“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went,” Hebrews 11:8.

For the next eleven verses the subject is Abraham and Sarah. That underlines for us the key figure Abraham is in the history of God’s people Israel.

Indeed, he is the key to all of the people of God, for we are told: “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,)” Romans 4:16-17.

He is termed the ‘father’ of the Christian because, being born again as he was, of the Spirit of God, we are part of his family.

Consider our verse.

I. GOD DEALT WITH ABRAHAM BY A CALL

Christ came “to call  . . . sinners to repentance,”Matthew 9:13. So He does with us! The word ‘called’ means ‘to invite with a loud voice’.

1. The Lord has to speak loudly for us to hear!

2. It was a command, not merely a ‘request’. In Genesis 12:1 we are told, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.”

3. The word ‘said’ includes the meaning ‘to command’.

The ‘gospel call’ is a command from God. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent,”Acts 17:30.

II. THE CALL OF GOD DEALT WITH THE ‘AFTER’ OR THE ‘THINGS WHICH SHALL BE HEREAFTER’ AS THE WORD IS ELSEWHERE LINKED.

God’s Word to us deals with the ‘NOW’ and the ‘AFTER’!

“Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall (the same Greek word) be hereafter,” Revelation 1:19. Every Word of Christ has a connection with the word ‘to come’.

III. PLEASE NOTE THAT ABRAHAM STARTED OUT ‘NOT KNOWING WHITHER HE WENT’!

1. When we obey the Lord, we too start on a journey. I love the little line in the story of blind Bartimaeus. “And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way,” Mark 8:52.

2. It was a journey beset by many trials. Usually brought upon himself! Genesis recounts something of the difficulties he met. So it is with the Christian. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” John 16:33. Paul & Barnabus — “Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,”Acts 14:22.

3. It is a journey which led him to heaven. Verse 16. Are you on that journey?