“O Lord, I know, that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
“A great many people are afraid of the will of God, and yet I believe that one of the sweetest lessons that we can learn in the school of Christ is the surrender of our wills to God, letting Him plan for us and rule our lives. If I know my own mind, if an angel should come from the throne of God and tell me that I could have my will done the rest of my days on earth, and that everything I wished should be carried out, or that I might refer it back to God, and let God’s will be done in me and through me, I think in an instant I would say: ‘Let the will of God be done.’ I cannot look into the future. I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow; in fact, I do not know what may happen before night; so I cannot choose for myself as well as God can choose for me, and it is much better to surrender my will to God’s will. Abraham found this out, and I want to call your attention to four surrenders that he was called to make. I think that they give us a pretty good key to his life.” –Dwight L. Moody
- His natural inheritance
In the first place, Abram was called to give up his kindred and his native country and to go out, not knowing whither he went. Hebrews 11:8 (emphasis mine)
Abram was not like so many men who claim to be servants of Jehovah. He did not refuse to be moved from one place to another, like Moab who “hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.” Jeremiah 48:11. He went out not knowing. . . . He went out of Ur.
Ur was in what we know today as southern Iraq. It was from there that God called him. The city of Ur was in the southern end of the Mesopotamian valley south of Babylon, about one hundred miles west by northwest and upriver from where the Euphrates River joins the Tigris. From there the two rivers meander another forty or fifty miles before they empty into the Persian Gulf. It was from Ur of the Chaldees that Abram was called to go into a land that he had never seen and perhaps had not even heard of before. He went, based on the promise that God made to him that his seed would possess a land where his posterity would become a great nation; that God would bless him and make his name great and make him a blessing for all the families of the earth. (Genesis 12:2–3)
“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.” Now notice the promise: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.” Genesis 12:1–4
It must have been several years before this that God first told Abram to leave Ur of the Chaldees. But he traveled only about 700 miles, very likely passing through the city of Babylon on his way to Haran. Now, Haran was about halfway between the northern part of the valley of Mesopotamia and the valley of the Jordan. God had called His servant into the land of the Canaanite, and we can say at this point in the narrative that he went only halfway and stayed there for some time—we don’t know how long, perhaps five years. He had passed through and out of Babylon, but he was only halfway to where God was calling him to be.
There are many Christians whom we might call “Haran Christians.” They claim that they have left the region of Babylon, but they have travelled only as far as Haran; there they remain, feeling saved but never considering that they have obeyed only halfway.
Now, Haran means “parched,” and that is the reason such people never find the full joy of salvation. They are not out-and-out Christians. As God called Abram to leave his kindred and his father’s house, they leave family and friends; but their leaving is only a formality, because they take with them all that they can of the old life. And that causes them to stop halfway. They live in a kind of limbo, with one foot in the old life and the other foot in the new.
Genesis 11:32 says that “Terah died in Haran.” God allowed affliction to come and drive Abram out of Haran. And so it is with a great many of us. We bring afflictions on ourselves, because we are not completely for the Lord. We do not obey Him fully. God had plans for Abram, but He could not work them out in the parched land of Haran. Affliction came, and then he left Haran and resumed his travel to the Promised Land.
This time he left most of his father’s house in Haran, but the Word tells us that “Lot went with Abram.” That is the second time we see Lot, and we can say that he was a shadow of and a character weaker than Abram.
When the company came into the land of promise, Abram found it inhabited by great, warlike nations; and it appears that his faith stumbled. What could a solitary man do in such a land? And then his faith was tested further by a great famine that came upon the land. There must have been a terrible conflict within his breast.
What does all this mean? Here I am more than a thousand miles from home, surrounded by a warlike people, and a famine has come. God must have been mistaken; I need to get out of this place.
We have no record that God sent Abram to Egypt, but that is where he went and met another situation perhaps even more dangerous. It seems darkness came upon him in that place, and yet even in his trouble God was seeking to draw Him nearer to Himself.
When trouble and sorrow are permitted to come upon us, that is when we may see the face of God. To be shut up and hemmed in on every side with no earthly support is to come to the place where we MUST trust in Him alone. It was in Egypt that Abram got into trouble by saying that Sarai was his sister. Had he left Canaan because he could not see God’s providences, only to end up representing Sarai as someone other than his wife? That is the blackest spot on Abram’s character. Have we been betrayed or been a betrayer because we have walked in the sparks of our own kindling and not by faith? Is it not virtually always true that when we go to Egypt for help we always get into trouble?
So we can see that Abram had left his roots and inheritance and even his earthly family, but he had not yet fully surrendered his will to the Almighty.
- His right to choose
Genesis 12:17 shows that God delivered Abram out of the trouble he created for himself in Egypt. The pharaoh had also enriched him with animals and servants because of Sarai. But nothing is recorded about there being an altar in his life—not in Haran, not in Egypt, and not in Canaan when he returned. And we read again in Genesis 13:1 that “Lot [was still] with him” when he came “into the south” of Canaan, being “very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” Genesis 13:2
But as possessions and wealth increased, so too did the strife between their herdsmen. Genesis 13:6. “Their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.”
Here Abram’s character shines. Abram and Lot needed to go their separate ways. As the elder, Abram had the right to the best of everything, and Lot would probably not have had much wealth if it had not been for his uncle. Yet Abram, instead of standing up for his right to choose first, surrendered it and said to his nephew in essence: Take your choice. If you go to the right, I will go to the left; or if you prefer the areas to the left, then I will go to the right (Genesis 13:9).
Here Lot stumbles very badly. If there was a man under the sun who needed Abram’s counsel, prayers, and good influence, it was Lot. He was a weak character who needed bolstering up. But his covetousness blinded him. His eyes beheld the well-watered plains of the Jordan Valley that reached toward Sodom in the east, and he chose that, separating from Abram so he could pitch his tent toward Sodom (Genesis 13:12).
Perhaps Lot had been influenced by his uncle’s failure to completely separate from his father’s house when the Lord first called him out. Now he wanted to stay as close to the world as possible to have the benefits but not be right in the world—like so many Christians today. It must be noted that although the Scriptures say that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, very soon he and his family ended up IN Sodom.
Lot was influenced by what he saw. He walked by sight, not by faith; and many Christians make the same mistake—walking by sight instead of by faith. If he had stopped to think, Lot might have known that it would be disastrous for him and his family to go anywhere near Sodom. Abram and Lot must both have known about the wickedness of those cities on the plains. In fact, the very next verse says: “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” Verse 13. Although Lot was already rich, he saw a chance to make good money in the city. But it would have been better for him to stay far away from that wicked city, as the rest of the story of his life reveals.
After Lot left for the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram was truly alone with God. He moved west, built an altar, and called the place “Hebron,” meaning communion. It was here that God came to him again and repeated His promise: “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” Genesis 13:14–17
“Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.” Genesis 13:18
An eyewitness account of the view
“It is astonishing how far you can see in that country. God took Moses up on Pisgah and showed him the Promised Land. In Palestine, a few years ago, I found that on Mount Olivet I could look over and see the Mediterranean. I could look into the valley of the Jordan and see the Dead Sea. And on the plains of Sharon I could look up to Mount Lebanon and up at Mount Hermon, away beyond Nazareth. You can see with the naked eye almost the length and breadth of that country. So, . . . God said to Abram that he might look to the north, and that as far as he could see he could have the land; and then look to the south, with its well-watered plains that Lot coveted, and to the east and the west, from the sea to the Euphrates.” –Dwight L. Moody
After that, God gave His friend Abram clear title to the land, with no conditions whatever, saying, “I will give it all to you.”
Lot chose all he could get and ended up with nothing. Abram, on the other hand, let God choose for him and was given all the land. Lot had no security for his choice and soon lost everything. Abram’s rights were protected by God the Giver.
The word translated “substance” in Hebrews 11:1 is hoop-os’-tas-is. It means “Title Deed.” Thus, God gives the title deed to the Promised Land to all who exercise faith. Unfortunately, the children of Israel never had enough faith to take possession of all the land clear to the Euphrates. If they had had faith, perhaps Nebuchadnezzar would never have taken them captive. That was, after all, God’s promise to Abram: “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” Genesis 13:14–15. And he could see all the way to the valley of the Euphrates. From that time on, God enlarged Abram’s tents. He enriched His promises and gave Abram much more than He had promised down in the valley of the Euphrates when He first called him out.
When Abram left the choice to Providence and surrendered his way to God, He blessed him by adding more and more to the promise. Psalm 25:12 reads: “What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall He teach in the way that He shall choose.”
Psalm 32:7–8 says that God is our “hiding place” and promises to “instruct thee in the way which thou shalt go.” “O Lord, I know, that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
This was Abram’s second surrender: He surrendered his direction to be guided by God’s hand. He put his hand in the hand of God, and God did not turn him away. Jesus said: “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37
Abram had surrendered his way to the way of God. However, he had not yet fully surrendered his will.
Here we need to return to Lot for a moment, for it is because of Lot’s choice that we see Abram’s third surrender. Again we emphasize that Lot gained nothing by choosing his own way! He lost everything. And so it is today. You can find thousands of Lots for every single Abram. Most people walk by sight, lured by the temptations of the world. The glitter, the fleeting pleasure, and the desire for this world’s wealth attract them. Someone has said that Abram was a far-sighted man, while Lot was short-sighted; Lot’s eye fell on the land he could see. One thing is obvious: He was so short-sighted that his possessions soon left him. Similarly today, we see that people who are building only for the present time are disappointed.
But if you were to ask the men of their day who was the wiser man, they would have said that Lot was much shrewder than his uncle Abram—that money was to be made in Sodom, not on the plains of Mamre.
And for a while Lot made money very fast and became very “successful.” Later, the angels even found him sitting at the city gates, as if he were one of the principal men of the city. He seemed to be getting on amazingly well and was apparently prosperous.
But one day there was war. If you go into Sodom, you must take Sodom’s judgment when it comes, for it will come. The battle turned against those five cities of the plain, and four warlords took many people captive including Lot and his wife and all that they had; Abram heard about this from a man who escaped and ran to Hebron to tell him what had happened. Abram immediately went into action, taking 318 servants to go after those looting kings. He returned with everything that had been taken from the city and all of the prisoners (Genesis 14:1–16).
- His worldly opportunities and advantages
On the way back from delivering Lot and his family, Abram met Melchizedek, who gave him bread and wine. This priestly king blessed the father of the faithful. Genesis 14:18–19. After this, the king of Sodom came and told Abram: “Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.” Genesis 14:21
But Abram replied: “I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.” Genesis 14:22–23
Here was Abram’s third surrender. There was a temptation to get rich at the hands of the king of Sodom, but he wanted no compromise or covenant with that world! To have accepted those gifts would have been to say that Lot had indeed made the right choice, because it was for those things that Lot had considered the well-watered plains of Sodom the wiser choice.
But the king of Salem had blessed him, and this world did not tempt him. It tempted Lot, and no doubt Lot thought Abram just made another big mistake when he refused to take this wealth. But Abram would not touch something that had been polluted by blood, and he turned from it. He had more than enough worldly possessions, and besides he was living for another world. He would not be enriched from such a source. Ephesians 5:11 says we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.”
Indeed, everyone stands between the prince of this world and the Prince of Peace. The first one tempts us with wealth, pleasure, ambition, pride, and the lust of the eyes. But the eternal Prince and Priest draws us with His love, character, and forgiving grace! He is always ready to succor and strengthen us in the hour of temptation.
There was a man whose wife was very fond of painting, but for a long time he could not see any beauty in her paintings; they all looked drab to him. One day his eyes were bothering him, so he went to see an optometrist. The doctor looked at him in amazement and said: “You have one near-sighted eye and one far-sighted eye, and that makes everything blurry.” He gave the man eyeglasses to correct the problem, and then he could see clearly. Now, he said, he understood why his wife was so carried away by art. He built an art gallery for her and filled it with beautiful things, because everything looked so beautiful after he had had his eyesight corrected.
Many people have the same problem as this man, and they make miserable work of their Christian life. They keep one eye on the Eternal City and the other eye on the well-watered plains of Sodom. This was Lot’s problem. It would be hard to believe that he would be saved if it were not for the text in 2 Peter 2:7–8, where it says that what Lot saw in Sodom and Gomorrah “vexed his righteous soul from day to day.”
“After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Genesis 15:1. Abram could have worried that the kings he had defeated might strengthen their forces and come after him, wiping him from the face of the earth. But the Lord came to him again and said: “Fear not, Abram.” This is the first place those oft-repeated words occur in the Bible. “Fear not, for I will be your shield and your reward.”
I would rather have that promise than all the armies and navies of the world to protect me! Think what it means to have the God of heaven as your Protector! He was teaching Abram that He was his Friend and his Shield if he would choose to be guided by the God of heaven and trust in Him for his sustenance and daily bread. God would be his keeper. That is what we want—to surrender ourselves to God’s guidance and protection. And we can have this if we are fully and wholly on His side, not trusting to the world or receiving its praise and gifts.
A mining superintendent in Colorado told of a miner who was offered a promotion. The man came to him and said: “There is a man who has seven children, and I have only three. He is having a very hard time. Don’t promote me; promote him.”
Nothing speaks louder for Christ and Christianity than for a man or woman to give up his or her rights in favour of someone else, “in honour preferring one another.” Romans 12:10
Abram consistently gave up his own interest and trusted God. What was the result? Of all the men who ever lived, he is the most renowned. He never did anything the world would call great. The largest army he assembled was 318 men. He was not an astronomer, scientist, statesman, or anything the world calls great; but there was one thing he could do—live an unselfish life and waive his rights to have things his way. That is how he became the friend of God. No name in history is as well known as that of Abram. Even Christ is not more widely known, for the Mohammedans, the Persians, and the Egyptians honor Abram.
No one can number the many wonderful people who have sprung from this one man whom God called out of the land of the Chaldees. God literally fulfilled His promise that through him everyone in the earth would be blessed—all because he surrendered his way fully and completely to God’s leading.
God sealed the covenant that He would give to Abram and his seed after him, promising him all the land wherein he was a stranger, and He added, “I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8. It was here that God changed his name from Abram to Abraham.
So now, Abram surrendered his earthly heritage, his right to choose his own way, and any desire and hope of earthly support. But what about his will?
- His will
Abraham’s final surrender is the most difficult of all to understand. It did not come until the evening of his life—after his journey of some fifty years. God had been taking him along, step by step, until he had reached a place where he would fully obey God’s voice. The world waits to see what God will do with a man who is perfectly surrendered to Him. Next to God’s own Son, Abraham was one of very few recorded in Scripture as meeting this holy ideal.
For twenty-five years, Abraham had been in the Promised Land; but he did not have the promised heir. Nevertheless God continued to tell Abraham, even in his old age, that he would have a son. Miraculously, that day came. But just as the lad was reaching manhood Abraham received a very strange command, and that was his last surrender–to be willing to give up his only son (Genesis 22:2–3).
One can only imagine the father’s thoughts. “Every step that Abraham advanced toward Mount Moriah, the Lord went with him. All the agony and grief that Abraham endured during the three days of his dark and fearful trial, were imposed upon him to give us a lesson in perfect faith and obedience, and that we might better comprehend how real was the great self-denial and infinite sacrifice of the Father in giving His only Son to die a shameful death for the guilty race. No trial, no suffering or test, could be brought to bear upon Abraham, which would cause such mental anguish, such torture of soul, as that of obeying God in offering up his son.” –The Signs of the Times, April 1, 1875
As morning dawned on the third day, “Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” Genesis 22:5
And then there was his son’s question: “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Verse 7
Did you ever consider how prophetic Abraham’s answer was? “My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb for a burnt offering.” Verse 8. Two thousand years later, God did just that. Mount Moriah and Mount Calvary are very close together, and God’s Son was provided as the sacrifice for the world.
“Abraham assured his son that his affection for him was not diminished, and that he would rather give his own life than to deprive him of life. But God had chosen Isaac, and his requirement must be fulfilled to the letter. He told Isaac that God had miraculously given him to his parents, and now he had required him again. He assured his son that God’s promise, that ‘In Isaac shall thy seed be called,’ would be fulfilled; that doubtless God would raise him to life again from the dead. He told Isaac that he had hoped that the Messiah would spring from him. In this he was disappointed, and then, that his darling son must die by his own hand, increased his grief a hundred-fold.
“Isaac at first heard the purpose of God with amazement amounting to terror. He considered the matter fully. He was the child of a miracle. If God had accepted him as a worthy sacrifice, he would cheerfully submit. Life was dear, life was precious, but his Creator had specified him, Isaac, to be offered up as a sacrifice. He comforted his father, by assuring him that God conferred honor upon him, in accepting him as a sacrifice; that in this requirement he saw not the wrath and displeasure of God, but special tokens that God loved him, in that He required him to be consecrated to Himself in sacrifice.” –The Signs of the Times, April 1, 1875
He encouraged the almost nerveless hands of his father to bind the cords which confined him to the altar. The last words of endearing love were spoken by father and son; the last affectionate, filial, and parental tears were shed; the last embrace was given; and the father pressed his beloved son to his aged breast for the last time. His hand is uplifted, grasping firmly the instrument of death, which was to take the life of Isaac, when suddenly his arm is stayed. “And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.” Genesis 22:11–12
Remember Jesus’ words: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad.” John 8:56. God lifted the curtain of time for Abraham. He looked into the future and saw God’s Son on Calvary, bearing his sins and the sins of the whole world. God gave him that secret and told him how His Son would come into the world to take away sin.
And that is why the apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 4:2: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them.”
When God calls someone to higher service, there is always a conflict with the will. We can fight against it, but we must pray the prayer of Christ: “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” “Thy will be done.” Matthew 26:39, 42, 44. God’s will has to be done instead of mine. When you come to Jesus Christ, you surrender your will to take God’s will; that is, to let the will of God be done in you, you must surrender your will.
Abraham obeyed God and did not withhold from Him his only child. After that, God expanded his promise once again: “And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.” Genesis 22:15–18
When we have no greater desire than to do the will of God and make a complete surrender to Him, the sweet messages of heaven will come to each of us personally. God will whisper into your soul the secrets of heaven.
After Abraham did what God commanded, God told His friend all about His Son. If we make a full surrender, God will give us more than we have ever known before. We will have a new vision of Jesus Christ and will thank God for it not only in this life but in the life to come. May God help us to make a complete, unconditional surrender to God, fully and wholly, now and forever.
Abram’s Four Surrenders:
- His earthly inheritance
- His right to choose his own way
- His worldly opportunities and advantages—
the chance to increase himself at the cost of others
- His will–like Christ, he prayed “not my will but Thine be done.”
His was a long journey, perhaps 50 years.
Where are you in your journey with God? Still holding out the hope of an earthly inheritance, choosing your own way, or abandoning your world and your will to the provisions of His way and will?
When God calls you, He calls you to die to all those things so that He may resurrect you to a new life in Christ. Choose the way of the Lord!
Larry Watts
Adapted from a sermon by Dwight L. Moody