FATHER gave Abram four commandments to follow!
Moses recorded by THE SPIRIT in Genesis chapter 12:
1 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.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 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.”
In other Words, “Leave it all behind—your native land, your people, your father’s household, and go to the land that I will show you.”
#1 Leave your country
#2 Leave your people
#3 Leave your father
#4 Go to a country I will show you
4 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.
5 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 failed commandment #2 when he took Lot and the other people.
We find in the “descendants of Haran” in Genesis chapter 11:
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they all departed together from the Chaldean city of Ur to go into the land of Canaan. But when they journeyed as far as Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived two hundred and five years and died in Haran.
Abram failed commandment #3 when he took his father to the land of Canaan. He was successful in commandments #1 and #4. Abram was partially obedient, two out of four.
His partial obedience did not disqualify him from his calling… thankfully! Abraham departed Ur in a massive caravan rather than just Sarai and himself.
What happened next?
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
Abraham departed Canaan and went to Egypt by necessity. Why? He had brought a sizable group of people to feed. In Egypt, he lied about Sarai to Pharaoh telling him that Sarai was his sister.
After he and his caravan returned to Canaan, Lot went to live in Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham had to deliver him. Had Lot remained in Ur, Abraham would have had a simpler life.
In Genesis chapter 16:
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.
Where did Hagar come from? She was added to the caravan when Abraham took them to Egypt. Abraham continued to complicate matters as he walked in partial disobedience to his calling. Abraham messed things up and we are still dealing with his decision to go to Egypt. Hagar and Ishmael’s descendants are still fighting Isaac’s descendants today.
If Abraham was fully obedient, FATHER said, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.”
It is estimated that Abraham’s partial obedience cost him mor than ten years and much heartache before the fullness of blessings began to flow.
FATHER is a BLESSER and HE wanted to bless Abraham and make him a blessing to others. Partial obedience causes delay and restricts blessings!
It is written by THE SPIRIT in Isaiah chapter 1:
19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the best of the land.