旧约人物:亚伯拉罕--顺服神
创世记十二章4至8节
4亚伯兰就照着耶和华的吩咐去了;罗得也和他同去。亚伯兰出哈兰的时候年七十五岁。
5亚伯兰将他妻子撒莱和姪儿罗得,连他们在哈兰所积蓄的财物、所得的人口,都带往迦南地去。他们就到了迦南地。
6亚伯兰经过那地,到了示剑地方、摩利橡树那里。那时迦南人住在那地。
7耶和华向亚伯兰显现,说:我要把这地赐给你的后裔。亚伯兰就在那里为向他显现的耶和华筑了一座坛。
8从那里他又迁到伯特利东边的山,支搭帐棚;西边是伯特利,东边是艾。他在那里又为耶和华筑了一座坛,求告耶和华的名。
信息分享
我们看起来,亚伯拉罕一开始就是顺服神的。然而,他的顺服是完全的吗?
神吩咐他:「你要离开本族、父家。」他却带了父亲他拉和侄儿罗得一同上路。神已指示他目的地是迦南,但请留意十一章31节说:「他们走到哈兰,就住在那里。」
当他离开哈兰的时候,仍然带着罗得,以致后来惹来很多麻烦。此外,他还带同「在哈兰……所得的人口」(十二5)。这一切行为,是否表示他没有彻底顺服呢?
我们这些舒适地生活在3,500年后的人,可以轻易指责前人的不是。神一直知道答案,却仍然称亚伯拉罕为祂的朋友。我们在指责亚伯拉罕之前,应当省察我们自己的生活。同样的,有太多时候我们的顺服也并不完全,我们也没有彻底从世俗中分别出来。
你是否留意到,当亚伯拉罕抵达迦南时,祝福和试验同时临到?亚伯拉罕的一生经历了不少试验,也许有十次之多。
他抵达迦南之时,得到的第一个祝福,是神亲自向他显现。神对他说:「我要把这地赐给你的后裔。」对于亚伯拉罕,那是多么辉煌的时刻。
亚伯拉罕立即的反应便是敬拜。他筑了一座祭坛,向神献祭敬拜(十二7)。亚伯拉罕在每个所到之处,都会留下一座坛。这是多么美好的见证!我们每到一个地方,留下的是甚么样的见证呢?
OLD TESTAMENT HEROES: ABRAHAM OBEYING GOD
Genesis 12:4-8
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and 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.
Message
It would seem to us at this distance that Abraham started out as God commanded, but was his obedience really complete?
God had said, 'Leave your father's house'. But he took Terah, his father, and his nephew Lot with him. God had indicated Canaan as his destination. But notice again in 11:31, 'When they came to Haran, they settled there.'
When he left Haran, he took Lot, the cause of much trouble later. He also took 'the people he had acquired in Haran'. (12:3) Was all this actually incomplete obedience?
It is easy for us to judge, sitting here in comfort 3,500 years later. God alone knows the answers and He still called Abraham his friend. We need to look at our lives and our all too often partial obedience and incomplete separation from the world before judging Abraham.
Did you notice that blessing and testing met Abraham on his arrival in Canaan? Abraham faced a number of tests in his lifetime, on perhaps as many as ten separate occasions.
The first blessing however that came to him in the land of Canaan was God's personal appearance to him. God came and said, 'You are now in the land I will give to your children.' That must have been a remarkable moment.
Abraham's response was one of worship. He built an altar, offered a sacrifice and knelt before God. (12:7) Wherever Abraham travelled in the land, he left behind an altar. What a witness! As we move around, what kind of a witness are we leaving behind?

