Things Not Seen
“Yahweh said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, from your homeland, and from your father’s house to a land which I will show you.”” Genesis 12:1
Show – The God of simple things. “Go forth”. The common verb for movement. Walking. God doesn’t ask the impossibly difficult from us. He can accomplish the impossibly difficult when we respond to the incredibly simple. Today we see another common verb: ra’ah – to see with the eyes. When God acts, He accommodates His children. He doesn’t say to Abram, “I’ll flood your mind with an impenetrable revelation of my glory.” He says, “I’ll make you see with your own eyes.” When God acts, the evidence of His handiwork is clear.
Of course, there is more to the story. Abram saw the land with his own eyes, but it never became his while he lived. He died owning no more land than his funeral plot. So we might ask the question, “Why did God promise so much to Abram when Abram never really took possession?” And the answer reveals a deep spiritual truth, written into the fabric of the universe.
The fulfillment of my destiny lies beyond the horizon of my mortal life.
God does not intend us to be complete in this world. We were made for bigger things. Our real inheritance won’t be realized until long after we have died. The eternal cannot be compressed into this temporal realm. Here we only get hints.
God did show Abram. Abram saw with his own eyes the future that God had in mind. He saw the land. He heard the promise. But Abram’s real purpose was not finished on the hills of Palestine. His real purpose isn’t finished yet. And neither is yours.
The culture of this world (things that Paul calls the “patterns” of this world) would seduce us into short-sighted destinies. This world proclaims that my life must be fulfilling here and now. The world pushes us toward the great lie: “Life cannot be complete without a purpose I can accomplish”. As a result, our focus shifts. We become tape measure people. We stop living for something beyond the limit of the tape. We look for satisfaction here, between birth and death. We never think about the legacy we are leaving for someone else to measure.
How would your goals change if you knew that you are only preparing for something on the other side? How much frustration and anxiety could you release if you didn’t have to find all the fulfillment here? How much simpler would your living be if you measured it from a perspective one thousand years from now?
God let Abram see with his own eyes. What God showed him is still coming to be. Is that what God is showing you too?
