Genesis 12

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

The Call of Abram is in direct opposition to the Tower of Babel. Abram is called by God to go away from his people with the promise that he will be blessed and that his name will be great because of his willingness to follow God. The Tower of Babel on the other hand, is built by people not willing to follow God’s command to be fruitful and multiply and spread across the Earth. They believe they can do it all themselves and the consequence of this the creation of multiple languages that force the people to spread out.

The lesson from Abram is that obedience to God brings blessing. In obedience, He will bless us so we may bless Him and others. Obedience to God requires sacrifices; it requires us to think about where God wants us rather than where we want to be. Sometimes our feeling and God’s calling will be in conflict with one another. I imagine it would’ve been hard for Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father‘s home to follow God but the sacrifice is often required to receive the blessing. God will call us in ways that do not make sense, but we must trust that His plan is greater than ours.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭24‬ ‭

Jesus tells us the same truth. A person who believes in and follow God will be required to make sacrifices. This is because that person is living for Him rather than for themself. It will not always make sense since our society encourages self-centered and feeling-based living but the advice to follow God is not nonsensical. Following God is actually the most wise advice we could take. He is our Creator. He is the one that we will be with for eternity so why would we not live our life following Him? It is silly to think that we are in control in a world where worldly things don’t make much sense. God doesn’t always make much sense, but He makes more sense than the world does in many ways. He is consistent in His promises.