4. God’s Promise of Land

Genesis 12:1 -

1 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.

How amazing is this promise. Think of what is being requested of Abram ( Abraham ) to establish it –

“Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

God is asking Abram to leave everything he has known except God, Leave behind everything that he is tied to. It’s absolutely amazing, Faith is what enabled Abram to do that because He trusted in who God is. Often on our walks with Jesus Christ, we need to leave things behind, leave our home environments, loved ones, and more, and Trust in Who He Is. God is Faithful, I believe Abram understood this well.

There is a few layers to this promise.

Initially with have a Promise for land, God say’s that by leaving your country, family, and fathers house, that He will show Abram land, a new home. The next scripture in Genesis 12:2-3, brings more weight to the promise but if God was to stop here and not promise to Abram the further things which were –

2 I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Would we follow God’s command without any reassurance that God is going to Bless us there, but following and being obedient to God’s command because we acknowledge who He is. Something i’ve struggled with many times on my journey with Christ.

We have so many promises in Jesus Christ, that as and when God instructs us in our lives, God does not always reveal to us what Blessing He has awaiting for us when we get to where He is showing us to go because we have all those promises in His son, Jesus Christ. So we can trust His word and trust that His wonderful Promises will follow us wherever we go. So as we look into this scripture keep in mind that, We have those and more in Jesus Christ.

Abram is leaving his country, his national heritage. The culture that he has known. For ourselves we often find our identity in those around us and how we fit in to those around us and the culture we live in. God does not want that for us, He wants us to seek our identity in Him. We see God instructing Abram to leave his culture, to leave the land he had known. Which unlike today, would have been allot larger request, because there was not the luxuries that we often rely on today. Abram may not of had a clue what lay in the world around him. But what we see later is that Abram trusts in God and that God is able and does. The Hebrew word literally means country, land or nationality.

We see in the next thing God commands him to leave more verification of this. “From Your Family”, This is probably the hardest one for most people, we often think that God would not ask or cause a situation that may be stressful on a family, but this is not true. Jesus Christ spoke about how the Gospel will cause division to take place, We see this often in when a child or in a relationship when one is Christian and the other is not, or when a child is Christian and the parents are not. Jesus Christ spoke about this in Luke 12:51-53 –

51 Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. 52 For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53 Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Often it is read that Jesus Christ came to bring war, this is not so. To really understand this scripture I believe it’s important to look at the Hebrew meaning of the word Peace. It means to be “set at one again” and be in “oneness”. We know through knowing the gospel that we cannot be joined with the earth and with our Heavenly Father. By Jesus Christ we have oneness with are brothers and sisters in the faith, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit and The Father. But to all else we are as strangers because we are no longer of the same kinship as them.

1 Peter 1:1 –

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

So for God to take Abram, out of his home environment and away from his family is not a big surprise, because God had a plan in mind for him. It’s also important to note that it’s great to see, that God is Faithful. Throughout the entire Bible, God stays and remains the same. Often people say God is different in the old and new testament, This is simply not true. God is Truth and His Truth does not change with time.

Family in Hebrew means - lineage, native country; also offspring, family: - begotten, born, issue, kindred, native (-ity).

Builds a fuller picture of what God is instructing him and what he is leaving. The last command God gives to Abram, is to leave his “fathers house”, Literally meaning house of your family. So it’s very clear that God is instructing Abram to leave his family, and all his that is due to him by his family and that environment.

Why does God command Abram away from his family and home ?

I think this is an important question, but I think we find the question is more so-

Why does God want Abram ( or us ) to separate ourselves from the world we love ?

I believe through reading this, and various other examples in the Bible, the greatest of which would be the disciples, as they are instructed to “follow” Jesus Christ. They left everything in an instance. We are so often influenced by those around us, especially in regards to family and friends. We can often be held back from what God is calling us to and for because we are not willing to boldly seek Him and follow Him and forsake all else for His Name.

In Jesus Christ we have no attachment to this world, God was creating an environment for Abram where he would rely and seek Him alone. God did not break those relationships himself, but commanded Abram to. It’s a beautiful picture of the nature of God, He does not impose anything upon us, He wants us to be willing participants in trusting Him. There is no-one Greater we can trust in.

Mark 10:28 –

Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.”

Jesus Christ replies to Him, something that is so in line with Genesis 12:1, and that is found in Mark 10:29-31.

29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife[e] or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

What is God’s promise to Abram here ?, God will show him to a land.

“To a land that I will show you.”

God’s Promise that He will show him to a land. Show in Hebrew means to advise, guide. We find that God’s Promise is that He will guide him, to a new place, to a new land. It may not seem like the biggest of promises, but I believe there is something God has placed here for us to unpack. God had many promises awaiting Abram in this land, and many things prepared for him but the first step for Abram was to take a step for faith and trust in God and leave all that he had known.

If we look to John 14:1-6, I believe there is so much to be discovered of God’s nature here.

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions;[a] if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

I believe these two scripture parallel each other greatly, We are so Blessed because we know the way to Heaven is Jesus Christ, the Way to Salvation is Him. Abram knew that God was the only Way to His Salvation. He trusted Him to lead his steps and to lead him to a new land. Through revelation of Jesus Christ we have so much assurance in God through Him.

The promise of land, if the promise that God will lead him. It’s an amazingly powerful promise and it’s one I’ve often overlooked but unless we place ourselves in a position where we say and want God to lead us, then we will constantly be trying to walk to places that we don’t know the way to and finding ourselves stumbling, like one walking in the dark.

What God had promised for Abram in this land, was so much stronger than anything physical or relational, But God had a great promise of something Spiritual, During the journey that came about Abram leaned more and more on God and witnessed God do great things and God ultimately established great things through Abram mainly Jesus Christ.

It’s a conditional promise, that he must leave his family, house, land and follow God, this is all too familiar in the new testament to the followers of Christ.

Matthew 10:37 –

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

It’s a beautiful promise we have access to in Jesus Christ. So let us be prepared to leave everything behind, not look towards our family, nor friends nor workplace, nor anything else but only God as our Guide. He is Faithful to lead us, if only we would leave our comforts and follow.