Abraham was called by God to leave his land and his people to a place which God would show him. He was to be the progenitor of the nation God would use to introduce His Son into the world. In calling Abraham God was strategically positioning him in preparation for the fulfilment of His promise of a Saviour to mankind from man’s disobedience and its consequences. This was an incredibly strategic and providential move by God many generations and thousands of years ahead.
Acting in absolute faith and trust in God, Abraham abandons his land and His people for a place that he does not know. Following God’s instruction and having understood His general purpose for his life, Abraham allowed God to position him even though it meant being uprooted from his place of comfort and convenience. Abraham chose God’s purpose over his personal comfort and convenience.
Having moved out from the place of his comfort and convenience, Abraham now settled where God placed him – that is until he began to experience hardship. A famine arose in the land and Abraham thought to himself that it would be best to leave for Egypt for such was the custom of those days. Canaan depended on rainfall, while Egypt depended on the Nile River and its annual flood and was generally renowned for its rich harvest of wheat and vegetables even in times of drought in the surrounding regions for which reason Abraham chose to move there at this time.
This seemed like the entirely plausible and acceptable thing to do, especially seeing that everyone else moved where the grass was greener as the agrarian societies of that time depended on favourable climatic conditions for theirs and the livelihood of their cattle. Abraham made a decision on his own that was based entirely on the adverse climatic conditions they were now experiencing and possibly the custom of his days and the people among whom he now lived. He did not seek God nor consult Him who had placed Him there in the first place. Abraham simply responded to the external hardships he experienced as he knew best and was not ill-intentioned or willfully disobedient in his decision to migrate to Egypt. He simply failed to factor God into the equation here – the very cause and reason of his being in the land where he was now experiencing external hardship. As far as Abraham was concerned, this seemed like a right move. However, Canaan remained the place God had called and positioned Abraham in.
Like Abraham, we too can unwittingly and unintentionally shift from the place God has positioned us in, often betraying a lack of trust in God to take us through whatever hardships we experience in the place He positions us in. This can be a specific church, ministry, workplace or neigbbourhood. As can be seen form the life of Abraham and countless saints in the Bible, God is never random about where He positions us. He does so with a purpose and strategically. Shifting from our positions without God’s direction always carries a price with it which we sometimes may have to carry with us for the rest of our lives. So let us stay put where He places us until such a time He deems it right to move us.
So let us always stay put where He places us until such a time He deems it right to move us.
In the next blog we shall see what Abraham’s shift in position cost him and how God graciously rescued him from the potential ramifications.