:1), ultimately having Jesus’ own example to follow. Thus, we conclude in our decision that the Lord our God us trustworthy, and what we don’t see is, nevertheless, worth hoping for (cp. Hebrews 11:1).
Therefore, Abram departed, according to the word of the Lord (Genesis 12:4). He left behind all his hopes for success in the world, he knew, not that he traded wealth for poverty, because the Lord blessed him with wealth (Genesis 13:2). Rather, he left behind the name (Genesis 11:4) he might have had for the name of being identified with the NAME/YHWH! (Genesis 12:8; 13:4; 21:33). Similarly, when we answer the call of the Lord, we don’t seek the name, the world offers those who succeed in the endeavors, it sets its heart upon (Genesis 11:4). Instead, we seek to magnify the name of the Lord (Psalm 34:3; Luke 1:46) in a world that rejects him, and seeks to expunge all knowledge of him in what they do (cp. Romans 1:28).
Abram was a pilgrim in a land occupied by evil men (cp. Genesis 12:6). He looked for a city, “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:8-10). He didn’t do as Lot did, vis-à-vis become invested in the hopes and goals of his political environment (cp. Genesis 13:12; 14:12; 19:1, 9). Instead, Abram was a pilgrim in the land, hoping for the fulfillment of the promises, which the Lord made, in another age, for, if he expected fulfillment in that lifetime, he could have returned to his own country and fulfilled his desires there. Yet, he didn’t do that, showing he expected the Lord to reward him in another age (Hebrews 11:13-16). In like manner we, too, dwell among evil men, in a world rife with envy, murder, controversy, strife and hostility. We dwell with slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, covenant breakers, heartless, ruthless folks of every sort (cp. Romans 1:29- 31). Where is the stake, we have in this world? How can we, who love God, become unequally yoked with folks, such as these, in hope of making this world a better place for future generations? Our hope is in the Lord, not men. We preach the good news of our God, not the propaganda of men, who cast off all knowledge of him (2Corinthians 6:14; cp. Romans 1:28).
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