In all of human history there has never been a book as wonderful as the Bible. As the first book in the Bible, Genesis is not a book of doctrine; it is a book of history. It is not a history in a human way but in a very divine way. Genesis uses the biographies of some ancient saints to tell us something that is so divine. The divine revelation is contained in the human lives, in the human stories, of the people in Genesis. In this message we need to see the divine revelation found in Abraham's experience of living by faith.
In some of the preceding messages we have seen that the experience of the called ones has three aspects, the aspects of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The first stage of the first aspect, the aspect of Abraham, was Abraham's being called by God. We have covered this point adequately in the last two messages. Now we come to the second stage of the experience of Abraham—living by faith, or we may say a life by faith. When we speak of a life by faith, we do not mean the life within but the life without, that is, the daily living, the daily walk, of the called ones. This daily walk is not by sight but by faith (2 Cor. 5:7).
Abraham's history is a seed. The entire biography of Abraham is a seed. It is not a seed of doctrine but a seed of our history. Abraham's history is the seed of our history because our history grows out of his history. In a sense, we and Abraham are one in the experience of life. We, the believers, are the true descendants of Abraham, and he is the true father of everyone who has been called by God. When we read his biography, we are also reading our own. His story is about us. As we read all of the chapters in Genesis about Abraham, we must read them in the way of realizing that his story is our story.
We need to see the steps that we must take in following the Lord. The first step is being called, and the second is living by faith. Have you been called? You must strongly say, "Amen, I have been called." Abraham was the first to be called, and, as we have seen, he did not answer God's calling in a clean-cut way but in the way of dragging his feet through mud and water. Our story is the same. Our answer to the Lord's calling was exactly the same as his. In principle, the seed is on a small scale, the growth is on a greater scale, and the harvest is on the greatest scale. We have seen that when Abraham left Haran, he took Lot with him. Did you not bring a Lot with you? If Abraham, the seed, brought one Lot, then it is probable that each one of us has brought many Lots. I am afraid that some of those reading this message have brought more than ten Lots with them. By this we see that our history is found in Abraham's biography.
Regardless of how much Abraham dragged his feet through the mud and water, God was still sovereign. God is God. Abraham was not only called; he was caught. He came out of his country, his kindred, and his father's house, and was brought to Moreh, the place where God wanted him to be and where He reappeared to him (12:6-7). God's reappearing was a seal to Abraham's answer to His calling. God's calling was clean-cut, but Abraham's answer to God's calling was not. Nevertheless, eventually God received a full answer to His calling. I do not care how much the young brothers and sisters drag their feet. Sooner or later, they will be fully caught. The Christian workers and the leading brothers must have the faith never to be disappointed with the brothers and sisters. Never feel that a particular brother is beyond hope. Rather, we must say that there is much hope with that brother. Simply wait awhile and you will see that everyone will come to Moreh.