Frebruary 27, 2009

Flee Idolatry

Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram [was] seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites [were] then in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent [with] Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. (Genesis 12:1-8 NKJV)

There is much that can be written about this passage. I hope to deal with the promises later, and focus on the calling out now.

The people that Abram lived around had become very idolatrous according to all the commentaries I read. Therefore, God calls him to get out of the place, and away from his family.

The New Testament tells us we are not part of this world: I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (John 17:14-16 NKJV)

What God did for Abram was to remove him from the influences of an evil family. The separation prefigured the believer’s need to keep himself unspotted from the world. In Abram’s case he actually moved to a new land, and like I wrote earlier there is a lot that could be written about this text. However, we need to remember that the Old Testament is full of types and shadows of things to come. Therefore, it is the separation I want us to concentrate on this morning.

God has not taken us out of this world. However, He wants us to be separated from the world’s sin. James says that keeping oneself unspotted from the world is part of true religion (James 1:27).

This is not a minor part of religion. It is no small thing to keep yourself pure. However, if you are not fighting this battle for purity, then you are near hell’s fire. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor [is] he who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10 NKJV)

It would be a good time to take a look at your life to see what you practice. To practice means to do something over and over again. Of what is your week full? If you don’t like what you see, then get out of that spiritual land before judgment falls and you are left ruined.