Abraham

 “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

Like Abraham we are all called to be pilgrims through life. It is up to us if we respond to the call; are we willing to go through separation and hardship to pursue a distant goal and achieve a prize?

This week I went to a book signing for a book, “ Walking to Jerusalem ” by Justin Butcher. Last year we had the hundredth anniversary of the Balfour declaration. A source of joy to the Jewish nation who were seeking a homeland, but sadness to the Palestinians who were largely displaced ending up in refugee camps. This was a pilgrimage and penance for all the injustices which have occurred since. The all way walkers had to commit to taking a 9 month slot out of their life and suffering all the blisters and hardships along the way.

My wife, Mary and I took part in two segments, it was a very moving experience, as we entered into a deep fellowship with our fellow walkers along the way. Walking through the battle fields of Northern France where so many lives had been pointlessly lost. Later we set off from Thessalonica walking the same roman road on which St Paul had walked , as he answered the call of the man from Macedonia to make his own journey to bring the good news about Jesus to the people of Europe. We were certainly walking in the footsteps of giants.

However back to Abraham, he obeyed the call. The original call had been from Ur where he set out with his father, Terah, however they only got as far as Haran where Terah died. God renewed His call to Abraham who obeyed and received the wonderful promise that all the families on earth would be blessed through him and his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky.  This was the wonderful promise that directly, through his descendants, would come Jesus, born to redeem and save all nations worldwide.

So God appeared to Abram, as he was then called, when he arrived in the land which God had promised him and made a solemn covenant  with him but after many years of trying still no son and heir he must slowly have come to the realisation there was no way the elderly Sarai was going to bear him a son, so they decided to take matters into their own hands by Abram sleeping with his wife’s slave girl. This only caused more problems as his son by this liaison was not the one God had promised.  Finally, one day, he received three mysterious visitors, thought by some to be the three persons of the Godhead.  God once more renewed His promise and they were given the son through whom, all the amazing promises would come to pass.

 Abraham had slowly learned to patiently trust God, but this famous person of faith was going to be tested one more time, the request to sacrifice the very one who was so precious to him. He reluctantly obeyed and must have walked with heavy heart up the mountain, but at the last moment, as his hand was raised with the knife, a voice stopped him and as he prophesied, God did "provide a lamb" for the sacrifice, prefiguring the Father’s own precious son, Jesus, who took our place and died that we might live forever.