April 6: Exploring New Directions

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

The word zone has become commonplace usage today. We speak of a school zone, business zone or even refer to a quarterback having an effective game. We say he in his zone. We also use it to describe different times in one’s life having particular features as properties of life which tie them together. We use the word that way in our meditation as we consider five zones in Abraham’s spiritual growth which speak to us today. We find parallels in our lives.

In exploring new directions as God may lead, we often must leave the comfort zone (12:1-3). The beginning of verse one states correctly that God “had said” to Abram. The original direction came to Abram while he still lived at Ur of the Chaldeans (11:31; Acts 7:2, 4). After his father Terah died in Haran (11:32), God apparently spoke to Abram again (v. 4). The Bible says simply that Lot went with him. Quite possibly he looked to Abram for leadership in that both his father and grandfather had died. God called Abram specifically to leave his country, family, and his father’s house to go to a land He would show him. The previous call in Ur (11:31) stated the land would be Canaan.

The time to move on had arrived. God promised a sevenfold blessing beginning with making him a great nation and concluding with the promise that all families of the earth would be blessed. The fact that Sarai (later, Sarah) was barren (11:30) later presented a problem for Abram (later Abraham) which he tried to solve by himself rather than waiting on God.

It was time for Abram to enter the obedience zone (vv. 5-6). The time he spent in Haran proved to be economically profitable. By the time he and Lot gathered their possessions and prepared to travel, they had also acquired some other people while in Haran (v. 5). These could have been hired servants to help tend the animals, creating quite an entourage. They passed through the land of Canaan, moving southward until they arrived at Shechem, where a notable oak tree grew, the “terebinth tree of Moreh.” This landmark became the focal point of Abram’s later excursions, a place to which he would return (13:18; 18:1), and where eventually he would bury Sarah (23:17).

After settling near Shechem, Abram entered the worship zone (vv. 7-8). God appeared to Abram with a momentous announcement. He was deeding the land to Abram’s descendants. We should pause to reflect on the implications of the statement. Of a certainty the Canaanites were then in the land (v. 6), but it belonged to God. All the Canaanites, or we, can do is supervise it for the Lord. We own nothing.

Abram then moved to a mountain which separated Bethel on the West from Ai on the east and proceeded to build an altar for worship. For the first time, we are told he called on the name of the Lord. Afterwards he continued toward the South, the Neger in Hebrew.

Before long, Abram entered the strife zone (13:5-9). The acquisition of goods sometimes comes with a tragic downside, the creation of family squabbles. The growth of the animals into large numbers put stress on the herdsmen to supply grazing and water. To complicate the situation, the Canaanites and Perizzites dwelt in the land. Abram held a conference with Lot and suggested a solution, a separation between the two. Abraham gave Lot the choice. Whichever way he chose, Abram would take the other. Lot chose the luscious plains of Jordan, to the east. It was an unfortunate choice in one respect because the choice placed him in proximity to Sodom and Gomorrah.

With conflict between the two groups resolved, Abram then entered the promises zone (vv. 14-16). As soon as Lot’s group moved out, God moved in. He challenged Abram once again to lift up his eyes toward the four corners of the compass and claim the future. God deeded the land to Abram and his descendants into perpetuity. He made no distinction between a future development, between Isaac and Ishmael. The two groups have contended for the land for centuries.