"Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, 'To your offspring I will give this land.' So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him" (Genesis 12:7).
Abram was 75 years old when he heeded God's command to leave his father's house and go to a land God would show him. He gave up everything he had known, going forth in confidence that God would provide all that He had promised.
One thing Abram liked to do was build an altar whenever God revealed something new. When they reach the land of Canaan, God appears to him again and tells him that this will be the land his descendants will inherit. To commemorate this, Abram builds an altar. Just a couple of verses later, he builds another altar, the Bible saying only that he called upon God there (12:8). And again in 13:18, after Abram divides the land between himself and his nephew Lot, God promises that all the land will one day belong to his descendants, and Abram builds an altar there as a reminder of God's promise.
Abram wanted to remember God. It was 25 years before he would see the firstfruits of God's promise in the birth of his son, and it became difficult to believe He would actually do as He had said. But when things were hard, Abram could look back at the altars he had built and remember how much God had already done. He had called him away from the worship of false gods and brought him safely from his father's house into a strange land. He had protected him from his enemies. He had given him peace in the midst of strife.
When things are hard, it's important to look back. Thus far God has helped us; why would He stop doing so now?
Comments