Abraham knew there was a place for him, and God has a “place” for you. There is a longing in every human heart for where we are meant to be, but we get caught up in our notion of how it’s going to be fulfilled. When Abraham was told by the Lord he had a place, he probably imagined a verdant valley, flowing stream, lovely mountains. But the Scripture says he came into the place and there were Canaanites in the land. The Canaanites were the most perverted, corrupt culture in human history. They were the Satanists of that time.
Abraham’s building of the altar represents his saying: “I’m accepting a promise, understanding that this is different than what I thought it was going to be, but it’s also something that I believe God can bring to pass. I trust You, Lord, that You will make it work.”
Be encouraged to let your heart receive the promise and embrace wherever you are right now, even if it seems much different than what you hope for. If the Lord is there with you, He can make it work, but it will require the building of an altar on your part to say “I’m willing,” as well as your trust that God is greater than your preconception of how it’s supposed to be.
Abraham Calls on the Name of the Lord
When the Bible says that Abraham called on the Name of the Lord, it was more than prayer. The word “name” contains the concept of character.
Our perspective of God is on this side of the completion of the Old and New Testaments. But in Abraham’s time, God was just beginning to rework His communication with fallen humanity. Abraham answered a call because he believed in God and sensed Him drawing his heart to a promise of something that he could not be in himself.
Abraham believed that there was a true and living God in the midst of the pagan culture around him. Now the Lord says to him: I want to teach you about Me. Abraham was coming to know the Lord and he called on the name—and character—of the Lord.
Abraham Leaves and Then Returns to Where God Met Him
When a famine strikes, Abraham decides to take matters into his own hands and moves his family to Egypt (Genesis 12:1-12). That only creates a bigger problem than if he’d stayed and remembered the promise the Lord gave him. The Lord met him in Egypt anyway, helped him through and Abraham returned to the altar he’d made and called on the name of the Lord (Genesis 13:4).
We all fall for that. God’s really busy and He may not notice what I need right now. But if God has a place for you and He’s showing you Himself in that place, provision will never ultimately be your problem unless you try to figure out how to make it for yourself.
There are some people who have launched out on your own and distanced yourself from the place the Lord says He has for you. And the Lord says, “You know Me differently from the way you are acting right now.” Just as surely as He met Abraham and brought him back to the place of the altar, He wants to meet you today. But you’ve got to decide to come to that altar.
