How God Makes Men: Abraham
Pompeii was a popular tourist city in the Roman Empire – located on the west coast of Italy and home to 20,000 people. It was also located near the base of a massive volcano – Mount Vesuvius. In 79AC, Mt. Vesuvius exploded. When it exploded, scientists estimate that it ejected 1.5 million tons of ash and rock every second for 24 hours, spewing ash 12 miles into the atmosphere. The surrounding region, including the city of Pompeii, was covered with ash 16 feet deep. The ash remarkably preserved the city before it was covered in lava. The lava was estimated to have flowed down the mountain at 70mph. Many of the residents of Pompeii escaped prior to the eruption, but some were left behind. There is a story about a Roman Soldier whose body was found standing at his post at the city gate.
Despite the obvious danger, the soldier was given an assignment and until his orders stated differently, he was going to do what he was told…even at risk of his life!
Like That Roman Soldier at Pompeii video
Abraham was shaped by learning to trust God even when given difficult assignments. That is how God shapes a man’s faith, by giving him difficult assignments!
Abraham’s Assignment – Trusting God in the Unknown:
Let’s get a clear picture of what took place: Abraham was called out of Ur (Iraq…Babylon). For reasons we are not quite sure about, Abraham stopped mid-way in Haran and “settled there” (Genesis 11). Several years later, after his father died, Abraham resumed his journey.
God makes men by giving them challenging assignments – sometimes assignments into the unknown or assignments which make no sense… to us. Ur & Haran were places of Moon God worship. Abraham and his ancestors worshipped the Moon God. God needed to take Abraham out of his current culture to create a new person. Similarly, God took Moses out of Egypt into the desert to create a new person.
Eventually, “Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” (Genesis 12:4) Like the Soldier at Pompeii was given an assignment, simple in some ways – leave the trappings of your old life behind, go to a foreign country and stand there to the very end of your life. Abraham stands there trusting in God, that’s the assignment. Yes, God will do amazing things through Abraham, but all those things are up to God. What’s up to Abraham was to go and stay at his post, to trust God when given a difficult assignment or taken into the unknown.
It’s one way God shaped Jesus (John 17:1 – “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”) Jesus was on assignment. Jesus didn’t do everything that could possibly be done, but he completed his assignment. Jesus stood his post to the very end, even when it cost him his life.
Questions: God makes men by giving them challenging assignments. What difference does it make if you do or do not think you are on assignment from God? Do you sense that you are on assignment or have an assignment from God?
Have you “settled” in a place that’s only halfway to God’s call? A place which may be closer to the end goal yet you just can’t give up some portion of your old life, so you “settled.”
God Shapes Men Through Opposition and Pain:
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. Genesis 12:4-7
One man with his family came into the Promised Land (Garden of Eden) with the goal to be used by God to make God known and through him to be a blessing to the whole world! Abraham built an alter to Yahweh at the Oak of Moreh in the land of the Canaanites. Most scholars think this particular location was a place of idol worship. Right away you see Abraham establishing his camp in enemy territory. Abraham sets up an alternative altar. Abraham knows right away his presence is going to cause a cultural volcano to erupt. He knows it’s an assignment where he will encounter great opposition.
A little history for you – Boniface was a missionary to Germany around 700AD. There was a sacred tree called the Oak of Thor where pagan worship took place. As Pagan worshippers looked on, Boniface chopped down the tree. When nothing immediately bad happened to Boniface, many people put their faith in God. Boniface spent his life laboring against idols until many years later at age 79, he and 53 others were killed for their faith at a ceremony of new believers. Boniface kept standing even under attack – What an Assignment!
It wasn’t Abraham’s job to make a great nation or get a great name. Those were things God would do. Abraham’s job was to live by faith, to be obedient, to stand his post. Consider the humility and pain tolerance required of Abraham!
If you were searching for leaders to change the world, what qualities would you look for? Courage and intelligence would certainly be prime candidates. Charisma might make the list. Yet, I would rank two others ahead of them, the two qualities I’m thinking of are: Humility and Pain Tolerance.
When I graduated from college, I wanted to change the world – Yet I faced Two big problems:
First: I was actually more interested in being recognized for having changed the world. What I really wanted was credit. You see, making a difference was not really about the world after all. It was about me.
Second: There were limits to my desire to change the world. As much as I wanted to make a difference, I wasn’t too keen on having to suffer – ‘Sure, I can deal with some hard work or temporary financial setbacks. But real suffering? Embarrassment? Rejection — No thank you. I don’t want to make that big of a difference.’ Before setting out on a quest to change the world, Christian leaders should probably ask themselves two questions: “Who am I really serving?” & “Am I ready to suffer?” Patrick Lencioni
Question: What idols in your life or in our culture has God called you to stand against? Discuss Lencioni’s two critical qualities in your own life – humility and pain tolerance.
God’s Timing and Your Assignment:
Abraham lived like a Bedouin, traveling and living in tents. He never got to see for himself the promises made to him in Genesis 12.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Hebrews 11:8-13
The Nation of Israel didn’t really begin to take shape until the end of Joshua’s life.
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God…“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:1 and 14-15
What’s the time between Genesis 12 and Joshua 24? 700 years! 2100 BC to 1400 BC. I wonder if God asked you, today, to stand your post and promised he was going to deliver something through you, would it be okay if he fulfilled it in the year 2725? Would that be okay?
Abraham was shaped by learning to trust God even when given difficult assignments. That’s how God shapes a man’s faith, by giving him difficult assignments!
Questions:
1. What difference does it make if you do or do not think you are on assignment from God? Do you sense that you are on assignment or have an assignment from God?
2. Have you “settled” in a place that’s only halfway to God’s call? A place which may be closer to the end goal yet you just can’t give up some portion of your old life….so you “settled”?
3. What idols in your life or in our culture has God called you to stand against? Discuss Lencioni’s two critical qualities in your own life: Humility and Pain Tolerance.
4. Discuss God’s Timing in your life: Is it OK if he delivers on his promises 700 years after you die?
Iron Leadership Materials: