The Promise Series
Leave your father's house your country and your family and go to the place where I will show you I will make you great I will bless you and curse those who curse you (1)
Abraham left Haran behind, at this point he became born of God. At this point he believed the voice of God that called him and accepted the call. This was his call to repentance. He repented of the idolatry of his father’s house. Abraham and his family came from the idolatrous land of Ur of the Chaldeans. They left the city heading towards Canaan, as it seemed somehow that God had encountered first his father Terah. But along the way Terah, whose name is latin for earth, decided to make his settlement in a place he called for himself Haran.
Haran was the name of the son of Terah and Abraham's eldest brother, who had died at the beginning of their journey along the way to Canaan. It appears as Terah was making his way to Canaan, the Promised land that God was calling him towards at first. He stopped on his journey and decided to make his settlement in a place that he named Haran. The name of his son who had died. It was as though he was unable to finish the mission and calling of reaching the place where God was calling him out towards, on account of his son who had died. That he was unable to surrender the death of his son and continue until he reached the Promised land.
It was as though along the journey the weight, pain and loss he had towards his son was too unbearable so that he made in honour of his son a place that he named Haran and there his journey with God to the Promised land came to an end. That his call to repentance was incomplete as he was not able to let go of his ties to this world completely. He was not able to let go of his son. He did not fully believe in the new life that awaited him in the Promised land. In Canaan where the Lord was calling him out of the land of Ur. The land of the Chaldeans. The land of idolatry. Instead he made a new idol for himself. In honour of his son Haran, who had died at the beginning of his journey towards Canaan, he built a memorial to him and named it after him and there his journey ended. There he remained born of the flesh, a living being. Inconsolable, incomplete. Exchanging the gift of repentance offered by the call of God for the idol of inconsolable remembrance. Dedicated to Haran, the city he named after his son and remained till his last breath.
So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran. (2)
Where the journey of faith of Terah ended in Haran, the place he named after his son. Abraham’s journey began. When he heard the call of God. The same call we assume Terah had heard at first while he was amongst the Chaldeans. Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.(1) Abraham was able to go all the way in leaving behind completely the old world, the land of the Chaldeans to cross over what may have been the river Euphrates. This river was the baptism waters of Abraham, that symbolised him dying, burying and leaving behind the remnant of his past, his family and the idolatrous traditions to embrace the call of the unseen God.
The river Euphrates was used as the separation from death to life. From idolatry of possessions, to faith in the unseen (i). From the strength of man to complete dependence upon the Word. The Promise. The call. In accepting this call and crossing over the river Euphrates, Abraham became born again. Repented and making God his only Lord and Saviour in obeying His voice.
The call of repentance for us today is to leave the customs of this world in order to seek the kingdom of God which is to set our minds on the things above (3). The river that we must pass through after this decision to answer the call of repentance is the baptism in waters. Symbolically representing passing from the old life unto the new. Dying to the ways of the world and burying emotional and spiritual attachments into the waters of baptism. After these first steps we do not yet enter the spiritual kingdom of God but we perceive it when we go to the place where God calls us out to the place where I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually (4) the place where faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God(5). The Promised land. The Second institution established through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church (6).
...And on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (6)
Abraham was now born again in the Promised land upon the Word of God. Born again but not yet complete. Only wondering to and fro the Promised land of Canaan. Meditating and waiting. Even there in the Promised land being born again. Abraham, though leaving behind the physical world of the idolatrous Chaldeans, he still had many things inside of him that he needed to let go and be completely free from. There in the Promised land, Abraham had to overcome his insecurities and unbelief. He was pruned of lies and the fear he had of being killed for his beautiful wife Sarai.
There waiting in the Promised land, in the presence of God upon the Word of God. Abraham had to be free from the "Lot" in his life which was not according to the plan of God for him. In taking Lot his nephew, the son of his brother Haran who had died. Abraham was carrying a little scalpel of the sentimental, emotional idol that had previously ensnared his father Terah. Who held onto the death of his son in remaining on the other side of the river, not fully surrendered to the call of repentance. Holding onto the remnant of his son who took the place of God. The call of God.
In Lot was the little unbelief that Abraham kept with him that God would provide a heir for him from his own body and from his beloved wife Sarah. In letting go and surrendering the departure of Lot, Abraham was once again and now in total dependence on God. A form of worship to God in His faithfulness to fulfil His Promise and make Abraham a great nation from his own body.
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. (7)
Now after the New birth of crossing the river, baptised in burying the old life of the Chaldean idolatry and Haran. Pruning insecurities and attachments internally and externally. Lot departing, then having to be rescued again from Sodom and Gomorrah. The bread and the wine of the cup of salvation in denying the King of Sodom for riches and accepting the offer from the Melchizedek King of Salem, of peace the priest of God (8). Abraham finally made his first Covent with God. A covenant marked by the sacrifice of an animal as witness between them (9). Yet like the sacrifices and religious rituals and traditions made by the people of God in the old testament. Like the skin used from an animal to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve after they sinned. It was not sufficient. It was not good enough, as Abraham not long after was able to break this first covenant like Moses breaking the first tablet of the law. Abraham spent 13 years waiting in the Promised land but with the silence of God. There in the Promised land Abraham fell into temptation when he manifested his unbelief in the Promise of God by having a child with his maidservant Hagar and not his wife Sarah.
Abraham's true journey of faith began when God established a new covenant with him. A covenant that would be better than the first. A covenant that would leave a lasting impression. The covenant of the circumcision, to cut off the flesh.
And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you (10)
Today the circumcision is in the heart. This third encounter with God was like the seal of His Spirit. A seal in the flesh that would mark the memory and remembrance of this covenant. So that Abraham would remember in the flesh his faithfulness and covenant with God. To be faithful to God. Only the removal of the flesh was he finally able to walk in the Spirit. To finally enter the kingdom of God, there in the Promised land (11). Whilst in the flesh he walked, he heard, he believed but he would not fully understand nor was surrendered so that he would stumble in his fleshly inclinations. Yet removing the flesh was the painful remainder to deny oneself and the commitment and sacrifice it requires to please God so that we may abide in His Spiritual Kingdom while living here on earth.
Whilst he was in the flesh he only saw the kingdom of God which was the Word of God and His Promise to him. Yet when he finally cut off the flesh which in those times was symbolic of the circumcision of the forsaken. When he finally made this covenant he was able to enter the Kingdom of God. When he now walked in the Promised land, in the Kingdom of God, in the Spirit of being blameless before God with the flesh cut off. Now he was ready to receive the Promise. The fulfilment of the Word of God. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (12).
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