"And as they lifted up their hands upon me, that they might offer me up and take away my life, behold, I lifted up my voice unto the Lord my God, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and he filled me with the vision of the Almighty, and the angel of his presence stood by me, and immediately unloosed my bands;
And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father’s house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land which thou knowest not of;"
Abraham 1:15-16
Reading this today, I was struck by the fact that God introduces himself to Abraham. This is something we see elsewhere in the scriptures as well, but not something that I had really thought of before. He also delivers Abraham from death, and tells him that he is going to take him away from everything he knows and send him to a "strange land."
This sounds pretty similar to other things that we read in the scriptures as well, if we switch out strange for promised. ... And really, even though God is willing to lead us all to a promised land, it almost always is *also* strange, at least to us, or we would have gone there on our own. We usually have to learn a lot before we can go, and before we can understand why it is better than where we were before.
Today, let's remember that God is willing to introduce himself to all of us. He wants to build that friendship. He is also willing to save us all, as he did Abraham, and to lead us all to strange and wonderful places where we can find more joy and happiness. Let's work for that today, and be willing to take God up on his offer and follow where he leads. :)
And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father’s house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land which thou knowest not of;"
Abraham 1:15-16
Reading this today, I was struck by the fact that God introduces himself to Abraham. This is something we see elsewhere in the scriptures as well, but not something that I had really thought of before. He also delivers Abraham from death, and tells him that he is going to take him away from everything he knows and send him to a "strange land."
This sounds pretty similar to other things that we read in the scriptures as well, if we switch out strange for promised. ... And really, even though God is willing to lead us all to a promised land, it almost always is *also* strange, at least to us, or we would have gone there on our own. We usually have to learn a lot before we can go, and before we can understand why it is better than where we were before.
Today, let's remember that God is willing to introduce himself to all of us. He wants to build that friendship. He is also willing to save us all, as he did Abraham, and to lead us all to strange and wonderful places where we can find more joy and happiness. Let's work for that today, and be willing to take God up on his offer and follow where he leads. :)
Thank you Suzanne. I'd never thought of the idea that the "promised land" is so often also strange to us. True enough. My hope is to reach the point that I recognize immediately that the Lord's "strange" is always wonderful.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. Yeah. I think it is always hard to leave everything you know and choose the promised land instead, but going where God sends us always turns out better than we could have hoped. :)
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