The Land of Blessing

The Blessing

By William M. Self, Sr.

 

The land God called Abraham to was worse than his home land

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah

Yet God blessed him and he became a blessing to others

“Come out from among them, and be you separate,

 says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.”  

 

The Land of Blessing

The world is a different place from the time of Abraham.

Abraham is told by God he will receive a double blessing

but he must leave his family and home land.

Today, we think nothing of getting in our

cars and driving hundreds of miles.

Or, taking a plane and crossing the ocean to another country.

When we get there, it is like we never left

through modern technology, cell phones and Skype.

  When Abraham left his country, he was separated.

He could not depend on a wire bank draft from the family.

To add to the issues, he did not know where he was going.

Abraham is called the “Father of Faith”.

He departed and his obedience is heroic.

God led him to the land of the Canaanites.

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah?

God did not lead him to a life of a monk

or nun to be shut up in a place of seclusion.

Jesus, like Abraham, was called to leave

His heavenly family and Kingdom…

To a land filled with evil and corruption.

The double blessing was…

God would bless him so he would be a blessing.

Abraham and Jesus in appearance

looked like the people around them…

No need to dress differently or post bumper

 stickers to show they were different.

They ate and drink just like the rest of the people…

The difference was not external.

God calls all believers to life… 

A life of separation.

 

In obedience to the divine command…

“Come out from among them, and be you separate,

says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.”   

We are to be separate in reality, not merely in appearance.

To be separate in a higher tone of morals, 

to be separate by a truer life…

 A life with God, a life in God.

The land God calls us to is unseen, but really…

It is obtained by faith.

This for Abraham, Jesus and you and I as believers is…

A high, hard, holy and a heavenly task.

Our enthusiasm will separate and even cause some to despise us.

But to get the blessing, we must enter the land of the unseen.

Then we will become the blessing.

 

Scripture Reading

Genesis 12:1-3 NIV

The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country,

your people and your father's household

and go to the land I will show you.

2 "I will make you into a great nation

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you."