Genesis 12:1-9
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
I am more than a little suspicious of the religious personality who claims direct revelation from God. Usually it has to do with God presumably revealing the funding target for a particular “ministry,” or that an unspecified person in the viewing audience can expect an unverifiable healing.
Steer way clear of the “evangelist” who never actually proclaims the Evangel – the good tidings of redemption through Jesus Christ – of the “ministry” that never actually ministers the means of grace but will liberally use Christ’s Name while trolling for dollars.
There is more than enough revelation from God in Holy Scripture to keep anyone busy listening, learning, and living the Christian faith without heavenly Tweets fobbed off on the susceptible poor. False prophets will answer for the violation of God's Name.
If God should actually choose to speak immediately to you, it certainly would not consist of a petty comment on your next Seed-Faith offering or the healing of your bunions.
Instead God speaks through the means of His inspired written Word and the incarnate manifestation of His Word, Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 1:1-2; John 1). With the coming of Christ and the written revelation of Jesus’ saving work there appears no more "need" for direct revelation since we have everything we need to know for life and salvation.
Oh, God could speak directly. The call to Abram was direct revelation, but that is not an event to be envied. For Abram it meant a wholesale transformation of his life, permanent departure from the home he knew, and a journey to a distant land without welcome from its heathen people.
For anyone who might think it more motivating to get a direct assignment from God, first try your training wheels on this word of Jesus in the Bible, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24).
God's Word did stir Abram. What else will cause a man to surrender his home, comforts, and worldly security? Is it not God's promises which justify the same reliance of Christians who would deny self and take up a cross to follow Jesus?
Yes, I know there are people who sacrifice their lives to false hopes and non-existent gods believing that austerity, virtue, or jihad will earn them a place on some Cloud 9.
The difference with Abram is that God spelled out not so much what Abram was to do but what He, God, would do. The call to Abram was simply to go, but the promise and power behind that call is instructive to us. Abram’s God promised to lead him, bless him, and honor him. God promised to curse anyone who might seek to harm his chosen servant. And God promised an unlikely homeland, a once-godless place which God himself would cleanse and then fill with Abram’s offspring and divine prosperity.
Such a place today is known as the holy Christian church consisting of all those called to faith in the cleansing of Baptism, led in an unceasing confession of Christ’s Name solely on the Old and New Testaments of Holy Scripture.
Did you notice that on arrival in Caanan, Abram didn’t get busy driving out the unbelievers. He didn’t file a claim with the Bureau of Land Management. He didn’t build cities.
He built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
God's call to Abram had been a call to faith, and Abram expressed his trust in worship right were God had promised to bless him.
Abram never saw in his lifetime the fulfillment of all God had promised. The great nation and fruit of Abram’s faith through which all nations of the earth would be blessed would not be realized until the coming of the Christ Child.
But Abram was content to worship God in hope, knowing that God does not call anyone without a promise and never gives a promise without the certainty of its fulfillment.
God doesn’t offer goofy calls. He doesn’t make insipid promises. And He certainly doesn’t ask us to pry Him loose with our seed-dollars.
No, God has given us the fullness of His Son’s righteousness through the Word of the cross. He has also led us to a home in the communion of his people, and blessed us with His unending benediction. Like Abram, celebrate that grace at the altar of the Lord … yes, this Lord’s Day at the Communion altar.
