Abraham: The Call to Leave
Hebrews 11:8-10
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
World English Bible
Every move in Abraham’s life before this one had a destination. This one had only a voice. “Go out to the place which you will receive”, and that was the entire itinerary. No map, no address, no advance scouting report. Hebrews states the absurdity plainly: “He went out, not knowing where he went.” Seventy-five years of accumulated life in Ur (career, kin, the family graves, every structure of identity) exchanged for a promise and a direction: away.
This is faith in its rawest form, and it exposes what we usually mean by the word. We say we trust God, but mostly we trust God plus the plan: God plus the savings account, God plus the backup option, God plus knowing how it turns out. Abraham was given God minus all of it. And he found that God minus everything is still enough. Obedience that waits for full information isn’t faith; it’s navigation.
Then comes the stranger detail: even after arriving, Abraham never really arrived. He lived in the land of promise “as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents.” Tents! The heir of the whole country, with pegs and canvas instead of foundations and stone, for decades, and his son and grandson after him. God had promised Abraham the land, yet let him live in it as a foreigner. Why? Because God was teaching him that the promise was always bigger than the real estate. “He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” The tent kept his heart portable; the city kept his hope anchored.
There is a word here for everyone living in the gap between promise and fulfillment, which is to say, every believer. You are meant to feel a little like a sojourner. The unsettledness you sometimes feel in this world is not a malfunction of faith; it is faith’s homing instinct. People who get too settled stop looking for the city.
So hold your address loosely and your hope tightly. The God who called Abraham out of Ur is still calling people out of their securities and into His promise. The destination is better than the directions suggest.
Reflect
- Is my obedience to God conditional on seeing the full itinerary first, and what “Ur” might He be calling me to leave without one?
- Have I become so settled in this world that I’ve stopped looking for the city with foundations? What would an honest audit of my hopes reveal?
- What securities am I quietly adding to God (God plus the plan, God plus the backup), and what would trusting God minus them look like?
Pray
Ask God for Abraham’s kind of faith: the willingness to obey His voice before you can see the destination. Name the security He may be asking you to hold loosely (a place, a plan, a possession) and surrender it specifically. Then thank Him that you are not wandering but homing, headed for a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God.