Delay not, delay not!
by Faye Schmidt
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The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household and to the land I will show you’ (Genesis 12:1).
Read Genesis 11:27–12:8
This passage of Scripture records the genealogy of Abram (Abraham) and his family. Although recorded in Genesis 12:1, the call of God to Abram to leave Ur and go to Canaan was given prior to the beginning of our text. It states, ‘The Lord had said’ – past tense.
We read that Abram did indeed leave his homeland, Ur, with his wife Sarah (Sari), his father Terah and his brother Lot and his family. But instead of continuing his journey directly to Canaan, he delayed in Haran. Of note is that Haran means ‘parched, barren’, and the name of Abram’s father, who travelled with the household, was Terah, which means ‘delay’.
The message here is clear. While Abram delayed in Haran, he experienced barrenness in the form of the absence of God’s voice. During this time, God did not speak to Abram in either a dream or vision while in this place of hesitancy and delay.
It was only on the death of Terah that the ‘delay’ was also at an end. Then, in Genesis 2:7, when Abram and his household had continued their journey and arrived in Canaan, we read: ‘The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land”. So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.’ The barrenness and dryness between God and Abram had also ended.
How often are we like Abram? We know God’s will for us and that he wants to be in relationship with us, loving and showering us with his grace, but we put his will aside for our own. ‘Not yet’, we say. ‘I’m not ready.’ But, in doing so, we deny ourselves all that God has to offer us through his grace and love.
We are invited to meet with God through his word and the sacraments. Let us not delay and absent ourselves from these opportunities to know the richness of God’s love for us through his Son and his grace and mercy.
Dear Father in Heaven, help me to focus on hearing and responding to your word so that I delay not in responding with worship, praise and service to your glory and in thankfulness to the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.
Faye Schmidt continues her diaconal calling through governance, having served on the Vic–Tas District Church Board, the General Church Board and currently as chair of her congregation, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Adelaide. Having lived and worked in many locations within Australia and overseas, Faye has a heart for the stranger and the newcomer and for being open to new ideas, learning from others and responding to needs.
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