One of the most intriguing characters in all the bible is Abram (later called Abraham). Jews, Christians and Muslims alike all revere him and look to him as a patriarch of their religion. It is amazing that such an obscure man (in his time) could have such a profound impact on the world. God says it best in Genesis 12:3b when He says, “… all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Indeed, Abraham became the patriarch whose covenant leads us to the very person of Jesus Christ. As Paul later says in Galatians, everyone who is in Christ is a “child of Abraham.” From the very beginning of Genesis, we see the plan of God to redeem the world and Abram was a significant part of that plan.
Yet, when God first spoke to Abram and told him to go to the promised land, he was no spring chicken! Notice 12:4, “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.” Think about that, Abram began the great adventure for which God had created him WHEN HE WAS 75 YEARS OLD! I don’t know about you, but most of us are thinking of winding down when we are 75. We feel as if our best years are behind us and we are well into retirement by then. Abram, on the other hand, was just getting started. He wasn’t perfect and made his share of blunders, but Abram also did some amazing things in these few chapters of Genesis. He heard God’s call and obeyed, he followed Him to a place he didn’t know, he defeated pagan kings, he got rich, he worshipped, he built altars, he tithed, but most significantly, the bible says “He believed.”
God took him outside one night and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them… your offspring will be that numerous.” The next verse says that “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” 15:6. The most significant thing that Abram (Abraham) ever did in his entire life was to believe God when every circumstance said otherwise. He looked up in the sky and believed an impossible promise that through an old, barren man the entire world would be blessed and his descendants would be innumerable. I like to think, in my sanctified imagination, that when Abram looked up in that sky one of those tiny stars had my name on it. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, God knew my name and had a plan for me. A lot of things had to fall in place for that plan to come to fruition, but one of those details was for an old man to hear God’s call, leave his home and do impossible things by faith at an age when most would just stay home. I am writing this today because he believed.
What has God called you to do and believe that will one day make the difference for someone you have never even met?
