The lord said go…

I’m starting a study on Genesis 12; The Call of Abram and I thought it would be good to write about what I am learning and discovering for a few reasons above and beyond what Genesis 12 might have to teach me/us.

why I write and you should too

1. Writing is a powerful form of meditation as it forces you to think through and over what you are writing. Scripture tells us to meditate on God’s word, to remember it, recall it, to ponder and contemplate it and to not let it depart from our mouths (Psalm 1:2; 77:11-3; 63:6; 143:5; Joshua 1:8) Colossians 3:16 tells instructs us to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. This means more than hearing a Sunday sermon or reading the ‘verse of the day’ on your Bible App. You need to engage your mind and really chew on it. This is what makes journalling, or writing of any form, such a powerful tool. If you want to increase your knowledge or intelligence on any issue, topic or theme, write about it. This will require you to study, learn, absorb & understand so that you can redistribute it into words on a page or screen. I would often tell my college students that the best way to develop an understanding of a theological concept is to teach it to a new Christian because you actually have to know what you’re talking about as a new Christian won’t understand all the jargon and Christianese we often hide behind. So, how do you meditate on God’s Word?
2. Writing helps me maintain, hone and sharpen my teaching gift. We are all called by God to learn his Word, know his Word and apply his Word, but not all are called to teach (James 3:1). Every believer has been gifted and graced by God’s Spirit in unique ways (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Peter 4:10-11) to contribute to the body of Christ and each one of us has a responsibility to use, strengthen, increase and develop those gifts (2 Timothy 1:6). Writing is one way that I can steward my gift because even if no one reads it, I’ve still put the work in. How do you actively develop and strengthen your gifts?
3. Writing is just one way that I can share what I am learning and use my gift of teaching for the common good of building others up (1 Corinthians 12:7; Ephesians 4:11-12). Even though no one needs to read what I write, hopefully, someone is reading my articles and is being encouraged and/or equipped by them. How are you using your gifts to benefit other believers?

Yeh, yeh yeh, The call of Abram; heard that one already

One of the things I find challenging, and fun, is to try to ignore everything I think I know about a passage of scripture and approach it as a clean slate. Now, I’ll admit, this is often difficult because when you’ have’ve been reading and teaching the Bible for almost 20 years (and hearing a Sermon every week for as longer) your prior knowledge can’t help but try and jump in with an ‘I-know-this-already’ attitude. If you know the life and story of Abraham already then you’re wrestling with those exact same auto-responders right now… yeh yeh yeh… The call of Abram… heard that. Maybe you have. I know I have. Many times. But…

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

Proverbs 25:2

Familiar scriptures are simply an opportunity to dig a little deeper, search a little longer and discover some hidden gems you may have missed previously. Sometimes we miss things because we don’t see the connections to the bigger picture, sometimes we miss things because we approach the Bible like something to check off a to-do list, we read and put it down without asking any questions. Sometimes we miss things that God has hidden from us for our benefit, we’re just not capable of absorbing all the revelation concealed in every single verse, so it is the mercy of God to invite us to drink slowly from a gentle brook instead of trying to take sips from a fire hydrant. So here’s my invitation; sideline what you think this chapter is about as best you can and ask the Lord to help you find some new treasures that have been there all along. That’s my prayer too, Holy Spirit lead me into your truth, show me what I have missed before, confirm the Gospel to my soul and enlarge my awareness of your goodness and show me more of who you are so as to trigger a greater level of awe and worship flowing out of my heart towards you. Lead me, guide me, teach me, transform me, in Jesus’ Name.

Genesis 12: asking questions, challenging pop-theology

I like to go s l o w l y when I study scripture; there’s no rush, and there’s no end of study nor prize for getting to the last page, so I go slow. Often I find questions arise as I read and re-read the same passage, taking notes, exploring rabbit holes of thought, reading related scriptures, searching through links and consulting dictionaries and lexicons. I also find that there are things I gloss over so fast without really thinking. Take for example the first part of the first verse of Genesis 12. The LORD said to Abram, ‘Go…’

Now the LORD said to Abram

Most people immediately focus on the ‘go’ and jump to careless conclusions about how we should go and get busy going… go go go! But let’s slow down and drink from it bit by bit

The LORD said to Abram. Read that again. The LORD said to Abram. The LORD said… The LORD of glory who created the heavens and the earth initiated a conversation with a mere mortal, the son of a nobody. Abram was a nobody in a world of nobodies. There were no Jews, no chosen people, no Israel, and no promises that made Abram special. At this point, God could have called and chosen anybody. Yet God speaks. God speaks to Abram. That’s wild! Contemplate that for a moment; God speaks. And if he speaks to Abram with no promise or reason to, how much more is he likely to speak to those to whom he has promised to speak?

Remember what Jesus said in John 16:13-15 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

One of the main reasons the Holy Spirit came and was given to us was so that He would guide us and lead us using his voice; speaking and declaring. Abram didn’t have this promise in Genesis 12 but we do.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me

John 10:27

For me, this has always been a challenge to embrace. God wants to speak… to me? Yeh, he does. I can’t recall who said it first, it wasn’t me, but I heard someone say this and it encouraged me.

God is more capable of making himself heard than you are incapable of hearing him.

Jesus assured his disciples that they did know his voice and they would follow it. The Holy Spirit’s primary job in the life of a believer is to help us hear the voice of Christ. Too often we can be hard on ourselves, and others, for not hearing clearly when what we should be doing is trusting in God’s ability to make himself heard. Genesis 12:1 does not start with Abram listening, but with God speaking. It does not start with Abram fasting and praying, waiting on God or holding an all-night worship service despite how good all those things are. It starts with God initiating a conversation. The LORD said to Abram… Everything we do as believers should be done in response to the LORD. It was the LORD who initiated creation, it was the LORD who came looking for Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the afternoon. It was the LORD who put on flesh and dwelt among us and it was the LORD who sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Our God is the one who is constantly initiating and starting things, including conversations. Anything we say to him, any prayer we pray or song we sing is always a response to what he has already said and done.

God speaks, so learn to listen

The issue most people have, the issue I have, is that sometimes I just don’t listen. I’m in a rush, I’m busy, preoccupied, or just flat-out lazy… excuses, excuses, all of them as invalid and lame as the next. It’s not my gift, I’m not prophetic… garbage. Show me a scripture that says God’s ability to make himself heard depends on what gift I have. God speaks. It’s what he does. The problem is not that we can’t hear God, but that we do not listen. I’m speaking to myself here, remember. If I haven’t heard God speak for a while guess which one of us is having technical difficulties? Not God.

How many times as a parent have I called or spoken to my kids and they simply don’t respond? They’re in the room and their ears work, I know they can hear me, but sometimes they’re just not listening well. I can be like that too, my guess is so can you? Soon we’ll see that God tells Abram to ‘go’. What has God told you to do? What instruction or direction has he given you? What command? What invitation? The call of Abram does not mean we should all go, that’s bad hermeneutics, what we can draw out of this though is that we should all hear God when he speaks.

The voice of God

What does God sound like? Genesis 12 doesn’t say, but throughout the Bible we see God speak, or communicate, through many different ways: dreams, visions, creation, audible voice, people, angels, inner voice of the spirit, unction, leading, prophecy, prophets, speaking, and the internal dialogue we can have with the LORD during prayer… God has no trouble making himself heard, we just need to turn our hearts towards him when he speaks and posture ourselves to hear. God, would you help us, help me, to hear you better and to become a better listener, thank you for sending your Spirit to guide me, to declare truth to me and to lead me in the way to go. Amen.

Hearing God for me is often connected to studying scripture and meditating on his word, this helps me to become more familiar with his accent and his tone. The more I know his word the better I position myself to recognise his voice. How are you developing your familiarity with God’s voice? How are you developing your listening skills?

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