Do You Trust Me?
December 5, First Thursday of Advent
Light first purple candle - The Hope Candle
Friday Pizza and Movie Nights have been a staple in the Brown home for as long as we’ve been a family, starting with just me and Dale when we were first married. We would get home from a long day and week of work, order or make pizzas and eat while watching a movie. (I will admit that part of the thrill was getting to eat and drink in the family room, since that had never been allowed in my home growing up). Eventually, as we had children, we would take turns choosing which movie would be playing on the big screen.
A favorite of the whole family was Aladdin, the story of the orphan boy who trips upon a magic lamp and, when granted three wishes, is transformed into the mysterious and rough around the edges, Prince Ali. Princess Jasmine, feeling captive in the palace, sneaks out and explores the city. When she takes a piece of fruit from a vendor and has no money to pay, Aladdin rescues her. He had spent a lifetime stealing food from the street vendors just to survive. At one point, there is a jump across rooftops that they must make to escape the authorities who are in hot pursuit and the street rat Aladdin holds out his hand to the disguised princess and asks, “Do you trust me?” What choice does Jasmine really have, so she takes Aladdin’s hand, and they are saved by the skin of their teeth!
Later, Aladdin’s new identity puts him in the position to court Jasmine, but the wicked Jafar does everything in his power to keep the two young royals apart. One warm evening, Prince Ali rides his magic carpet up to Jasmine’s balcony and asks if she’d like to join him for a ride, get out of the palace. Jasmine inquires if the magic carpet is safe. Aladdin responds with the question, “Do you trust me?” Princess Jasmine looks at Ali curiously surprised, as she has never gone for a ride on a magic carpet, nor does she know that the Prince is actually Aladdin. But when he held out his hand to her, eyes bright with urgency and asked, “Do you trust me?” the emotional memories of a street rat saving her from certain doom flooded her mind. Jasmine begins to realize who this 'Prince' really is, so when he repeats the question. “Do you trust me?” She looks up at him, takes his extended hand and firmly replies, “Yes.”
In today’s reading we are introduced to Abram, a Chaldean from the the metropolis of Ur, the oldest of his father, Terah’s, three sons. From seeming obscurity, the LORD God calls Abram from everything he has ever known and asks, “Do you trust me?”
Read Genesis 11:27-12:9
The first eleven chapters of Genesis focus on God’s creation and the development of the human race in general. Of course there is a major plot twist in chapters 6-9 in which God floods the whole world and starts over with an ark full of animals, Noah, his sons and their families. Now the narrative shifts to a specific family from which His beloved Israel would come. Terah, Abram’s father, was a descendent of Noah’s oldest son, Shem, living in Ur and growing his family. In verse 31 we learn that Terah left the land of the Chaldeans and the large capital city of Ur, but why? There is no mention of God speaking to Terah and instructing him to go. His youngest son, Haran, had died in Ur. Perhaps Terah was grieving this loss. Ur was the place and possibly the cause of Haran’s death. I can imagine Terah wanting to get away from all of the places that reminded him of Haran and caused his grief to surface and overflow.
Regardless, Terah, along with Abram, Abram’s wife, Sarai and Lot (Haran’s son) left their home and everything they knew and headed to Canaan, but when they got about halfway there, to a place called Haran, they settled there for several decades. Maybe Terah decided they were far enough removed from Ur, and could feel closer to the son he had lost, but the journey for Terah ended there.
Do You Trust Me?
And then, after his father died, Abram received an unmistakable missive from God:
“The LORD said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed by you.” (Gen. 12:1-3)
I can hear God asking Abram, “Do you trust me?” as He instructs him to go out from this land he has inhabited for most of his life and follow Him to an undisclosed land. There is only one, but big, thing God commands Abram to do - GO - and trust that God will do the rest. God then proceeds to describe all of the things He will do:
I WILL (future tense of His name, I AM)
Show you the land I have prepared for you - remember that land was passed down from the father to the firstborn son. Abram would be walking away from his inheritance from his father Terah and trusting that this God who has never spoken directly to him before would provide.
Make you a great nation - Sarai hasn’t had any children yet and neither of them are getting any younger.
Bless you - God promises to cause Abram to flourish, not only increasing his wealth and possessions but finding favor with all he comes in contact with.
Make your name great - Abram means “exalted father.” What a joke Abram must have felt. How was a fatherless man supposed to be exalted? And later, but well before Sarai gives birth to Isaac, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, “father of a multitude.” The irony is laughable!!
Bless all peoples on earth through you - this is the hardest to believe, as Abram looks at himself and thinks, “How? Why me?”
God puts out His hand to Abraham after proclaiming these outrageous promises and asks the million dollar question: “Do you trust me?” Verse 4 provides the answer, “So Abram went, as the LORD had told him.”
Reflect on how much faith in God was required for Abram to leave everything he had ever known as an adult and go to a place he’d never been, following a deity he had not heard from before. Is there something that the Lord is calling you to do that makes absolutely no sense, but you are growing more sure each day that this is what’s next for you? Is He asking, “Do you trust me?” If so, take his hand and say “Yes!”
Sing the first five verses and chorus of O Come, O Come Emmanuel:
1 O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
2 O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave. Refrain
3 O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight. Refrain
4 O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe for us the heavenward road
and bar the way to death's abode. Refrain
5 O come, O come, great Lord of Might,
who to your tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain
Pray and ask the LORD God for the faith to trust Him in all things.
Blessings,
Gay B Brown