How Are We?
Abram received a call. The one who called was the Lord. 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.” Genesis 12:1. This was the call. As the Lord commanded, Abram left his country, his kindred, and his father's house. He arrived in the land of Canaan. There the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7). As he traveled around, there was a severe famine in the land. Due to this famine, he went down to Egypt to live there for a while. Note that the famine did not take him back to the land he had left. What steadfastness!
Years passed. The son of the promise is born and grows up. The time came for Abraham to find a wife for his son. Abraham did not want to take a wife for his son from the daughters of the Canaanites. He sent his servant with the condition that he bring a wife from his own country and his own kindred. “See to it that you do not take my son back there.” (Genesis 24:6). See how determined he is that he should not return to the land he had left! Note how beautifully the writer of Hebrews has recorded this. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Hebrews 11:15,16.
While Abraham was like this, let's take a moment to consider the Israelites. The Lord Himself brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery. The Israelites traveled towards the land of freedom. Even though it was a wilderness journey, it was still a delightful journey with the Lord who fulfilled all deficiencies. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from the Israelites. They received manna, the grain of heaven. They ate the bread of angels. They drank water from the rocks and from the great depths. Yet they angered God by asking for food according to their desires. The reason they grieved God was that their mind was in the house of slavery. “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” Numbers 11:5.
How are we? What kind of people are we? …seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:9,10. If we have put off our old self and have put on the new self, being continually strengthened in our inner man, and being renewed day by day, then, thanks be to the Lord!
But perhaps, are we reminiscing about the old life we have left behind? Does our old nature peek out from time to time? How long will we go limping between two different minds? Realizing that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, let us repent. The heavenly nation is near. Come, let us inherit it.
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 2 Peter 2:20.
Let this not be our state.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. Psalm 2:12.
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