M-G: 5.4.11 // An All-Weather Attitude, Genesis 25:8

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When Abraham left Haran in Mesopotamia for Canaan he was 75, leaving his country, his family, and his father’s house for a life of pilgrimage in a foreign country described as the land of promise (Heb 11:9). This journey would last for a century! Abraham died at the ripe old age of 175 (Gen 25:7) and was buried with his wife Sarah, who had passed away 48 years earlier at the age of 127 (Gn 23:1), in the cave of Machpelah in Hebron. So great was this man of faith that it is said in Matthew's genealogy that Jesus Christ was "the son of Abraham" (Mt 1:1), and every person that believes in Christ is spiritually a son of Abraham (Gal 3:7)!

This all happened because Abraham “believed in the LORD, and He accounted (credited) it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6) when he left Haran (the second calling, Gen 12:5; Heb 11:8, pinpointing his conversion), “to go to the land of Canaan (cf. first calling, Gn 11:31; Gn 15:7; Acts 7:2 in Ur of Mesopotamia). This is a foundational truth for all ages that righteousness (salvation) is imputed or reckoned through faith alone (Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jas 2:23).

The life of Abraham teaches us that obedience brings blessings far surpassing our imagination, but the blessings do not mean that the journey of faith is all hunky dory anymore than spiritual peace means the absence of conflict, for Abraham had his trials and troubles, too! We would be misled to believe that fair weather in our lives means God is pleased with our lives any more than stormy weather means He is displeased with us. Often the greatest blessing comes forth from the storms of life and rarely, if ever, on sunny days!

Faith is an all-weather attitude toward the promises of God. If we are standing on the promises of God by faith we are blessed, regardless of the conditions outside. Weather-watching the circumstances in our lives is an unreliable indicator of being pleasing to God (compare Job 1:1 and recall what happened to him!). “Get out” (Gen 12:1) and “be a blessing” (Gen 12:2c), for like our father Abraham, we are nothing more than sojourners and pilgrims (1 Pet 2:11) on this planet and that is not always smooth sailing. <><