Walking By Faith: Genesis 12:4-9
Abram walks by faith. Abram knows God has a plan, but Abram doesn’t know the plan. Abram knows a few generalities of the plan, but he doesn’t see the whole picture. When Abram moves, he moves with intention. He moves with an intention of following. God is in control, not Abram.
Abram leaves Haran and heads into Canaan. When he gets there, he finds a native population already in the land. This is not a surprise, Canaan has some fertile regions, and it would make sense for people to settle there. Abram takes his wife, his family, his possessions, and the people he had acquired.
Imagine the risk involved in this act. Living in Haran treated Abram well. He was prosperous and acquired many things and people. He could have stayed and continued to increase his wealth and make a name for himself. Abram was not a dumb man; he could see that path before him. However, Abram was a man of faith more than a man of worldliness. He considered it better to follow God’s path than the easy path before him.
As Abram comes into Canaan, the Bible notes two actions he takes. The first thing Abram does is to make an altar when the Lord appears to him. Abram is in a foreign land worshipping a foreign God. There are no friendly religious people around to help him out. The Canaanites had their own gods, their own power structure, and their own division of land. By building an altar to God, Abram gives his mind a visual cue to worship. Sometimes to stay on the straight and narrow we need something tangible and visual to help us remember who we serve.
The altar also begins to claim the land for God. God doesn’t need the altar; all of creation is His. The altar claims the land for God in the eyes of anyone else who would come upon it. The altar would let anyone who came upon it know the area was holy ground and desecrating the ground would offend God. It put God’s presence into the minds of the native population.
The second thing Abram did was pitch a tent. This let everyone know that Abram was a sojourner. He was a nomad. In other words, it told everyone that he didn’t belong there. Abram wasn’t from Canaan; he had no locale to call home and no brick building to live in. His tent made it easy to move and follow resources, but it made it harder to find security and belonging.
As Abram comes into the new land, he makes it clear he is following God and not leading God. The altars remind him that God is in charge. The tents remind him he is following God’s lead until God declares he should settle down and make a permanent residence. From his first step into Canann, Abram walks by faith.
