若用今天的用语,神要亚伯拉罕放下的是什么呢?他要离开安全熟悉的环境,他的房子、工作和朋友。要踏出这一步并不容易。经文没有告诉我们,他的妻子撒莱和一众仆人的反应。然而,尽管对前路一无所知,亚伯拉罕却遵从神的呼召。 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?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?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他的朋友。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?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,留下的是什么样的见证呢? |
In today's terminology, what did God ask Abraham to leave behind? He left security, a known environment, a house, employment, and friends. It was a big step. We are not told the reaction of his wife, Sarah or of his servants. But Abraham was obedient to God's call even if he could not see the way ahead. 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? |
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